Simon Peter

Simon son of Jonah, fisherman of Bethsaida and Capernaum, was renamed at first sight: “You shall be called Cephas” – Rock (John 1:42). No disciple is more vividly human. He walks on water and sinks; confesses “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” and is called blessed, then plays the devil’s advocate one paragraph later and is called Satan (Matthew 16:16-23); swears he will die before denying Jesus, and denies him three times before the rooster crows, going out to weep bitterly in the high priest’s courtyard (Luke 22:54-62).

The resurrection remade him. The risen Jesus sought him out personally (Luke 24:34; 1 Corinthians 15:5) and, over a charcoal fire that must have smelled like the courtyard, asked three times, “Do you love me?” – one healing question per denial – and recommissioned him: “Feed my sheep” (John 21). Fifty days later the man who had crumbled before a servant girl stood up before thousands at Pentecost, and the church was born under his preaching (Acts 2). Acts follows him healing at the Beautiful Gate, defying the Sanhedrin, raising Tabitha at Joppa, and – decisively – carrying the gospel across the Gentile threshold at Cornelius’ house in Caesarea (Acts 10).

His two letters, written from Rome (“Babylon”) to suffering churches, distill a lifetime: humble yourselves, resist the devil, hope fully. Tradition says Nero’s Rome crucified him – at his own request, the story goes, head-down, unworthy to die exactly as his Lord had. The Rock held.

In the New Testament

• Called and renamed (John 1:40-42; Luke 5:1-11)
• Walking on water; the confession; the transfiguration (Matthew 14:28-33; 16:13-23; 17:1-8)
• Denial and restoration (Luke 22:54-62; John 21:15-19)
• Pentecost and the early church (Acts 2-5)
• Tabitha, Cornelius, the council (Acts 9:36-11:18; 15:7-11)
• The letters: 1 and 2 Peter