PETER APOSTLE OF JESUS CHRIST – The Rest of Peter’s Life Story
History and Tradition
We do not know directly from the Bible about the rest of Peter’s life. What we do know, or has come to be accepted, is what church historians wrote in later years.
Peter’s Death
Three accounts state that he died aged about 65. He was taken for execution in Rome, dressed in prison clothes, and was crucified upside down; this was by his choice, because he felt unworthy to be crucified in the manner of his Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Peter’s Gospel
There is evidence throughout the Gospel of Mark, that Mark is recording what Peter told him about those three years that he spent with Jesus. It is full of those details that only Peter and those others with him could have experienced. We can hear too, it seems to me, his words as he spoke them – the words of one who was always so quick to follow Jesus, “And immediately they left the nets, and followed him … and immediately … and immediately … And immediately, they came into the house of Simon … immediately they tell him (that his wife’s mother lies sick) …” (Mark Chapter 1 verses 18-43). Nine times in these verses he uses the word ‘immediately’ as he tells excitedly how one thing happened after another.
Mark was not one of the 12 apostles, and was probably rarely present because he was just a boy at the time. But later on he was close to events. He was the son of Barnabas’s sister, and it was to her house that Peter went after the angel released him from Herod’s prison (Acts 12:1-24). And we know that he spent some time later on with Peter in Rome (1 Peter 5:13). It is tradition which tells us that Mark wrote down Peter’s memories, which was something that Peter wanted to be recorded before he died (2 Peter 1:12-18).
If it was at Rome that Mark’s Gospel was written, that could explain why at first it had no title to say who wrote it. In the city where Christians were persecuted, it was safer that way. Maybe that too is why the boy in the darkness who spied on Jesus’ arrest was not named. If that boy was Mark himself, he personally saw Peter slash out with his sword at one of Jesus’s captors, before running away to avoid being captured himself. And Peter too is not named by Mark. That boy too escaped. It was, you can read, by leaving his clothes in their hands and fleeing naked (Mark 14:43-52); a memorable night.
Heroes of the Church
Mark was no hero – he deserted Paul and Barnabas when the missionary work became difficult (Acts 13:13). And even Peter lost his courage (Mark 14:66-72).
Mark is given honor in Cyprus and in other parts of the world. The Apostle Thomas is honored in the churches of South India. And Peter is rightly given honor throughout the church; after all Jesus gave him the name ‘Peter the Rock’ because of his enthusiasm and leadership. But they were just men, and it was after they were converted that they were given strength by God.
All honor and glory belong to Jesus Christ alone, who allowed himself to be taken that night, and then suffer and die in order to liberate us from our sins. He rose again victorious over the power of sin, and sent the Holy Spirit to help weak men and prepare them – that is we who believe – for their place in his Father’s house in heaven.
Conclusion
Men judge Peter to have been one of the great founders of the Church, and indeed Jesus said so,
“I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.”
Matthew tells us this (Ch. 16 v.18), but not Mark his friend; for Peter had denied knowing Jesus. So how did Peter fulfill Jesus’s words? After restoring him Jesus gave him a commission, “Feed my sheep” (John Ch.21), which he then humbly fulfills as apostle serving Jewish people wherever they were.
The rest of Peter’s life was spent in obedience to this calling. And that was his greatness. And like wise it should so for the least of all his followers, and that includes ourselves; that we love Jesus our Lord God and obey him.
John said so: “For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments” (1 John 5:3).
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན་༡ 5 :3 གང་ཡིན་ཞེ་ན། ཁོང་གི་བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་སྲུང་བ་དེ་ནི་དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་གཅེས་པར་འཛིན་པའོ། ཁོང་གི་བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་སྲུང་བ་དེ་དཀའ་བ་མིན།
Peter said so: “As obedient children … be holy … love one another.” (1 Peter 1:14-25).
