The apostle Peter was married with children

I was privileged to do a baby dedication (plus first birthday celebration) a few weeks back for a friend of mine, and at the morning tea afterwards I found myself in a bizarre theological discussion with an old retired minister. During the dedication I'd talked about how much God cares for children, using Psalm 127:3, "Children are a gift from the Lord." The old minister let me know that what I had said was true (phew) and went on to list a few more references I could have used. I find this kind of thing happens a bit after preaching.

"Oh and of course the 18th chapter of Matthew," he went on (because since I am a pastor I would obviously know the exact passage that he was referring to. We ministers have most of the Bible memorised, in case you weren't aware...).

"Sure," I said, knowing he would elaborate.

"Yes, when the disciples are arguing over who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus calls over a little child and says, 'Anyone who wants to be great in the kingdom has to become like a little child.'"

"Oh yes," I said, as I remembered the story. At the same time I was thinking that this particular passage might be a bit of an obscure way to show that God cared about children, but we were at a one-year-old's birthday party so I didn't really want to get into a theological discussion. At this point I was just smiling and nodding.

But the minister wasn't finished.

"Now think about this," he said. "If I were to call over one of the kids here, the only reason they would come to me is if they already knew me, right?"

"Ok," said I, noncommittally.

"So obviously," he said, "Jesus had already developed a relationship with this child. He'd spent the time getting to know them, probably years. The child obviously knew Jesus well."

Finally following his line of thought I ventured, "Ah I never thought about that. Maybe it was a child of one of Jesus' followers, one of the disciples maybe?"

The old minister nailed it home then: "It was Peter's child." Said with absolutely no doubt or room for questions.

"Oh right," I said with even less commitment.

"Peter was the only disciple to be married, and therefore the only one with kids. It was Peter's child Jesus called over."

I politely backed out of the conversation. As I walked away chuckling to myself inwardly, my mirth gradually turned sour as I contemplated the tragic use of the Bible I'd just experienced. This was clearly reading something into the text that was not there. Fortunately in this instance it was more humorous than harmful, but if the minister was that cavalier with his exegesis of this passage, what other passages had been similarly mangled? Over the many years of ministry, through hundreds of sermons to attentive listeners. And probably what troubled me most was not the tenuous leaps he'd made in his theology, but the way he then spoke his interpretation as absolute fact. "It was Peter's child."

It's all a bit scary really.

Pastors, please be careful with your Bible reading, because people are listening. People, please don't just accept everything you hear from the pulpit. Check it out for yourself. Pastors can make mistakes too, even and especially the ones who seem to have no questions or uncertainty themselves.