In 2016 the movie ‘Batman vs Superman’ was released. I remember watching it on an airplane while flying to Amsterdam and being quite bored by it. The premise was intriguing…set up a situation where Batman and Superman are truly fighting it out…but they were not able to pull it off.
Two titans…knowing by reputation for doing good all of a sudden at each other’s throats. I think the Star Trek people tried to do something similar many years ago with a movie that would have put the Original Series crew (Kirk, Spock, etc) into conflict and battle with the Next Generation people (Picard, Data and the others). But again, there was just no way of coming up with something that would be believable.
But what if i told you there was a real life conflict between the two most important apostles…Peter and Paul? And what if this became something public, not just an issue that would be buried in the back room of a church somewhere?
Yes, it really happened…and here it is...”Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed; 12 for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. 13 And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy.
14 But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, “If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews?
Again, remember that in this section of Galatians that Paul is still working to show the Galatians that he was a true apostle, on par with Peter, James, John and all the rest. That is the reason he is specifically telling this story right here and now.
Peter had come to Antioch…the church there had both Paul and Barnabas as prominent pastors there…and Paul comes right out and says it. He got in Peter’s face in a public way. Why? Because it was his fault (as we shall soon see). He was in the wrong. And because what Peter did was in public, Paul had to confront him on it in public.
Peter was enjoying the freedom and liberty that he had in Christ. He was sharing lunches and dinners with Gentiles…which being a true Jew you just DID NOT DO. They were unclean and were to be shunned at all costs. But here was Peter probably having BLTs and pork chops with them and seeming to have no issues at all.
But then some guys show up from the Jerusalem church and they claim that James, the leader of that church, had sent them. Of course he didn’t but that is what they claimed and this claim was accepted at face value. There’s no indication that these men said anything specific to Peter about this, but they were there. Peter began to feel anxious and nervous and probably deeply concerned about what they would think about him sharing meals with Gentiles.
That was probably the crux of it. What would they think? Will I look bad in their eyes? Will they judge me over it? It is amazing how so many of us have this same type of fear…anxiety of what people whom we will probably see only one in our lives will think of us.
So Peter begins to back away. The Greek term used for withdrawing and separating is a military term that means a strategic withdrawal. Exactly what Peter is doing…it may not have happened all at once but over a period a time Peter began to back away from his Gentile companions, only hang out with his Jewish friends, and completely capitulate to the old Jewish dietary laws.
What he was doing became obvious. As the lead apostle, whatever Peter did or said would receive undue attention and notice. And this withdrawal was picked up by everyone and the other Jews did the same thing…they disassociated with anyone who was not Gentile.
Even Barnabas the great encourager was sucked into this and also followed Peter’s lead. In vs 13 Paul uses the word ‘hypocrisy’ twice to define what is going on. For Peter is playing a false part, acting as a religious counterfeit and being a pretender…wearing a mask to cover up who he truly was. For he did believe that table fellowship with Gentiles was ok and had been shown by God in Acts 10 while in Joppa that it was all right to eat all animals. But he is pretending to believe something else for fear of these men who came from Jerusalem.
Paul will have none of it. He has seen what was happening and did not become deceived like Barnabas and the others. And he goes nose to nose with Peter over it…again in public…and asks him how he can possibly live like a Gentile (eating with their and sharing their food) but expecting the Gentiles to live like Jews. He told Peter to his face that he was a hypocrite, compelling Gentiles to do what he as a Jew would not do.
There is more to this story to tell tomorrow but suffice it to say tonight that legalism is an infectious disease caused by our fear of rejection and disapproval.
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