Thursday, July 08, 2010

It's In The Name

I was reading Mark the other day and noticed something that somehow had not occurred to me before.

It's the story of the Garden of Gethsemane, the night before Jesus is betrayed. I think I've read/heard this story a million times. I was reading about when Jesus prays by Himself and the disciples fall asleep. Heard that part before too.

But then I notice one little difference. Jesus calls Peter "Simon". See, a while back Jesus had changed Simon's name. He decided to call him "Peter" which means "rock" because He was going to use Peter to build His church (see Matthew 16:18). But here, Jesus calls him Simon. Why?

I think it's because Simon went back to his old ways. Here, all Jesus needed was prayer, and lots of it. But that was too much for Simon, he was tired. He was reverting back to his old ways, letting someone else do it. And Jesus calls him out on it by calling him Simon.

I wonder how many times we revert back to our old selves. After all, we are supposed to be new creations, having a new life (See II Corinthians 5:17). But sometimes we go back to living with the same values, habits, whatever it is from our life before Jesus (I know, I do it too).

We have to do all we can to choose to live to be like Peter, and leave Simon behind.

T

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