pavlov, peter, and jesus

It sounds like the start of a bad joke, but it’s actually from Batterson’s chapter on the cage of guilt in Wild Goose Chase.  Our life group met tonight to discuss this chapter, and it was fabulous.

You remember Pavlov and his study on how his dogs were conditioned to salivate when he rang the dinner bell, right?  Batterson took us to the story of Peter’s denial, and the rooster that sounded his failure.  Every morning when the roosters sounded their wake up call, Peter rose to face the reminder of his failure.  He was trapped in the cage of guilt.  He failed his best friend in the hour of need.  That failure signified the end of a dream, the end of a mission, the end of Peter’s call to be a fisher of men.  Jesus is crucified, and Peter and the followers are left alone.  The guilt and shame of his failure are crushing.

So Pete decided he’d go back to fishing.  His friends joined him, and the spent all night on the lake.  Up all night fishing–nothing to show for their labor.  Suddenly, a voice called from the shore:  Fellows, have you caught any fish.  John said, “It’s the Lord!”  Pete jumped into the water and swam to meet Jesus…

I have to admit, I lost it when I was retelling this story.

Jesus questions Peter 3 times:  Do you love me?  Peter’s a little hurt by the third question, especially since he answers the “right” way each time.

But notice when Jesus meets him:  early in the morning.  The roosters are doing their thing.  Peter has to hear them calling out, “Cock-a-doodle-failure!”  Then he hears Jesus.

Jesus is re-conditioning Peter, just like the Pavlov’s dogs, to respond to a stimulus.  From that point on, every time he heard a rooster, Peter didn’t think “I’m a failure.”  He immediately heard the question:

Do you love me?  You do?  OK, now let’s get back to doing what we set out to do.

May the voice of Jesus recondition your heart to respond to him, his call, his mission, his love.

I needed to hear this today.

If you want to hear Batterson give this talk, download the podcast from itunes.  Batterson’s talks are at National Community Church.