On March 17, 1930, construction began on what was to be the tallest skyscraper ever built. Towering 1,472 feet, an incomprehensible 102 stories, the Empire State Building remained the tallest man-made structure from 1931 to 1970. It was built at a cost of more than 40 million dollars. During a typical storm this great structure absorbs as many as 20 bolts of lightning. In July of 1945, due to low visibility, a B-25 bomber inadvertently crashed into the side of the Empire State Building. Strangely enough only minor damage was sustained. That's because more than 10 million bricks and 400 tons of stainless steel were used to literally embed this mighty structure in the underlying Manhattan bedrock. (1)

Jesus referred to the Apostle Peter as the rock on which he would build his church. "And I tell you, you are Peter," Jesus says in Matthew 16:18, "and on this rock I will build my church" (NRSV). Peter WAS a rock--a man of faith who was a devoted follower of Jesus even to the point of giving his life--an Apostle who was a leader among the Apostles. Similar to the tall buildings of Manhattan which are embedded in bedrock, the church of Jesus Christ is embedded in Peter the rock.

St. John tells us a story about Peter as a back drop to the trial of Jesus.

Unlike the other Gospels, St. John does not give us the details of the trial. As Martin Franzmann has pointed out, "John has already portrayed the [so-called] ˜trial' of Jesus before His own people; the record of John chapters 7-12 makes clear that they have in effect [already] tried and condemned Him." (2)

Think of what Peter is feeling and experiencing that first Good Friday. He follows his beloved teacher and Messiah out into the Kidron valley to a garden to pray. Judas knows they are going there and he brings a "detachment of soldiers together with police" (Jn 18:3) to arrest Jesus.

Peter is prepared to protect his Lord. He is not going to stand by and watch them spirit Jesus away in the night. Peter draws his sword and cuts off the ear of a man named Malchus, the high priest's servant. But Jesus interrupts Peter's brave stand and says, "Put your sword back into its sheath. Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?" (Jn 18:11). So the police and soldiers arrest Jesus.

After the arrest, Peter and another disciple follow Jesus as he is being lead to meet Annas, the father-in-law of the high priest, Caiaphas. Peter is brave, yet his bravery is about to turn into idle bravado. Soon he will deny he ever knew Jesus.

That can happen to us. We can be brave in dealing with a situation and suddenly turn away. We who sometimes think we are so strong can prove to be weaklings after all. Let me give you an example.

When Ben's son, John, was two he fell and cut his lip badly on a stone step at his grandmother's house. While the doctor stuck the anesthetic needle in his lip and began the gruesome task of sewing up the deep gash, Ben bravely held his son's head very tightly. After a while a very strange sensation came over him. Ben could not bear to witness his son's pain anymore. He had to turn it over to his mother and leave the room. (3)

Could it be that Peter, beholding his beloved teacher and Messiah's painful situation, could bear it no longer and had to turn away?

Peter had good intentions. He and the other disciple follow Jesus all the way to the high priest's residence. Because the other disciple was known to the high priest, he goes with Jesus into the high priest's courtyard, but Peter has to wait outside at the door. Finally the other disciple comes back, speaks to the woman on duty and brings Peter in as well. As Peter enters through the gate into the court yard, the woman asks him, "You are not also one of this man's disciples, are you?" By the way, she asks the question, it appears she wants to hear Peter say, "No." At that second the bravery which Peter showed throughout the evening and night falters. If he answers, "I am," what will happen? Will they arrest him? Will they beat or kill him? Rather then trust in God's help, Peter responds with a half-hearted, "I am not."

The night air is cool. Slaves build a fire. As the high priest is questioning Jesus, Peter joins those standing around the fire. He rubs his hands together and warms himself.

Not really satisfied by the half-hearted answer Peter gave as he entered the court yard, those gathered again ask him, "You are not also one of the disciples, are you?" Again, by the way they ask the question, they seem to want him to answer "No."

Peter, filled with fear, is still in a difficult position. He cannot ignore the question. He still faces the possibility of arrest, of being beaten, of being killed. So he does what many of us do in a trying circumstance, he caves in. Peter could have trusted God in overcoming his hard predicament, but he falters and fails.

There was a story sometime back in newspapers and on CNN about a man named Bill Irwin. They interviewed Bill while he was walking the 2,135 mile Appalachian Trail.

