“Let it be done,” the Master yet declares,
“To you as you have believed in your heart.”
Jesus heals again—but I no longer feel repulsed.
I believe Jesus has taught me a great deal.
I believe the rabbi calls me to be extraordinary,
And because he stepped into my boat I can be at peace.
I believe the King of Glory is in the city’s gates.
My faith is no longer dampened, lying in steerage.
I believe that God will lead me safely over troubled waters.
I am not defined by the sins of the “other Simon,”
Yet I believe I am still a mess—holy, but still a mess.
I know that I must mindfully tend to my own nets.
More of my own tattered sails will not deliver me,
Yet my filth is not more weighty than God’s glory.
I will be the Lord’s swine if I must—but the Lord’s!
This does not overwhelm me, is not too heavy to bear.
Yes, I have been scorned by those who hate me.
I have been despised by neighbors, mocked by friends,
And I have even been marginalized by my wife.
When cousins and aunts see me, they walk the other way.
But I believe in the Lord of Hosts
And I have put my future in his hands.
I believe the stage has been set
And the New Simon is ready to make a scene.
Yes, let it be done to me as I have believed.
See Matt 9:27-34 and Psalm 31.
Peter still thinks this is about learning, and about how the heart is shaped by knowledge. But a change of heart must be wrought by deeper forces than the mind in order to stick. He is still destined for failure… and much of it. But this is a fitting conclusion to Act One, as it were, of the Good News of Peter’s transformation.
It might be helpful to revisit his original “Credo.”
(Also note how Peter neatly aligns his own familial rejection with that of Jesus. A little inflated opinion of himself, perhaps? An interesting shift for a man who has previously had such a poor self image.)