Ep. 7: Peter Denies Jesus | The Crucifixion of Jesus

On Good Friday, Jesus was arrested and taken to the house of Caiaphas. As he was inside, his disciple Peter was outside. He was asked very directly, do you know this man? In that moment, Peter had to make a decision. Would he associate himself with the man who was currently inside, about to lose his life? Or would he save himself? He chose to save himself. He chose to deny Jesus. We might look at Peter and say, oh what a villain, what a bad guy, surely I would make a different decision. Let's unpack the story of Peter, my friend Jamie, right now. It's Good Friday and we're talking about different people who interacted with Jesus on his last day. And I want to talk to you about Peter. You see, Peter gets a bad rap on this day because he's known for denying Jesus three times. But if we only look at that, if we only look at Peter's denial of Jesus on the last day when so many things were happening, when he was exhausted, then we miss the point of his story. Yes, he denies Jesus. But he's known for so much more. Peter was close to Jesus. When they came to arrest him, Peter pulls out his sword and he slices off the ear of one of the soldiers. And don't get me wrong, Jesus deals with Peter in that moment. And then as all of the dust settles, everyone flees. Peter fled. But Peter finds himself drawn to where they took Jesus. He's sitting in the courtyard in front of a fire like this. I don't know what the conditions were that day, but I'm sitting in rain right now and maybe he was. And this feels, it just feels heavy. It's cold. It's uncomfortable. And I got to believe Peter felt something like this. To the point of exhaustion, he was struggling to stay awake. And now he's sitting in a courtyard around people who are not friends. People who are persecuting this man that he followed, that he loved, that he trusted, that taught him, that he was a savior. And so he's listening to what's happening to Jesus. It's not great. It just isn't. And then all of a sudden, someone comes to him and says, hey, aren't you one of those guys that was with Jesus? Peter does the thing that he's known for. In that moment, that point of exhaustion, the things happening so quickly that he's just overwhelmed and he panics. This isn't an act of cowardice. He didn't set out to deny Jesus. In fact, he just knew that he was going to die if that's what it took.

He was gonna die right alongside Jesus. And so this person says to him, weren't you, weren't you one of his guys? And he denies it. And then another person, and then another person, even to the point of him saying like, no, it's not even possible. And in that third denial, in that third moment, the rooster crows for the second time. And it all rushes back for Peter. He remembers this is exactly what Jesus told him was gonna happen. Jesus told him that before the rooster crows the second time on this night, you will deny me three times. And in that moment, Peter's overwhelmed. He sobs because he realizes the one thing he swore he wouldn't do, the one thing he knew that Jesus could count on him for, he didn't, he didn't come through. So when everything was feeling so overwhelming, and his hope was all seemingly gone, because the thing that he knew the thing that he trusted, was being taken away from him. He panicked. It wasn't cowardice. It was panic. I think I can identify with that moment. I just know how I'm going to respond. I know my principles. I know what I believe. I know what I will stand up before. I know what I am willing to die for. And when it comes time, I have panicked. And maybe you can identify with that. Maybe you can think of you just knew how you were going to respond in that conversation. You just knew how you were going to respond when you were given a choice to make. And you freeze. And you just panic. But there's good news in the story of Peter, because Jesus still died for Peter on that cross. In fact, after Jesus comes back, because that is the good news, we know he comes back, he finds Peter and he makes that situation right. So I just want to tell you, I just want to encourage you, no matter what you are facing, you might feel hopeless, you might feel like you made the wrong decision. You might I feel like you're in that place of panic. Just like Jesus came back and he died for Peter and he came back and made his situation right, he'll do the same for you and he'll do the same for me.