Join me today to meet the saint who first led the Church.
Name: Simon or Simeon, nicknamed Kepha (Aramaic)/Petros (Greek)
Life: Late 1st century BC - 64-7 AD
Status: Saint
Feast: June 29
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Peter was in prison and things were not looking good. He had been arrested in Jerusalem on the orders of King Herod Agrippa I. Others who had been swept up along with Peter had already been martyred. Peter waited for the end.
Herod Agrippa knew that these followers of Jesus often performed signs and wonders. They claimed Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, and that with Him all things were possible. Herod wanted to be very clear that escape was not one of those things. So to be sure that Peter wasn’t going anywhere, Herod had put Peter in a jail cell. The soldiers made a security perimeter around the cell, and then put up a second perimeter around that, and then locked an iron gate around the whole setup. But maybe that wasn’t enough. So Herod had also had Peter stripped to make sure he was not hiding any means of escape. He had Peter chained up. And then Herod stationed two soldiers to basically live with the prisoner, in the same cell as he was. That way, if anyone tried to break Peter out, the two soldiers there with him could raise the alarm. Now it was the middle of the night, and Peter and the two men inside his cell were all asleep.
What happened next was so odd that Peter assumed it was a vision. First, the cell was bathed in light and he felt someone poking him. It was an angel, telling him to wake up. At the angel’s touch the chains on Peter fell away. Under the angel’s direction, Peter rummaged around and found the clothes and shoes that he had been wearing and put them on. Then the angel walked out and Peter followed, passing unnoticed through one checkpoint, then the next, and then swinging open the unlocked iron gate. It was only after the escape was over, when he found himself in Jerusalem’s dark streets, that Peter was sure it had really happened.
Now that he was free again, it was no longer safe to stay in Jerusalem. It’s not entirely clear where Peter went next. He may have gone West, probably by boat, to Rome. He may have started the long walk North to Antioch on the Southern edge of modern Turkey. Peter was on the move, preaching, building, growing the Church, as each step drew him closer to Jesus’ terrible prophecy:
Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you fastened your own belt and walked where you would; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will fasten your belt for you and carry you where you do not wish to go.” John 21:18
These words had been among the last things Jesus told Peter, at the end of the strange, wonderful years in Jesus’ company among the apostles.
The story had started back before Peter got his name. Back then, growing up in the Roman-governed Judea, Peter was called Simeon (a name that made sense to Aramaic speaking Jews) and Simon (a name that made sense to everyone else, who spoke Greek).
Simon had gone into business as a fisherman, eventually buying his own boat. He was well on the way to living a perfectly ordinary life as a fisherman in Roman Judea when he encountered Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus came to where Simon was fishing, and said:
“Follow me”
And Simon did.
It’s tempting to explain this encounter away, to put it in context. But Saint Jerome points out that if we do, we miss a chance to see what Peter saw. The calling of the disciples is one of those moments in the Gospel when we see Jesus as King. A king commands obedience. Jesus approaches a group of men and tells them to literally drop what they are doing and follow him. Without question, without hesitation, they do it. We read in the Gospel of John that one of the apostles left his father in the boat with some hired men, and Jerome picks up on this detail:
[the apostles] do not leave a father, they find a Father. (Sister Marie Liguori Ewald, I.H.M. translation)
Simon drops what he is doing and follows Jesus. Perhaps more than any of the others, Simon is determined to follow. One night, the apostles are in a boat in a storm and they have left Jesus behind on shore. But then, in the early morning, they think they see Jesus walking on the water. But is it really Jesus, or some ghost haunting the place of its death? They call out, and the figure tells Simon to come. And so Simon jumps off the boat, into the stormy sea, which is a death sentence if he’s wrong. For a few steps, Simon too walks on the surface of the sea. Then his faith fails him and he begins to sink before Jesus grabs his hand and pulls him to his feet.
In the Gospel story, we find Simon and the others grappling with the identity of their strange teacher. Gradually, Simon begins to understand, and when he does, Jesus reveals something else to him.
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesare’a Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do men say that the Son of man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Eli’jah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Matthew 16:13-19
Jesus is building the Church, and the name that Jesus gives Simon - Kepha in Aramaic (we say Cephas), Petros in Greek (we say Peter) - indicates the role that Simon will fulfill. Every edifice needs to be built on a solid foundation, and Simon the Rock is going to be it.
For Peter, there are moments of transcendence. Jesus brings Peter up a mountain. Mountains have long been places where mortals encounter the divine, but there on the mountaintop it is Jesus’ divinity that is revealed. Light pours out of Jesus, Moses and Elijah are there with him, and God the Father speaks through a cloud. It is a foretaste of heaven, and Peter never wants to leave. But Peter’s response is accidentally funny. He wants to stay so badly that he spends half the time strategizing about how to build something so they can all camp out on the mountaintop.
Peter is at his unintentional funniest as the story of the Gospels reaches its climax. On Holy Thursday Jesus humbles himself by taking on the role of a servant, even a slave, and washing the disciples’ feet. Peter is shocked and tells Jesus that he will never allow such a thing. Jesus tells Peter that if this does not occur, Peter has no share in Him. And now Peter, seeing that something important is happening but not sure what it is, decides that if washing the feet is good, even more washing must be better:
“Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and head!”
