There are a lot of stories missing at Easter and one may be yours.  We know one of the missing stories of Easter is Simon Peter’s. We’ve been looking at the principles of Peter’s life and now we come to Easter.  If there is one truth about Peter on Easter morning it is this. He is a man without hope. The last week took it from him.

Three years is not a long time in a friendship particularly when your friend is Jesus. Peter was introduced to Jesus by his brother Andrew.  At that first meeting Jesus nicknamed Simon Peter, Cephas and a wonderful friendship began. It was nurtured while Peter was fishing the Sea of Galilee and Jesus was living in nearby Capernaum. After about a year, Jesus asked Peter to become more than just a friend. He asked him to join him in building a movement, to become an apprentice to his way of living, to catch men and woman instead of fish. Peter steps out of the boat and doesn’t look back. It’s a wonderful two years of learning how to follow Jesus. He witnessed the power of Jesus’ message and incredible miracles. He comes to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and on a mountaintop, hears the voice of God confirm it. In following Jesus, he hoped for a new kingdom to be ushered in.

Arriving in Jerusalem, the week started off well with the entire city talking about Jesus. Peter faded into the crowd to wait and see God’s plan unfold. The week was filled with confrontation between Jesus and the religious leaders. Tensions mounted. On Thursday, they gathered for a Passover meal and the supper started badly. Jesus began to wash their feet.  Peter protests but Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no share with me."  (John 13:8). During the meal, Jesus announced that one would betray him. Again Peter protests, saying he’d die for Jesus.  Jesus told him that “before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times.”  It happened as he said. Jesus was arrested, tried, tortured and suffered on a cross. With the death of Jesus, all that he hoped for was gone. Peter is a man without hope.

What do you hope for?  It’s an important question. You cannot live life without hope. What do you hope for? Be careful as you answer because there is a difference between hope for and hope in. When you hope for something, you are hoping for a particular outcome to turn out the way that you want it to. You hope to get a job or get a spouse or get pregnant.  You can hope for good test results or for the cancer to disappear or for her to come back. We spend a lot of time hoping for something. [1]

There is always a lot of hope for at Easter because almost always, it falls around the NCAA Final Four. Some hope for Michigan State to win tonight against Butler but there better not be anyone here who hopes for that. Others hope for Duke or for West Virginia.  Someone, a lot of “someones” are going to be disappointed.  Major league baseball begins this week and just like every year, Cub fans hope for getting into the World Series; likely, they too will be disappointed.

Disappointment and hope for are married, they go together.  One day everything we hope for will eventually disappoint us. Everything we hope for, every circumstance, every situation that we hope for is going to wear out, give out, fall apart, melt down, or go away. When that happens, the question then is about your deeper hope, about your foundational hope. When you’ve lost the something you hoped for do you have someone you can have hope in? As Easter dawns, this is the issue that Simon Peter is facing. His hope for Jesus ousting Roman rule and ushering in a new kingdom is gone.

When what we hope for is gone, there is disappointment and sadness. When what we hope for disappears because of our own actions, there is despair. This is where we find Peter on Easter morning. Somehow, someway after he denied Jesus a third time and heard the roster crow, he escaped the high priest’s courtyard only to suffer through the awful day of Jesus’ crucifixion. On Easter morning, the sound of the rooster crowing was just another reminder that what he hoped for was gone.

As that rooster crows on Easter morning, women were already on their way to the tomb. When they arrived, they found the stone rolled away and upon entering the tomb, “…they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe … (who) he said to them, ‘Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; …go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him…’ So they went out and fled from the tomb….and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” (Mark 16:5-8)  But we know from the other gospels that this was not the case. They got past their fear and did exactly what the angel told them to do.  They told Peter.

Mary ran to Peter and the disciples and told them the news. Luke says that the disciples thought it was “an idle tale” or women’s gossip but apparently it was worth checking out because Peter and John ran to the tomb and upon entering, they find the tomb empty. That was enough for John. John saw and believed. But not Peter. An empty tomb was not enough evidence for Peter. Luke tells us “he went home, amazed at what had happened” (Luke 24:12c).

Something more is needed to convince Peter.  He had to have a personal encounter with the risen Lord and he has it. The story of what happens is missing. We only have reference to their meeting. But somewhere between Peter scratching his head at the empty tomb and the evening appearance before the disciples in an upper room, a resurrected Jesus meets privately with Peter. We learn this from the apostle Paul.  He says, “For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve” (1 Corinthians 15:4-5).  Luke confirms it on the Emmaus Road.  After their eyes were opened and they realized their dinner guest was a resurrected Jesus, they exclaim, “They were saying, ‘The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!’” (Luke 24:34).