པེ་ཏྲོ་༡ 1:14-25
14 ཁ་ལ་ཉན་པའི་ཕྲུ་གུ་ལྟར་སྔར་གྱི་རྨོངས་པའི་དབང་གིས་འདོད་ཆགས་མི་བྱེད་པར། 15 ཁྱེད་ཚོ་བོས་གནང་མཁན་ནི་དམ་པ་ཡིན་པས་སྤྱོད་ལམ་ཚང་མ་དམ་པར་བྱོས་ཤིག 16 གང་ཡིན་ཞེ་ན། མདོ་ལས། ང་ནི་དམ་པ་ཡིན་པས་ཁྱོད་ཚོའང་དམ་པར་ངེས་པར་འགྱུར་དགོས་ཞེས་འཁོད།* 17 ཕྱོགས་རིས་མེད་པར་སོ་སོས་བྱ་བ་གང་བྱས་པར་གཞིགས་ནས་ཁྲིམས་གཅོད་མཛད་མཁན་ལ་ཁྱེད་ཚོས་ཡབ་ཅེས་ཞུ་བས། གནས་གཡར་བ་ལྟར་འཇིག་རྟེན་འདིར་སྡོད་རིང་དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་བཀུར་སྟི་བྱེད་དེ་མི་ཚེ་སྐྱེལ་དགོས། 18 མེས་པོ་ལས་བྱུང་བའི་དོན་མེད་ཀྱི་ལུགས་སྲོལ་ལྟར་ཁྱེད་ཚོ་གསེར་རམ་དངུལ་ལ་སོགས་པའི་འཇིག་ཏུ་འགྲོ་བའི་རིན་གྱིས་བླུས་པ་མ་ཡིན་གྱིས། 19 སྐྱོན་དང་དྲི་མ་བྲལ་བའི་ལུག་གུ་ལྟར་གྱི་མཱ་ཤི་ཀའི་སྐུ་ཁྲག་རིན་ཐང་ཆེ་བ་དེས་བླུས་པ་ཁྱེད་ཚོས་ཤེས། 20 དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་འཇིག་རྟེན་བཀོད་པའི་སྔོན་ལ་ཁོང་ནི་བདམས་ཀྱང༌། ད་དུས་མཐའ་མར་ཁྱེད་ཚོའི་དོན་དུ་མངོན་པར་གྱུར། 21 ཁྱེད་ཚོ་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་བརྒྱུད་ནས་དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་དད་པ་སྐྱེས། དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་ཁོང་འཆི་བ་ནས་སླར་གསོན་པར་མཛད་ནས་གཟི་བརྗིད་གནང་བས། ཁྱེད་ཚོ་དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་དད་ཅིང་རེ་བ་བྱེད། 22 བདེན་པའི་བཀའ་ལ་ཉན་པའི་སྒོ་ནས་སེམས་དག་པར་བྱས་ཏེ། སྤུན་ཟླ་རྣམས་ལ་སྙིང་ཐག་པ་ནས་བྱམས་པར་བྱེད་པས། གཅིག་གིས་གཅིག་ལ་སེམས་ཀྱི་གཏིང་ནས་བྱམས་པ་བྱེད། 23 གང་ལགས་ཟེར་ན། ཁྱེད་ཚོ་མི་རྟག་པའི་ས་བོན་མིན་ཏེ་རྒྱུན་དུ་གནས་པའི་ས་བོན་ལས་ཡང་བསྐྱར་སྐྱེས། ས་བོན་དེ་ནི་འཚོ་བའི་སྤྱོད་ལམ་སྟོན་པའི་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བཀའ་རྟག་ཏུ་གནས་པ་དེ་ཡིན་ནོ།
24 ཤ་ཁྲག་གདོས་བཅས་རྩྭ་དང་འདྲ།།
དཔལ་ཡོན་གཟི་བརྗིད་མེ་ཏོག་འདྲ།།
རྩྭ་སྐམ་མེ་ཏོག་རྙིད་འགྱུར་ཀྱང༌།།
25 གཙོ་བོའི་བཀའ་ནི་རྒྱུན་དུ་གནས།།
བཀའ་དེ་ནི་ཁྱེད་ཚོར་བསྒྲགས་པའི་འཕྲིན་བཟང་ཡིན་ནོ།།*
James said so: “Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only.” (James 1:22).
ཡ་ཀོབ། 1:22 རང་གིས་རང་ལ་མགོ་སྐོར་གཏོང་བའི་བཀའ་ཐོས་མཁན་འབའ་ཞིག་ཏུ་མི་འགྱུར་བར། བཀའ་སྒྲུབ་མཁན་དུ་འགྱུར་ཞིག
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This the last post about Peter. Please let us know what you would like us to post in future weeks.
