111 - Is God Fair

No two people are alike. God designed us that way. He loves variety. There aren’t two snowflakes, or blades of grass, or grains of sand that are alike. No two people have the same fingerprints, let alone the same personality. Everything about us is different, including the path He has planned for our lives. But those differences have nothing to do with favoritism. Everything God does, which is not the same as everything that happens, is just and fair, and flows out of His perfect love. He has designed a different plan for each person’s life, not because He loves one and not the other, but because He understands the unique way He formed each person to serve Him. So those who compare themselves to someone else, and make judgments about God based on the differences they see, will always be misled. They will conclude that God is unfair.

It’s surprising that John, at the very end of his gospel, would give us such deep insight into Peter’s heart. Clearly, there were lessons in the way Jesus ministered to Peter that John wants us to learn. First, he let us listen as Jesus removed the shame that had gripped Peter as a result of his three denials in the high priest’s courtyard (vs 15-17). And now, in the verses we’re studying today, he lets us listen to the conversation that took place when Jesus told Peter how he would die. We hear the prophecy, and then we watch Peter struggle to accept it. What Jesus said frightened him and, I think, he reacted by becoming defensive. He assumed that the martyrdom Jesus foretold was a form of punishment, that what was being asked of him was unfair, that he was going to be subjected to a level of suffering that the others, especially John, were not. It appears that Peter worried that Jesus loved John more than He loved him. So he asked Jesus how John would die, not out of innocent curiosity but because he wondered if Jesus was being fair. It’s no surprise then that Jesus didn’t answer that question. Instead He spoke to the suspicion that caused the question. Basically, He asked Peter, “Don’t you trust Me?”, because if Peter did trust Jesus, then he needed to stop comparing himself to John and let his Lord lead him down the path that had been prepared for him. And if you and I trust Him, we will too.