Peter is the first disciple named by Jesus, the first to step out and follow Jesus, the first to profess Jesus as his Lord and Savior and the first disciple to witness the resurrected Lord. Both Paul and Luke agree upon this. There was a common understanding among the early church that Peter was visited privately by the resurrected Lord.   Why don’t we have more of a record of it than two short verses of scripture? Why doesn’t Peter talk about his resurrection appearance?

Some suggest that the experience was too hard to describe. Paul struggles to describe what the transmuted, resurrected body of Jesus looked like. He uses terms like his “body of glory” or Jesus’ “spiritual body.” Maybe Peter couldn’t really describe the appearance of Jesus.

Others suggest that it changed Peter and there is no arguing this. After Easter Peter becomes a different person, less impulsive, less arrogant, not given to mouthing off, saying the first thing that came on his mind. He became a thoughtful, articulate leader without an all-consuming need for attention. Some think he didn’t need the recognition of being the first so he didn’t write down the experience.

I think the best explanation is that it was too personal.  Peter needed a personal resurrection moment to redeem him from his failure. He needed an encounter with the resurrected Lord to help discover hope again, not hope for something but hope in someone, hope in the resurrected Jesus.

It was the lesson that he never learned during his apprenticeship to Jesus. Peter had hope for Jesus to be the Messiah, the King of Kings, and the new David. He hoped for a day when the Roman authorities would leave Palestine and the Holy Land would again rest in the hands of God’s people. He hoped for food, peace, well-being, maybe even financial resources.  He had lots of hope for Jesus which was taken away on the cross. His personal resurrection moment with Jesus helped him discover that all that we hope for eventually disappears. But hope in someone can be eternal when that someone is Jesus.

It transformed his life and allowed him to face the persecution of Nero knowing that even if every Christian in Rome were killed, hope in the resurrected Savior lived. He expresses this hope shortly before his death saying “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3-4 NIV).

“….A living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” It’s something that doesn’t fade away or go rotten and spoil or disappear. It is imperishable. It’s eternal. That’s what an encounter with the resurrected Lord gives you. That’s what coming face to face with Jesus at Easter offers. It’s not hope for something; it is hope in someone.

Look, I don’t know what you are hoping for today. It may be a wonderful, important thing, maybe even with noble benefits. Or it may be something you desperately need, something that you think you really must have. Maybe it’s a marriage, a job, or health or money or success or security. Every time we gather in worship, people are hoping for lots of things.  

But that’s not the question today. On Easter, we don’t gather to share what we hope for. We are here to express what we have hoped in. Easter’s question is: Who are you putting your ultimate hope in? What hope do you build your life on?

This is where it turns personal.  Each of us needs a personal resurrection story.  Peter got his. Do you have yours? Is this Easter story a part of your life or is your story missing? 

Peter would say put your ultimate hope in Jesus, in the living hope in his resurrection. Our hope in Jesus can’t perish, can’t spoil, can’t fade because this hope is kept in heaven for you. I want to invite you to claim that hope today, to have hope in someone, not hope for something, to put your ultimate hope in Jesus. 

I know as I extend this invitation that there are all kinds of people listening. Some of you have that personal Easter story. You’ve met the resurrected Lord and you place your hope in him. If this is you, you know that we never stop claiming this living hope. On Easter. You can place your hope in him again.

But there are others here whose Easter story is missing. Like Peter, you need to have a personal resurrection experience, because everything you hope for is eventually going away. There is only one hope that cannot be taken away, our hope in Jesus. Today is your opportunity to claim that hope, to have you own personal Easter story.

So let me invite each of you to your personal Easter story, whether you are visiting it again or meeting him for the first time. Let me give you that opportunity to have a personal Easter conversation with God and state your hope in him. Pray with me this prayer, quietly in your heart and soul.   

God, you sent Jesus for me, so that I can have hope in someone rather than hope for some things. I confess that “hoping for” has at times caused me to hurt others, myself and You. I have sinned. On this Easter I accept the resurrected Lord and receive your grace. In Him I now claim a living hope that is eternal. Amen

If you have prayed the prayer, then you will want to shout again with me. Christ has Risen. He has Risen indeed!   In him, we hope.  Hallelujah and Amen.