And Jesus, I always imagine with a sigh, watches the symbolism sail over Peter’s head and patiently explains that Peter is clean and just the feet will be enough.
The washing of the feet on Holy Thursday leads into the capture of Jesus that night. Jesus has told the disciples to arm up, and when the guards come, Peter is carrying a sword. I sometimes wonder whether Peter supposes he is finally doing his job as The Rock when he steps forward and lands the first attack on the men coming to take Jesus away.
But over the course of that terrible night, and the next day, Peter realizes he has got it all wrong again. He’s waiting around, probably still with his concealed weapon, trying to stay undercover until he realizes he has failed the test that Jesus actually gave him by denying Jesus three times. The morning breaks, the rooster crows, and Peter weeps with bitter despair. And then, on that day, Jesus is crucified.
For Peter, who had followed Jesus with all that he had, this seemed like an ending.
When he heard the news on Easter morning, it was difficult to believe. But as he meets the resurrected Christ, Peter sees that the story is not over. In the Gospel of John, the story comes full circle as Christ appears on the shore when Peter is, once again, on a boat. This time though, as Peter realizes who is calling him, he dives overboard and swims for shore.
In the conversation that follows, Jesus gives Peter the command to tend and feed His sheep, the Church. And then Jesus gives Peter the strange, sad prophecy of Peter’s eventual fate.
Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you fastened your own belt and walked where you would; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will fasten your belt for you and carry you where you do not wish to go.” John 21:18
For the moment, though, Peter didn’t particularly want to go anywhere. He had plenty to do in Jerusalem. Peter took charge of the apostles. He found a replacement for Judas Iscariot, so that their number was once again twelve. On the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit inspired the apostles to address the people, it was Peter who spoke first and finished with the words:
Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Acts 2:36
As the Church formed, someone needed to be in charge. And, as even the Lutheran historian Martin Hengel granted in his recent biography, it was Peter who stepped into that role. The Church was an often dysfunctional, unruly family. Peter was stepping into the role of Dad, of pappas, to use the Greek word that gives us the English word ‘pope’.
Peter had his work cut out for him. There were sick people to be healed. The Jewish Sanhedrin wanted to understand what this new preaching was all about, and Peter spoke to them. Someone needed to be in charge of discipline, and Peter stepped up. And when the Church began to spread to Samaria, Peter went to lead it there.
This meant that Peter would be in charge during the Church’s first great theological dispute, a dispute about the way Christians should position themselves relative to Jews. Peter was a Jew, and kept to Jewish law, avoiding things that would compromise his ritual purity - such as associating with non-Jews. One day he had a vision, in which God told him to eat unclean animals without fear. Peter was still mulling over what this meant when he received messengers from a non-Jew, a Roman centurion. Peter understood that part of what the vision had been about was overcoming his reluctance to eat with and visit non-Jews, and he baptized the centurion and his family.
So far so good. But the question was, now that non-Jews were Christians too, how should ethnic Jews like Peter behave? Should they continue to maintain ritual purity and circumcise their sons? Should former Jews who were now Christians continue to live and worship separately from non-Jews who had become Christians?
As Peter was arrested in Jerusalem, and then freed through the help of an angel, this debate was heating up. Many Christians in Jerusalem wanted to continue to live in accordance with Jewish law. The case for treating all Christians the same way was being made by an emerging figure, Paul. Although Paul was Jewish, he had discovered that the pagan poets and philosophers had, in their own way, prepared their people for the gospel message. Paul thought it only made sense for all Christians to worship together. In the New Testament, we see this debate from Paul’s point of view, as he spells it out in his letters.
Peter and Paul met in Antioch to debate the question. The Church met to debate the issue in Jerusalem. As Martin Hengel argues, Peter was responding pragmatically. If Jews who converted to Christianity gave up on purity laws, that would mean they would no longer be welcome among other Jews. They would no longer have access to synagogues. These new Christians would not be able to preach in the places where, at the time, most Christian converts were being found. It stood to reason that the new Christian community would be based in Jerusalem. So Peter found himself defending the middle compromise position between Paul on the one hand and the Jerusalem faction on the other. It was an arrangement that split the Christian community into something a bit like modern Rites, analogous to the way the Church offers a separate form of worship to ethnic Ukrainians, or to those with an Anglican heritage.
The truth was that the Church was growing so fast it would soon outgrow these pragmatic concerns. And in a few years, unrest in Judea would prompt a violent response from Rome. The Temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed, and a few decades later, Jews would be expelled from the city. Rome, not Jerusalem, would become the hub of the new Church.
And although Peter would not live to see these changes, he had felt drawn to Rome. He would spend the last years of his life in the city. The Christians of Rome had asked Peter to record the story of Jesus, and he had found a young man to help him write it out: Mark. The fact that Paul writes warmly of Mark is one indication that the two great saints Peter and Paul patched up their disagreements around this time. Besides, they were all facing a common danger.
