Peter introduces himself…
My name is Peter. I am a friend of Jesus. It was very exciting to go with him as he went around Galilee teaching and healing and helping people.
As time went on, I realised that Jesus was special, different from anyone I had ever met. One day he asked us if we knew who he was. God put a thought in my head and I said ‘You are the son of the Living God’. Jesus was delighted that he had been known for who he was. He told me ‘You are Peter the rock, and on this rock I will build my church.’
When we reached Jerusalem, we had an evening meal together. Jesus was sad because he knew someone would hand him over to the people who hated him. He said that all of his friends would leave him. This made me angry. ‘I won’t leave you’ I said. Jesus replied ‘Before the cock crows, you will say three times that you don’t know me.’
Later that night, the rulers arrested Jesus. I ran away but came back in the dark near to where they took Jesus. A woman saw me and said ‘You are a friend of Jesus’. She said this three times and three times I said I didn’t know him. I was afraid that the rulers might hurt me if they found out the truth.
Suddenly, I saw Jesus. He was looking straight at me with such pain and sorrow in his eyes. I ran off and started to cry. I cried and cried because I had let my best friend down so badly.
As you know they put Jesus on a cross to die. It was horrible. I thought that was the end. I thought I had lost my best friend and I thought I would never ever feel good about myself again.
But I was wrong. Jesus died on a Friday, Good Friday as it is now called because so much good came out of it. We didn’t know that then and on Sunday morning my friend John and I were still feeling rotten. Suddenly Mary, another of Jesus’ friends, arrived saying that the body of Jesus was gone from his tomb. John and I set off straight away. John runs faster than me. I was always a bit of a slow runner. He got to the tomb first but stopped outside. I caught him up and went straight in. No body, only the grave clothes. What a shock!
Later that same day, we were all together. Suddenly Jesus appeared as if from nowhere. It wasn’t a ghost. He showed us his hands which had been nailed to the cross. Our friend was really alive again!
That was great, but I still felt bad about letting my friend down. Would Jesus forgive me? Yes he did. More than that, he wanted me to be a leader, helping the church to spread the good news. The promise he made to me was right.
So now, I go everywhere telling people about Jesus – how, because of his death on the cross, evil had been defeated and the bad things in our lives taken away. I tell people that Jesus is alive and however hard our life may be he is always with us, now and forever.