Then the soldiers come, and Peter summons up his courage to show that he's willing to die with Jesus. He gets rebuked for his pains, and all his good work undone.
So after the arrest, he summons up his courage again, and becomes a spy, going with his friend John who has an in at the high priest's place. That doesn't work out very well either; it turns out that being a spy implies the exact denial that he swore he'd never do. And his merely human courage is probably running out about now too as he watches what happens to Jesus.
Peter got a one-on-one visit with Jesus after the Resurrection--mentioned but not described. I wonder if Jesus said anything to him then, or needed to.
I heard a teaching years ago that suggested that Jesus was echoing the triple denial when he asked Peter three times "Do you love me?"
ReplyDeletePeter thought he was the brave one, and in some ways he was. But you name it correctly, that his human courage came to its end.
Personally, I categorically reject the common narrative that Peter denied His Lord out of fear. Time prevents me giving a full explanation just now, but I do not believe that the same Peter - who would never miss a chance to tell his fellow Jews to their face that they had murdered their Messiah - was the least bit bothered by the thought of sharing a cell, or even an execution, with his friend and Master.
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