The Dread Rooster

Welcome to your weekend! I'm glad you want to hear from God as you kick it off. So do I, so let's gather up and blend into the crowd of onlookers in John 18:12-27. It's a dark and ominous night, and the darkness is making its best attempt to engulf the Light of the world. What do you see or hear? I can't read this without putting myself in Peter's sandals.

He was there at the place of the first mock trial for one reason. He was deeply concerned about Jesus and what might happen to him. He wanted to stay close by and witness what took place. All but two of the disciples had scattered. But as he tries his best to blend in with the other onlookers, people just won't leave him alone. "You're not his follower, are you?" "You're not one of his crew, are you?" "I remember seeing you with him."

He replied, "I am not."

He denied it, saying, "I am not."

Again Peter denied it... (v. 17, 25, 27)

Oh, the pressure! I can imagine it building, pressing down on Peter. Sometimes our best intentions go awry. Have you ever done the one thing you never thought you'd do? For Peter, this was it. He had adamantly promised that he would stand by Jesus and even go to his death with him. Even when Jesus predicted just an hour or two earlier that Peter would deny him three times before dawn, there was no way Peter could believe that about himself. He was sold out to Jesus, in it to the end.

But not now. He had gone and done it. The sound of that rooster crowing must have been thunderous in Peter's ears. Failure. Guilt. Shame. The haunting question: "How could I have done this?" There is no lonelier place on earth. It's amazing how far we can fall even when we have the best intentions in the world.

My takeaway from this hauntingly familiar scene is that I can never imagine myself to be exempt from human brokenness and temptation. We feel betrayed when our heroes fall. But that's only because we see our own failure in them--people we thought were above us. But I see something else here. The absolute epitome of failure doesn't have to be fatal. This could have been the end of the story for Peter. He could have checked out like Judas did. But I know that he didn't. This is the same man who got to be the first to proclaim to the masses the fact of Jesus' resurrection and call them to faith in him. While I would never want to stand where Peter stood again and hear the rooster's crow in my own life, there is grace and there is mercy and God is a God of second chances...even when we've done the one thing we never thought we would do. Thank you, Jesus!

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