The God's Accent

There is a fascinating account in the Bible that surrounds the story of the crucifixion. Jesus is being led off to trial, and Peter is lingering close behind feeling sorry for himself. Some people begin to question Peter because they think he is one of the disciples. Peter would repeatedly deny their accusations leading to the crowing of the rooster. But one statement in Matthew stands out in this series of dialogues in which the disciple is involved in. The gospel writer tells us that, “After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, ‘Surely you are one of them, for your accent gives you away

We like labels in our culture; we give them for almost anything. We have red states and blue states, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y and Millennials. Then there are the liberals and the conservatives, the rich and the poor, the skinny and the fat. Not to mention several thousand different denominational tags to choose from as well. We like labels in our culture; they help to simplify things in our minds. But life is not that simple, and labels are not as neat as we like to think.

Peter was being labeled, the sound of his voice giving him away. The disciple was a Galilean and his heavy accent was easily identifiable in the capital city of Jerusalem, leading people to point him out as a follower of Jesus. Their accusations would lead to the most famous denial in history as Peter would swear he didn’t know Jesus.

The story brings up an interesting point. Aside from the historical context, this event begs the question as to what, if anything identifies us with Jesus. He would say that love would be the mark that would identify his followers, not a certain clothing style or a particular type of music. Forgiveness and grace would be the traits that would stand out in his disciples, not denominational affiliations or certain times of worship.

The deeper issue for Peter and us is answering the question of whether anything in our life leads someone to say, “There is a follower of Christ.” It was Saint Francis of Assisi who would say, "Preach the gospel at all times -- If necessary, use words."

In the church of Corinth labels were being passed around. Some were claiming to follow a certain person while others were claiming to follow someone else. Paul would write that Christ is not divided among groups, we are either his followers or we are not. There is no other label, no other modifier to our identity, we are either a part of the vine or we are separate from it.
We love labels in our culture. What label does your life display?