The Denial Scene
Why did Peter deny Jesus? During the last Supper, Jesus said to the disciples in verse 28, “You are those who have stood by me in my trials.” They gave everything to follow Jesus, and were sure they would continue to. Yet later during the same meal, as Mark 14:27 records, Jesus also told them, “You will all fall away, for it is written: ’I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’” But Peter, typically the first to move among the twelve, was the first to say that he would never disown Jesus, followed by the others in Mark 14:31.
All of them, maybe even especially Peter, had good cause for confidence, for they knew exactly who Jesus was. In Matthew 16:16, after Jesus asked all of them “Who do you say I am?” Peter was the disciple who first answered that Jesus is the Son of the living God. Jesus then used Peter’s answer to teach the rest of the disciples this fact.
Remember that these men endured much with Jesus. They suffered with Jesus. They saw Jesus demonstrate His Lordship over nature. They saw Jesus multiply bread, a material object, to feed the hungry. They saw Jesus overthrow the dominions of thousands of demons and heal the sick. They even saw Jesus raise the dead! They had been right there for all of these and more, and Peter had done his best to be the closest. So of course Peter was confident nothing could sway him from Jesus’ side. Of course he meant it when he earlier told Jesus that he was ready to “go with Him to prison and to death.” Looking back at their track record, there seemed no chance that any of them could get rocked at all, let alone Peter; and especially not that he would completely abandon Jesus three times back to back to back. After all this, how could a man walking so insistently close to Jesus’ side suddenly fall back to “following Jesus at a distance” as verse 54 states?
The truth is that Peter’s downfall had long been hanging onto him, waiting for this very moment to cause him to stumble.
What happened just before Peter’s first denial? A horde of men composed of the chief priests, the Pharisees, and a detachment of soldiers armed to the teeth came to arrest Jesus to put an end to Him. Peter was one of only two disciples bearing a sword. They were vastly outnumbered, but Peter still, at this point, did not lack faith in the Lord’s power; so despite being vastly outnumbered by arms, Peter was aggressive and cut the right ear off one of the men. Peter wanted a battle. Peter wanted to fight to the death to defend and protect Jesus, his Lord. As noble as it may sound, this was not an act of faith. This action proceeded from a stumbling block which Peter and the rest of the disciples tripped over at Jesus’ capture and which they did not fully overcome until Christ’s resurrection. Peter’s faith was stuck in a human perception of what he thought the role of messiah ought to be. Peter wanted to stop the crucifixion. That is why he cut off the man’s ear. John 18:11 proves this. Jesus rebuked Peter for cutting off the man’s ear and commanded him, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” In other words, Jesus corrected Peter for trying to stand between Jesus and the crucifixion.
Recall now, Jesus’ unforgettably stern rebuke of Peter back in Matthew 16. For context, Peter had just confessed that Jesus is the Son of God. Then, Jesus used Peter’s understanding of this to teach the rest of the apostles the same. Being that they all understood this now, Jesus informed the disciples of how The Son of God must be turned over to the religious leaders to be killed. Then, consumed by his own understanding of what God’s plan for the messiah must be, Peter actually pulled Jesus aside and rebuked Jesus saying, “Never Lord! This shall never happen to you.” To which Jesus then replied, “Get behind me Satan. You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
Peter had been hanging onto this stumbling block since this moment, the very moment Jesus first told him that the messiah must be killed. This was Peter’s sin, that he did not trust God’s plan for the Christ’s crucifixion. It was a stumbling block to Peter, just as it was and still is to the majority of Jews to this day. That is why when Jesus was struck, the disciples scattered, abandoning him. For the Jews had long been awaiting an eternal king to liberate them from their history of empirical oppression. Thus, the messiah couldn’t die! Not according to what they wanted. And He especially couldn’t die by the hands of their Gentile oppressors, and in the most shameful way, nailed to a crucifix! This is the very thing Paul wrote about in 1 Corinthians 1:23, when he wrote, “but we preach Christ crucified: [which is] a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” There is no coincidence that Jesus and Paul applied this very same term, stumbling block, referring to the crucifixion of Jesus.
Recall now that Peter’s name is actually Simon. Simon is Hebrew for “listening” or “hearing”. So Simon Peter chopped off the man’s ear to stop the crucifixion, because his own ears had not been fully opened when Jesus taught them that He must be killed. How did Jesus respond to Peter’s aggressive action of defending Him? Did Jesus also fight back against the chief priests and their soldiers, who were hellbent on killing the Messiah? No. Jesus healed the man’s ear while rebuking Peter for impeding the crucifixion. That is when Peter’s plans became invalidated, and his faith nearly completely failed. Simon Peter could not reconcile his own understanding with the shameful death of the King of the Jews at the hands of Gentiles. He could not see past this dark day’s triumph of darkness over the greatest light.
Yet, it is as Jesus said to Peter earlier that night. He warned Peter of Satan’s plans saying, ”Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. 32 But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
And that is why Peter and his brothers were able to get back up and establish the body of Christ which includes us here in this room 2,000 years later; because Jesus prayed for Simon, the one who couldn’t bear to hear that the messiah must die. The one who didn’t listen when Jesus told him to watch and pray. The one who didn’t listen when Jesus said, “Get behind me Satan” and instead stood in front of Jesus when the time came for Him to be crucified. Peter only saw the look Jesus gave him after the third denial…. But Peter eventually heard Him three times after the resurrection when Jesus asked, “Simon, do you love me? Simon, do you love me? Simon, do you love me?”
Jesus hangs onto us, and not the other way around. And I thank God for this, that His grip is stronger than ours. If you stumble like Peter; if you have a block in your faith because you are in the midst of a night in which darkness reigns, pray that God will open your ears to hear His plans instead of your own, for He can bring glorious light out of darkness. If you still cannot hear, ask Jesus to pray to the Father for you, that your faith will not fail. Christ will hold you fast.
That whole time Peter’s faith was lacking, Jesus lacked no strength. Little then did Peter, the disciples, and even all the Jews know, how much better it is for us that Jesus, our God, willingly went to die. There is nothing greater that God could have done for you than to die on that cross. Peter didn’t yet understand that Jesus was defeating death and separation on our behalf. Jesus was defeating our darkness, the deep darkness holding us, by unraveling it from its deepest point. Jesus didn’t need to do this. He already dwells in unapproachable light, but He loves us too much. He wants you with Him, but to be with Him, your old self needs to die with Him as He died your accursed death, then, you must be born again into His eternally blessed resurrection. So now, we who follow Jesus in life and death shall triumph over our own suffering and our own graves, because Jesus triumphed greatly over His and He will also do so in us.