John 18:25-27, Peter Denies Twice More

25 Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, “You also are not one of his disciples, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.” 26 One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Did I not see you in the garden with him?” 27 Peter again denied it, and at once a rooster crowed.

For me, Peter’s denial of knowing Jesus in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, was the most powerful scene in the movie. As Peter and Jesus look each other in the face, I was brought to tears. Gibson took artistic license. None of the gospels records that Jesus could see Peter, but what the scene did was to pull me in, identifying myself with Peter as one who denies the Savior whom I love. Jesus had predicted Peter would deny him before the rooster crowed. Three times Peter denied knowing Jesus to three different people. Fearing for his own life in a hostile environment, Peter’s strength failed him.

It is night. Darkness has engulfed the Light of the World. God had reached out to claim a people of his own through Abraham. He rescued his people from slavery in Egypt and took them into the Promised Land. He gave them kings and prosperity and protection. And yet they failed him again and again. Annas, the high priest, represents the people of God to God, and denies Jesus is Messiah. Peter, the man Jesus said would be the primary builder of his Church, denies knowing Jesus as the Messiah. The drama is reaching its lowest point in the Gospel of John. Jesus has been marginalized by the people he came to save and rejected by his closest friend. It seems as though God is powerless to even save himself. Darkness has engulfed humanity and God seems unable to overcome it.

Lord, in the midst of the darkness, help us to see that you were always in control and always obedient to the will of the Father, even to the point of death on a cross. Amen.