Transparency, Enthusiasm And Having A Love For Christ

Essay question over John18-21
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The major character with whom I identify with is Simon Peter. He embodies various positive traits such as being lovable, likable, transparency, enthusiasm and having a love for Christ. First, his love for Christ makes him act impulsively when he slashes off a guard’s ear. Second, we believe Jesus is the Son of God and that he has an infinite power over our lives thus, we seek to follow him throughout our lives. Peter portrays this by becoming one of Jesus’s disciples and a stout believer. Third, due to his transparency, we can observe his faults clearly, such as denying Jesus three times. Also, his unwavering trust in Jesus and the readiness to fight for him is encouraging. He goes ahead to defend Jesus when he is arrested and jumps into the sea when he appears to them without questioning. Just like us, he repents and retreats to trusting in Christ and seeking his guidance.
Simon Peter functions as a narrative window of the story in various ways. First, his characterization as ‘the rock’ depicts his utmost importance in the history of the church. Jesus’s views of him as the foundation of the church create a picture of the prospect of the church after Jesus ascends to heaven. Moreover, it displays Jesus’s success in spreading the word and influencing the people, as by molding Simon Peter it shows that he succeeds in spreading the gospel to the world. Second, his behavior of committing sins toward Jesus strains his relationship with God but also portrays God’s love and forgiveness. His behavior of betraying Jesus is significant in developing the narrative as it illustrates the fulfillment of Jesus’s prediction and depicts Jesus’s concerns about Peter. Nevertheless, in Chapter 21, Jesus depicts the value of forgiveness and love towards all, by forgiving and re-commissioning Peter to continue with God’s work, seeing him as the foundation to the future church, and maintaining the same relationship with him despite his mistakes.
Peter’s character in these scriptures affects the leader by describing the typical Christian behavior that all should exemplify. Peter commits various sins that contravene with Jesus’s teachings such as cutting a soldier’s ear off, denying Jesus three times and getting irritated once asked whether he loves him. These actions describe his lack of faith and sinfulness towards God. However, he also illustrates that all men have common weaknesses and sins, which when one seeks forgiveness from God and puts their tr...