“Common Ground”

John 18: 15-18; 25-27: “Now the slaves and the officers were standing there, having made a charcoal fire, for it was cold and they were warming themselves; and Peter also was with them, standing and warming himself.” Slaves and officers standing together: an unusual sight, is it not? What united them? The warmth of a fire in the midst of a cold night. Perhaps a foretaste of how, in less than two months’ time, the fire of the Holy Spirit would descend and unite young men and old, sons and daughters, bondslaves and all flesh, under the banner of one Lord, as they were led by none other than this same Peter. Oh, how this cold angry world needs that fire right now!