Pete's New Friends
"Ug. Cafeteria food" said Jason.
"I know, but you gotta eat something, and sack lunches always get gross and gooey in your locker all day. Besides, what's wrong with square pizza!" returned Jonny.
"Heads up. There's Pete."
"It don't matter, he won't sit with us anymore anyway. I sort of miss him."
Pete walked right by them and sat down next to Barney and his other new friends.
"What ever happened to him and Pauly? They used to be such good friends."
"I don't know. All I know is he made some new friends and won't sit with us 'losers' anymore."
All of the sudden there was a new presence in the room. It hit like a strong wind. Everyone hushed. It was Pauly. You could tell by his demeanor that things were boiling over.
Standing flatfooted, Pauly leaped up on the lunchroom table where Pete was eating with his new friends.
"PETE!" he screamed out.
“You are living like free, even though you are a Jew. Your new friends have led you astray, and you are leading others away. Now you want these people to follow the same Jewish rules you've stopped following just to be part of your group! The implications are dizzying."
"Pete, you and I are Jews by birth, not 'sinners' like the people. You KNOW that a person is made right with Gody by faith, not by a bunch of old dusty rules. This is how you were made right! Hypocrite! No one will ever be made right with God by obeying rules."
Pauly continued, "I live my life by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless."
Just before dropping the mic, Pauly shouts out, "If keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die."
The cafeteria was so quiet you could hear the foam green paint on the walls cracking. The buzz of the lights was deafening.
With that, Pauly jumped down from the table, dumped his uneaten lunch tray in the trash and walked out.
"Intense!" Jason squeaked to Jonny.
They both looked over at Pete in astonishment of what just happened. Making eye contact with Pete, they felt like a new change was on the horizon in this already confusing time. A welcomed change, where all really are one in Christ.
What is the take away here? Perhaps sometimes we act petty, and should be called out on it. Paul certainly thought so. I'm really not sure why I thought of a middle school lunch room when I read this passage recently. I guess it just seemed to be the epitome of petty.
Perhaps you'd prefer a translation closer to the original:
Galatians 2:11-21 (NLT)
11 But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong. 12 When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile believers, who were not circumcised. But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision.13 As a result, other Jewish believers followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.
14 When I saw that they were not following the truth of the gospel message, I said to Peter in front of all the others, “Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions?
15 “You and I are Jews by birth, not ‘sinners’ like the Gentiles. 16 Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.”
17 But suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then we are found guilty because we have abandoned the law. Would that mean Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely not! 18 Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down. 19 For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God. 20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.
