Peter: The Fisherman from Galilee

Peter was not first known by the name Peter. His original name was Simon, and Andrew was his brother. John says that the two brothers were from Bethsaida. Scripture does not tell us who Simon’s parents were, what his childhood was like, or when he became a fisherman. It does show him working on the Sea of Galilee when he met Jesus. It also shows a house in Capernaum where his mother-in-law was ill. Before he became a disciple, Simon was a working man with a household and a trade.

Andrew met Jesus before his brother did. He went to find Simon and told him that they had found the Messiah they had been waiting for. When Simon came to Jesus, Jesus called him Cephas, the name that became Peter. Both names mean rock. A new name did not make Simon’s life different in a single moment, but this meeting began a life in which he would learn to follow Jesus.

One night Simon and his companions worked on the lake without catching anything. As they were cleaning their nets, Jesus told Simon to put out into deep water and lower the nets again. Simon spoke of the night’s failure, but he did as Jesus said. The catch was so large that another boat had to help them. Simon fell before Jesus and spoke of his own sin. Jesus told him that he would now gather people, and Simon and his companions left their boats and nets to follow him.

Peter often came to the front among the disciples. He asked questions and answered when others were quiet. When Jesus came toward the boat on the water, Peter asked to come to him. He stepped out and began to walk toward Jesus, but when he saw the wind he became afraid and started to sink. He called for help, and Jesus took hold of him. The scene holds Peter’s courage and fear together.

Near Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asked the disciples who they believed he was. Peter answered that Jesus was the Christ. Yet when Jesus began to speak of suffering and death, Peter objected. He could say with confidence who Jesus was, but he could not yet accept that Jesus’ path would lead through the cross. His certainty about Jesus and his confusion about Jesus’ way stood close together.

Peter went up the mountain with James and John when Jesus’ appearance changed before them. Peter wanted to make shelters and remain there, but the voice from the cloud told the disciples to listen to Jesus. Soon afterward Jesus went toward Jerusalem and again told them that he would be arrested and killed. Peter insisted that he would remain faithful. The night that exposed the limits of that promise was close.

When Jesus was arrested in Gethsemane, Peter drew a sword and cut the ear of Malchus, the high priest’s servant. He was trying to defend Jesus. Jesus told him to put the sword away and did not escape what was coming. After the other disciples scattered, Peter followed at a distance to the courtyard of the high priest’s house. He had not simply walked away, but there he began to hide his connection with Jesus.

People in the courtyard recognized Peter as someone who had been with Jesus. Three times he said that he was not. Then a rooster crowed, and he remembered what Jesus had said. Peter went outside and wept. The man who had promised loyalty now knew that fear had made him deny the one he loved. Scripture does not linger over what he did immediately afterward, but it places this failure directly before Jesus’ death.

After the resurrection, the disciples met Jesus again by the Sea of Galilee. They had caught nothing through the night until Jesus told them where to cast the net. Peter recognized him and went into the water toward the shore. After they ate, Jesus asked Peter three times whether he loved him. The questions recall the three denials, but Jesus did not dismiss Peter. Each time he gave Peter work to do: care for my sheep. At the end he again told Peter to follow him.

After Jesus ascended, Peter was among the disciples in Jerusalem. When the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, he stood before the crowd and spoke about Jesus. The man who had denied knowing Jesus now spoke openly of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Soon Peter and John met a man who could not walk at the temple gate. The man stood and walked, and Peter and John were questioned because of it. Peter did not hide what had happened through Jesus’ name.

In Jerusalem Peter worked with the other apostles as they taught the people and cared for the sick. The high priest and those with him arrested the apostles and put them in prison, but Acts says that an angel opened the doors during the night. The apostles returned to the temple and taught again. Before the council, Peter and the others answered that they must obey God rather than people. After they were beaten and released, they did not stop teaching in the temple and in homes. They rejoiced that they had been counted worthy to suffer dishonor for Jesus’ name.

Later Herod had James, John’s brother, killed. Seeing that this pleased some people, he had Peter arrested as well and planned to bring him out after Passover. Peter slept between soldiers, bound with chains, while the church prayed earnestly for him. In the night an angel woke him and led him out of the prison. Peter went to the house of Mary, the mother of John called Mark. A servant named Rhoda recognized his voice at the gate. She was so glad that she ran inside without opening it. Peter told the people gathered there how he had been brought out, and then he left for another place.

Peter’s work did not remain in Jerusalem. He went to Samaria to meet people who had newly believed. In Lydda he met Aeneas, who had been unable to get up for years, and he rose. In Joppa, Peter prayed beside the body of Tabitha and then called the people in to see her alive. These scenes show Peter carrying forward the witness to Jesus that had begun beside the lake. They do not show a man who had stopped learning.

While praying in Joppa, Peter saw a vision of a sheet containing animals. He refused to eat what he had not eaten before, but he heard that he must not call unclean what God had made clean. Soon messengers sent by the Roman centurion Cornelius arrived. Peter went to Cornelius’ house in Caesarea and said that God does not show favoritism. When he saw the Holy Spirit come upon Gentiles as well, he directed that they be baptized.

When Peter returned to Jerusalem, some criticized him for entering a Gentile home and eating there. He explained the events from the beginning. Later, when the church in Jerusalem considered what Gentile believers should be required to do, Peter again spoke about what he had seen. God had given them the Holy Spirit and had made no distinction between them. The fisherman from Galilee was now part of a decision about whether people once treated as outsiders could be received into the church.

Acts does not continue with a full account of Peter’s final years after the Jerusalem discussion. The New Testament includes letters bearing his name, but they do not tell us when, where, or how he died. The last clear picture Scripture gives is of Peter speaking before the church about what he had seen and lived through. He began as Simon, a man who cast nets on the lake. He passed through failure, was called again to follow Jesus, and became Peter, a witness who spoke of what he knew.