They ran scared- not clinging to their Lord and their God, but rather fleeing into the darkness in sheer terror.
But we have to give Peter a little credit. He ran at first, but he came back to see what was going on-
Peter followed the noise till he saw the torch-lit jury in the courtyard of Caiaphas- the high priest.
He stopped near a fire and warmed his hands.
That fire sparked with irony.
The night had been cold.
The fire was hot.
But Peter was neither.
He was lukewarm.
Luke 22 says that “Peter followed at a distance”
He was loyal . . . from a distance.
That night he went close enough to see, but not close enough to be seen.
The problem was, Peter was seen.
Other people near the fire recognized him.
They question him and Peter vehemently denies
The man who had drawn his sword to defend Jesus against a large armed mob in Gethsemane is now put to shame by a lowly servant girl.
It is, of course, impossible to say exactly what would have happened to Peter if he had openly confessed that he was one of Jesus' disciples.
At the very least, he probably would have been ridiculed by the others who were gathered around the fire.
His first denial had not been very convincing because short time later, when he was put on the spot again, Peter considered it necessary to add an oath to his denial.
He called upon God to witness the truth and to punish the lie, and in the same breath he denied God's Son.
He hoped that would be good enough to remove all doubt and suspicion from the minds of the people who were standing around him, but he soon learned that that was not the case at all.
Even though they left Peter alone for awhile after his second denial, they did not forget about him.
The manner in which he had spoken those words of denial convinced them that his words were not true.
When Peter pretended not to be a disciple of Jesus, he acted a lot like Judas did in Gethsemane when he pretended to be a disciple of Jesus.
He didn't really fool anyone.
It was obvious that he was very nervous, and his accent was obviously Galilean.
So, because he had no way to prove that he was not one of Jesus' disciples, he reacted in the way that is common among liars.
He began to curse and swear.
If they knew anything about Jesus, they might realize that profanity was not characteristic of his disciples.
And in that moment of fear and shame, Peter had effectively tendered his resignation from his apostolic office.
He was no longer a disciple of Jesus any more than Judas or Caiaphas.
He had publicly disowned his Lord and Savior.
“You were with him,” they had challenged. “You were with the Nazarene.” Three times people said it, and each time Peter denied it. And each time Jesus heard it.
Please understand that the main character in this drama of denial is not Peter, but Jesus.
Jesus, who knows the hearts of all people,
knew the denial of his friend.
Three times the salt of Peter’s betrayal stung the wounds of the Messiah.
How do I know Jesus knew?
Because of what he did.
Luke 22 says- “Then the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter”
‘When the rooster crowed, Jesus turned.
His eyes searched for Peter and they found him.
At that moment there were no soldiers,
no accusers,
no priests.
At that predawn moment in Jerusalem there were only two people—Jesus and Peter.
Peter would never forget that look.
Though Jesus’ face was already bloody and bruised, his eyes were firm and focused.
They were a knife, laying bare Peter’s heart.
Though the look had lasted only a moment, it lasted forever.
There are so many looks we’ve experienced from others when we were growing up.
I don’t think it was:
I’ll get back at you look
Just wait until your father gets home look (I got that a lot)
A how could you look
Or the WHAT ARE YOU DOING or
Not even the- you just let me down look
Of all the looks we’ve experienced, I believe this one to be the worst because its the look of hurt –
of being terribly wounded by someone you love. At this point…at this moment, there’s no doubt about it that Jesus was wounded by the words of the ones he loved he loved the most.
In Gethsemane Jesus told Peter, "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation".
Then Jesus went to pray while Peter fell asleep.
As Thursday night gave way to Friday morning, Peter and Jesus found themselves in similar circumstances.
Both of them were very much alone.
Both of them were under considerable stress.
Both of them testified under oath.
But there were also some glaring differences.
Jesus' oath was administered by Caiaphas, while Peter's was self-imposed.
Jesus told the truth. Peter lied.
Peter was very much afraid. Jesus was calm, cool, and collected.
Peter did not want to die. Jesus knew very well that he was about to die, and he wanted to pay the debt of human sin-including Peter's triple sin of denial
You and I both know that Peter is not the only one to deny Jesus-
This type of wounding continues each and every day by other people that Jesus also loves – people like you and me.
We’re people who also have professed undying love.
For many of us at our Confirmation,
we stood in our white robe in front of church and we boldly and brashly professed that we would suffer all, even death rather than fall away – rather than deny or desert our Lord who loves us so much.
But how often haven’t we bailed on Jesus Christ since then?
How often haven’t our actions and words denied any association with this Savior whatsoever?
And what’s so sad is that we’ve done it for a lot lousier reasons than those 11 disciples had.
We haven’t been in fear of our lives, but we’ve laughed along at the off-colored stories at school or on TV, just to fit in – just to be like everyone else.
We’ve joined in with the crowd just to be accepted or to be considered cool.
We spread the lies
Created the gossip
Yelled out the hate.
Or we hear things that we know would not please our Lord, but we often kept such comments to ourselves.
And that is true for all of us far too often.
Maybe we didn’t want to make a scene – a spectacle of ourselves. Maybe we don’t want to be the butt of everyone’s jokes.
Maybe we just don’t care.
How many times can we just imagine Jesus turning and looking straight at us with a look that would convey the questions:
Why didn’t you speak up?
Why did you act like you didn’t know me?
Why did you deny and abandon me?
I truly believe that when we look at so many of our words and our actions, we must admit:
He was wounded…by us!
But praise the Lord, that Jesus was not only wounded by us, but also for us – to heal us spiritually.
He endured the suffering of body and soul – suffering produced by our sin and our rebellion – our denials and sinful words – he endured it all and paid for it all on the cross in order to redeem us- to BUY US BACK from sin and death and the devil.
He was wounded by us, for us to win forgiveness for every man, woman, and child here and who has ever walked on the face of this earth.
As Far as the East is from the West, so far has He removed our sins from us.
Praise be to God!
Even though we DAILY deny Jesus through our words and actions, we can rest in the assurance that He’ll never deny us.
He will never leave us alone and forsaken. Quite the opposite, in fact he says to us- COME TO ME all you who are weak and heavy burdened and I will give you REST!
For those who turn to him in repentance and faith, he will never refuse the grace and peace of His Son here on earth-
Our Crucified and risen savior assures us and all believers that
he will never deny access into the joys of heaven.
By his wounds…we are healed
By grace through faith, we are forgiven children of God and heirs of heaven!
So what do you say to all that?
How do you react?
My friends, I pray that you would let the Love that Jesus showed you on the cross- let that control your thoughts your actions, and your words.
Stop the gossip
End the swearing
Cease taking His name in vein
Stand out as a child of God
Psalm 19- May the WORDS OF MY LIPS be pleasing to you oh God, my rock and my redeemer.
May this be our prayer always
(excerpts of this post were taken from Max Lucado's "Galilean Grace" from MaxLucado.com)
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