The readings this week provide us with an interesting comparison between Elijah and Peter (1 Kgs 19:9a, 11-13a and Mt 14:22-33). Both have been called by God, personally and directly. Neither is handling it very well.
Elijah has just run away from trouble – not unreasonably we might think, since he’s upset the king’s wife (the infamous Jezebel) and she’s out to kill him. Not to say he’s entirely blameless since he killed a bunch of her prophets.
Peter is still acting a bit like a bull in the china shop. Full of good intentions but also a bit too full of himself, setting out pumped up with bravado, but without quite what it takes to finish the job.
Peter ends up on this occasion being (gently) chided by Jesus. Elijah however understands what God is about, knows how to recognize him (without the pyrotechnics), and goes out to meet him in the quiet and the calm. I suspect he knew what was coming next and had already reconciled himself to it. He had to go back. To face his fears, to accept the danger.
So why the difference? I think the reason is that Elijah was much further on in his relationship with God. Yes there were times when he might run away, but he knew that wasn’t really the answer. Peter hadn’t reached his running away moment. There was a lot more bluster still to come as he tried to tell Jesus he had it all wrong, about the need to die, the need to be washed, and everything in between. Peter’s running away came on the eve of the crucifixion. That was his moment of ultimate failure.
Elijah hid out in the cave at Horeb. Peter, in a way, hid out in the cave that was Jesus’s tomb.
As Paul explained, we all die with Jesus, we enter the tomb with Jesus, to be reborn. And so it was for Peter, as it had been for Elijah. Peter emerged from his resurrection ready to confront his fear, to walk on water with Jesus, to become the leader God had chosen him to be.
When we are reborn we don’t have to face the fury of Jezebel or the Jews and Romans in first century Palestine. But we should have confidence that we can walk towards Jesus in whatever circumstances we may find ourselves, that he is always holding out his hand to us, that he will not let us sink.