Day 19: Three Times

4th Wednesday in Lent

Scripture: John 18:26-27, Matthew 26:73-75, Luke 22:59-62

^{NRS 26} One of the slaves 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 Again Peter denied it, and at that moment the cock crowed.

^{NRS 73}After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, "Certainly you are also one of them, for your accent betrays you." ⁷⁴ Then he began to curse, and he swore an oath, "I do not know the man!" At that moment the cock crowed. ⁷⁵ Then Peter remembered what Jesus had said: "Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times." And he went out and wept bitterly.

^{NRS 59}Then about an hour later still another kept insisting, "Surely this man also was with him; for he is a Galilean." ⁶⁰ But Peter said, "Man, I do not know what you are talking about!" At that moment, while he was still speaking, the cock crowed. ⁶¹ The Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, "Before the cock crows today, you will deny me three times." ⁶² And he went out and wept bitterly.

Devotional: Just as Jesus predicted, Peter denied Him three times before the cock crowed. Redemption will come at a resurrection breakfast on the shore of Galilee, but in the courtyard Peter wept bitterly. With each account, we get more and more detail. We discover the final accuser was a relative of Malchus. The timeline had an hour lapse between the second and third denial. Peter cursed before the third denial. A look from Jesus as the cock crowed cured Peter’s memory loss. Peter made his third denial, the cock crowed, he remembered and headed out weeping bitterly. Where was he going? Was he fleeing the accusers? Could he not bear the presence of the Holy One? Had the reality of his wilted faith shamed him to the point of needing to escape? The answer to any of these questions will always be mere speculation, because none of the accounts tell us where he went or why. They simply record that he went. As we interpret the scriptures based on our own experience, the speculative answers are probably, “Yes.” We are no different than Peter. When we are faced with our own public, predictable failures, we can’t stand the gaze of onlookers any more than we can stand the gaze in the mirror. A sympathetic look from our Lord, would be cause to flee. Lost in the depth of bitter weeping, we often make the mistake to think that escape is our only option. Failing in the presence of the one who predicted our failure seems unendurable and very final, but failure is never the finale. Peter had to experience the fullness of his failure to accept the grace-filled freedom of beach breakfast redemption. Failure humbled him, but it set him on the road to bold humility. The same is true for each of us. If we are ministering to a broken world, at times, we are going to fail. Our failure humbles us to receive God’s forgiveness and grace which will empower us to even greater ministry in the future.

Prayer: Lord free us from the guilt and shame of today’s failures, so tomorrow, we can receive Your grace in its fullest, Amen!

Song of praise:          Grace Flows Down by Christy Nockels

                                                

Spiritual discipline challenge: Today find time to pray and weep over your failures, so you can be freed from their burdens and open to receive God’s grace.