At first, the headlines seemed ordinary. The story, while interesting, wasn't spectacular or amazing. Many have walked the complete length of the Appalachian Trail. Then the story noted that Bill Irwin is blind and is only able to walk the trail with the assistance of his guide dog, Orient.

When interviewed on television, Bill shared the following, "I was called to travel the Trail by God, to demonstrate how faith can overcome difficulty."

Christianity is not a mathematical theorem to be proved. It is a life to be lived. Christian faith is designed for times of difficulty. If we trust God, God will help us through any situation.

Peter is at a time of decision. Will his fear overwhelm him, or will he put his faith into action? Now one of the high priest's servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, challenges him, "Didn't I see you with him in the olive grove?" Now the question is asked in a manner that suggests Peter say "Yes." The question hits Peter like a typhoon hitting a Pacific Island. Peter's fear is taking over his life like a high wind that can rip apart a well-built building.

Once more Peter denies being a follower of Jesus. No sooner has the denial been made than he hears the crowing of a cock. The sound hits Peter with fury. Faced with a situation of confessing his Lord, Peter fails. Not once, but three times. Yet this is not the end for Simon Peter. This man who has plays the reed in the courtyard will yet become the rock. Not out of his own strength, but out of the grace of Jesus Christ. In all situations God WILL have the last word.

Back in 1968 Robert Schuller traveled to the Soviet Union. "I believed that God's word was direly needed by the people," he said. He was stopped in customs for trying to smuggle Bibles. That might have been the end of his trip, but miraculously he was allowed to enter the country. When he was in Leningrad he was both shocked and intrigued when he learned that there was in the city a Museum of Atheism. "I felt that I had to see the museum in order to understand the State's fear of a religious belief system," he later wrote.

The Museum of Atheism was housed in a confiscated Catholic church. "This house of God had been transformed into a house of unbelief," Dr. Schuller wrote. A couple of displays caught his attention. "Heroes of the State" included people like Lenin, Castro, and Marx. The guide of his tour group enthusiastically told about each of these men and how they had helped the country. In another room was a display, "Enemies of the State." They were people Schuller knew: Billy Graham, Martin Luther King, the Pope. And among the names of these enemies of the state was his own name: Robert Schuller. When he saw his own picture on display he was frightened. He was even more disconcerted when in the middle of the night there was a knock on the door of his hotel room. "Follow me," the stranger said, "Don't ask any questions." Silently they drove through the dark city out to the country. Dr. Schuller was afraid. He did not know what would happen to him, he did not know where he was being taken. Out in the country a plane was waiting for him. The plane flew for hours. From the plane he was led to a train which took him out of the Soviet Union to the safety of the free world.

Twenty-five years later, Robert Schuller and his wife, along with businessman Armand Hammer, flew to the Soviet Union to investigate the possibility of preaching a sermon on the one and only state-controlled television network. "I had returned to the country where I was once branded an enemy of the state," Schuller reflects, "and now was exploring the possibility of preaching to these same people." He was to be the first foreigner to address the Soviet people. Over two hundred million people heard his sermon.

Five months later Dr. Schuller was invited to have lunch with Mikhail Gorbachev in Washington, D.C. "Your message calmed our nation," Gorbachev told him. Today, says Schuller, the people of the former Soviet Union "have come to the realization that life is empty, life is bleak, life is hopeless without faith in God. God will have the last word." (4)

So this Good Friday, as we recall the fear that momentarily defeated Peter and the difficult situations that confront all of us from time to time, remember these are not the last words for our lives. Fear and pain are mighty obstacles, but no matter what the situation, God will help if we call upon Him. God gives us the gift of faith. And faith can overcome difficulty! Similarly, fear in our lives can destroy us like a typhoon can destroy a building. Yet the work of Christ and his gift of faith can and does remain. God will have the last word.

Peter, the man who denied his Lord, became the Rock for the early church. It was he they turned to for stability and strength. You and I, though we sometimes falter in our witness for Christ, may also be transformed and become new people by the same faith that transformed Peter.

Timothy Wilkins, Southside Baptist Church, Winston-Salem, NC.

Martin H Franzmann, CONCORDIA BIBLE WITH NOTES, Concordia Pub. House, 1971, p. 2OO.

Ben McDaniel, Columbus, MS. Cited in the PASTOR'S PROFESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE, lst disk, 1993.

Robert H. Schuller, LIFE'S NOT FAIR BUT GOD IS GOOD (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1991), pp. 22-28, 35.