“Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard,
and a servant girl came to him. ‘You
also were with Jesus of Galilee,’ she said.
But he denied it before them all.
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ he said. Then he went out to the gateway, where
another girl saw him and said to the people there, ‘This fellow was with Jesus of
Nazareth.’ He denied it again, with an
oath: ‘I don’t know the man!’ 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.’ Then he began to call down
curses on himself and he swore to them, ‘I don’t know the man!’ Immediately a rooster crowed. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had
spoken: ‘Before the rooster crows, you
will disown me three times.’ And he went
outside and wept bitterly.” (Matthew 26:69-75)
Peter was a brave man. He had already proven that in the garden when
he drew his sword and struck one of those who had come to arrest Jesus. He was willing to fight and die to protect
Jesus. He proved it again just by
following Jesus to the house of the high priest and entering the courtyard to
be near Jesus and to see if there was some way he could help.
Why was Peter there? Was he there just to see what would happen to
Jesus? Was he there in case there was an
opportunity to free Jesus by force? I
don’t know what motivated Peter to follow Jesus, but I do know that he was
brave enough to be there, when most of the other apostles were not.
So why did he deny Jesus? His courage failed him when he was actually
confronted. Or perhaps he was trying to hide his identity in order to be able
to stay near Jesus in case he could be of some help.
Whatever the reasoning behind the denials,
they were wrong and as soon as the rooster’s reminder of Jesus’ words came,
Peter knew he had done wrong. It’s never
right to deny Jesus. Peter was wrong,
even if he was trying to do something right.
God won’t have us accomplish something right by doing something wrong!
His, by Grace,
Steve
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