Luke 22
Then took they him, and led him, and brought him into the
high priest's house. And Peter followed afar off.
55 And when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the
hall, and were set down together, Peter sat down among them.
56 But a certain maid beheld him as he sat by the fire, and
earnestly looked upon him, and said, This man was also with him.
57 And he denied him, saying, Woman, I know him not.
58 And after a little while another saw him, and said, Thou
art also of them. And Peter said, Man, I am not.
59 And about the space of one hour after another confidently
affirmed, saying, Of a truth this fellow also was with him: for he is a
Galilaean.
60 And Peter said, Man, I know not what thou sayest. And
immediately, while he yet spake, the cock crew.
61 And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter
remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock
crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.
62 And Peter went out, and wept bitterly.
Peter remembered what the Lord had said to him. How crushed
he must have felt, how low and unworthy and just terribly horrible. He might
have been a place as dark as the place Judas found himself, faced with his own
weakness and the shame, and all the while knowing that his Lord whom he truly did
love was captured and suffering and who knew what was going to happen. Peter
wept bitterly. Bitterly... when he
remembered what the Lord said to him.
But the time came, after the sharpest edge of bitterness
left him, when he remembered again. And as his mind fumbled over that time when
the Lord spoke those fateful words, it dawned on him that that isn’t all that
the Lord had said. And he remembered...
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that
he may sift you as wheat:
But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and
when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.”
Sometimes the pain and the shame block the remembrance of
the promises the Lord has made to us. After the grieving, there is always hope.