The emperor at the time was the sadistic, petulant Nero, a man who loved to kill and force others to commit suicide. In a few years, he would fall from power, though when his turn came he would prove too frightened to take his own life. But for now, Rome was being destabilized by Nero’s antics. Still, Peter and Paul were too unimportant to worry much about that. Nobody cared about a few Christians. The biggest danger to Peter and the others seemed to be the Jewish community in Rome, for some of them were making moves to quash Christianity before it took hold. And so it was that the real threat, when it came, was from a totally unexpected direction.
In the year 64 AD, a fire started in one of Rome’s slums. The fire tore through the city, burning so hot that it cracked stone. It was soon beyond the ability of Rome’s fire department, the vigiles, to contain. The fire burned on and on for days, ruining homes and trapping hundreds of people before they could escape.
After the fire had finally burned itself out, a rumour began to spread. According to the rumour, the Emperor Nero was pleased about all the destruction. Rome was ugly and old and needed to be rebuilt. Some said that Nero had looked out over the fire with satisfaction as he strummed a musical instrument. Some even thought that Nero had a hand in setting the fire in the first place.
Nero might have been a mad tyrant, but even he could see that this kind of talk was dangerous. He looked around for someone to blame, and noticed the Christians. Nero announced that the people responsible for the fire were the followers of Rome’s newest religion. Nero wasn’t entirely sure what a Christian was. It was some sort of Jew, maybe, probably, and if there was one thing that the Romans had figured out about the Jews, it was that they hated ritual pollution. Nero began to think up something appropriately horrible that he could do to the Christians.
We know almost nothing about Peter’s actions at this time. But according to one ancient tradition, Peter could see the danger coming. When he realized it was only a matter of time until he was caught up in Nero’s purge, he decided to escape the city in the dark. But as he was passing out of the gates of Rome, he saw a face that he could never forget, even after all these years. It was Jesus, passing him by on the road, headed into Rome. Peter spoke to him.
“Lord, where are you going?” (David L. Eastman translation)
Jesus told Peter that he was returning to Rome to be crucified there again. In that case, Peter said,
“Lord, I will turn back and follow you.”
And so, knowing perfectly well what awaited, Peter went back into the city.
Nero, meanwhile, had figured it out. He would convert his gardens into a sadistic nighttime spectacle. Here’s how the Roman historian Tacitus tells the story:
And so, at first, those who confessed [to being Christians] were apprehended, and subsequently, on the disclosures they made, a huge number were found guilty—more because of their hatred of mankind than because they were arsonists. As they died they were further subjected to insult. Covered with hides of wild beasts, they perished by being torn to pieces by dogs; or they would be fastened to crosses and, when daylight had gone, burned to provide lighting at night. Nero had offered his gardens as a venue for the show, and he would also put on circus entertainments, mixing with the plebs in his charioteer’s outfit or standing up in his chariot. (J. C. Yardley translation)
The effect was not what Nero had hoped. Romans were no strangers to cruel punishments, but even they were disgusted by the display.
Somewhere in these persecutions is the story of Peter, the first pope. We don’t know exactly when or how he was martyred.
Did Nero try to humiliate the first Pope by dressing him in the skins of unclean animals? Maybe. But the moment did not find Peter unprepared. In a way, his time leading the Church had been one long reflection on what it really was to be clean, a reflection that had begun with that strange washing of the feet at the Last Supper.
Afterwards, Christians took what was left of Peter’s body to a street of tombs in a newly developed part of Rome, called the Vatican Field. They left the bones in a small tomb there. And through the centuries of persecution that followed, Christians would visit the little tomb. In the ancient world, a victorious army would mark their victory by setting up a trophy on the spot where they had conquered. The early Christians called the spot Peter’s trophy. Some of them carved their own names into the wall, or marked it with the A and the O, the alpha and the omega of Christ, who is there at the beginning and at the end of all things. Many Christians tried to be buried nearby. And as the centuries passed, the Church that Peter had built flourished. In time, a new emperor arose, a Christian emperor named Constantine, who built a church, placing the high altar of the Basilica of Saint Peter over the little room where, centuries earlier, the first Christians had laid The Rock to rest.
These early Christians did not have any doubt about the way Peter, The Rock, had faced his crucifixion. An old tradition has it that he asked to be crucified upside down. The usual reason that is given is that Peter did not think himself worthy to die like Christ, and that was indeed part of what Peter is supposed to have said. But in the story, there is more to it. As Peter is hanging upside down, he begins to preach. What did an upside down man make you think of? Was it death? Shouldn’t it also be birth, for don’t we come into the world head first? And indeed, Peter told them, a Man had been born into the world, and He had changed everything. That birth had birthed a new age. Now there was abundant life for any who wished to seek it. The onlookers might see Peter as coming to an end, and he could understand their mistake. In actual fact, Peter was just where he wanted to be, following his Lord into eternal life.
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Peter's fleshly ways prior to his being converted upon pentecost is much like my own past-erratic.Thar's why I chose him for my baptismal name.