Calling on Peter

Most of us have experienced our parents calling us with tenderness, anger, or frustration. When my mother called me, “makana” (a vocative for son), I knew something pleasant waited for me. But when she said all three of my names, “Andrew Branham Spurgeon,” I knew I was in trouble.

If Peter was any smarter, he would have known he was in trouble when Jesus called him, “Petre” (Πέτρε), a vocative form of Peter. Petre occurs only thrice in the NT and each case, he was in trouble: Luke 22:34 and Acts 10:13 and 11:7. In the last two examples, he was in trouble with God, who called him Petre.  

On the eve of his betrayal, the Lord Jesus had a private conversation with Peter. He said to him,

“Simon, Simon, see, Satan has desired to sift you (plural) as a grain. But I have begged concerning you (singular) so that your (singular) faith might not fall. And when you (singular) have returned, you’ll strengthen your (singular) brothers.” (Luke 22:31–32)

In contemporary English, we don’t differentiate between “you” singular (addressing a single person) and “you” plural (addressing two or more people). At the time of the writing of King James, they did: whereas “you” referred to the singular “you,” “ye” referred to the plural “you.” Greek, too, differentiated between singular and plural “you.” Here, the Lord was saying to Peter that Satan had asked to sift all the twelve disciples as one sifts grains during harvest.

Instead of praying for all twelve, Jesus had begged for Peter alone so that his faith might not fall; instead, he would return to Jesus and bring along his brothers, the fellow disciples, with him. (Perhaps, this was why Peter invited his friends to go fishing with them, and they did.) It makes me wonder why Jesus didn’t pray for all of them.

Peter, however, didn’t take Jesus’s words seriously. Instead, he thought he could withstand Satan’s schemes and said,

“Lord, I am ready to go with you to imprisonment or death.” (22:33)

There’s no doubt that Peter was genuine in his words, but he didn’t know Satan’s schemes, which included fear of the mob! As a second warning, the Lord passionately said,

“Petre, a rooster will not crow today until you have betrayed trice that you know me.” (22:34)

Peter should have been so alarmed when he heard Jesus say, Petre! Why did he call me that? Am I in great danger? And perhaps he could have been cautious.

I think the Lord Jesus called. Him Petre! with tenderness, almost with a tint of sadness, because he loved Peter. He didn’t want him to go through the agony of betrayal and grief that follows the betrayal. Sadly, Peter had to walk through that valley to be reconciled again.

I often hear, amid my sins, the Lord calling me makana! (Oh, son!). Sometimes, I hear it early to avoid a disaster, but sometimes I fail. Let’s commit to listening to his tender call before we enter trouble!