An Amazing Choice

It is amazing that Jesus would have chosen Simon Peter to be the foundational rock of the Church.  It was not that Jesus was appointing Peter to be the chief disciple when He ascended into Heaven, but that He appointed Him to be the Rock of the Church which would be blown into existence by the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, spread into all the known world of his day, and gather up such steam, or maybe holy wind, that it would be launched into the centuries still to come.   It was an incredible task.  It was something which we would say required incredible and exceptional leadership and Jesus chose a fisherman.   

Reading the letter Peter wrote to the church makes us aware that Jesus must have seen something in Peter that we would have missed for there he is in the very first verse of the epistle bearing his name declaring himself to be "an apostle of Jesus Christ."  (I Peter 1:1)  It was surely not a title Peter wore on some pin stuck to his chest, nor did his clothing speak of anything but the common man he thought of himself as being.  Somehow Peter caught hold of the reality that he was indeed a chosen one, a leader of a new people who belonged to God.  He was a disciple.  He was an apostle. 

To remember the life Peter shared with Jesus certainly gives insight into why Jesus would have chosen this fisherman to be the Rock of the Church which would come into existence as a part of the divine plan fulfilled by His journey to the cross and His departure from the empty tomb.  When Jesus looked at Peter, He did not see him as Peter saw himself, or as others saw him.  He looked at Peter's heart and saw one who could be useful for the work of the Kingdom of God.  He did not see a fisherman, but a servant and a man willing to forsake everything to follow the call which was upon his life.  It was amazing that Jesus would choose Peter.  It is even more amazing that He chooses you and me.