Mark's Story by Jerry B. Jenkins

Author:Jerry B. Jenkins [Jenkins, Jerry B.]
Format: epub
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Published: 2009-10-01T22:34:57+00:00

SAD TO SAY, Mark found Peter looking even older than he should have after two years. The strain of leadership had clearly marked his face, particularly around his eyes. And his gray hair was nearly white now. He could not mask his sadness, even as he tried to smile broadly at his reunion with Mark and Barnabas. And he seemed reserved and quiet, particularly around Mark’s cousin. It was as if he wanted to speak with Mark alone, but Barnabas was not getting the hint. He said, “So tell Mark and me what the problem is here.”

Peter sat heavily and sighed. “I don’t understand it myself,” he said. “The whole ordeal has gotten away from me.”

“What ordeal and how so?” Barnabas said.

“Some men came from Jerusalem and inserted themselves into the congregation and the work here. I watched them carefully, and they soon proved themselves diligent and devout, though they seemed standoffish toward the Gentile believers. When finally I confronted them about this, they admitted they were disciples of Jesus’ brother James and had been sent to help but also to evaluate our work. It turns out, gentlemen, that they are Judaizers. They know better than to continue harping on the need for Gentile believers to be circumcised or to follow the whole of the law. I preach regularly on the truth that Jesus fulfilled the law and that salvation is by grace alone. But they chastised me for abandoning my heritage and my Jewish friends by rubbing in their noses the fact that I dined with Gentiles at nearly every meal.”

“Those men cannot really be disciples of James!” Mark said. “The only prohibitions that survived the Jerusalem Council were his, and if he had required more, he would have said so. There is certainly no restriction against the brethren, Jew and Gentile, eating together. No one knows that better than you.”

Peter looked away and shook his head. “And yet I do not want to offend.”

“That doesn’t sound like you,” Mark said. “I know you’ve expressed it before in my hearing, but where is the man who said he would die for the Lord? Where is the man who stood up to the Pharisees and the Romans and told them he would obey the Lord rather than men, regardless of the consequences?”

“But I am not opposing Rome or religious Jews here. I have been put in a place where I must walk a line between devout brothers. I began dining with only the Gentiles once a day, and with the Jews at the other meal. Others began following my lead—”

“As men always have, Peter,” Barnabas said. “That is why you must be so careful in what you say and what you do. I don’t envy you.”

“Eventually I began declining invitations to meals from the Gentiles, and the Jews appreciated this and expressed that my offense had abated. I have been unable to hide my reluctance to dine with the Gentiles, and I know that now they are offended.”

Mark was frankly disappointed, almost as deeply as when he was a teenager and saw Peter deny the Lord.

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