To the One Who Denied Three Times
Jesus Asked Three Times, "Do You Love Me?"
Jesus said to His disciples:
"You will all fall away because of me this night, for it is written, 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.' But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you to Galilee."
Peter said to Jesus, "Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will."
Jesus said to him, "Truly I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will disown me three times."
But Peter insisted, "Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you."
And all the disciples said the same (Mark 14:27-31, Contemporary English Version).
Today, I want to reflect on Jesus’ words to Peter, "Truly I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will disown me three times" (verse 30, CEV), and receive the lesson given:
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As Jesus clearly said, Peter denied Jesus three times:
"Peter denied it before them all, saying, 'I do not know what you are talking about'" (Matthew 26:70),
"Then Peter denied it again, with an oath: 'I do not know the man'" (v. 72),
"And after a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, 'Surely you are one of them; your accent gives you away.' Then he began to call down curses, and he swore to them, 'I do not know the man!' Immediately a rooster crowed" (v. 74).
(a) Peter was thinking of human matters, not God’s work. To follow Jesus, he should have denied himself, taken up his cross, and followed Him (Mark 8:33-34). But when Jesus was arrested, Peter followed at a distance and denied Jesus three times in the courtyard outside the high priest’s house (Matthew 26:47-75).
The disciple who was supposed to deny himself and follow Jesus denied Jesus instead.
(b) After Peter denied Jesus three times, the risen Jesus asked him three times:
“Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”
“Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
“Simon, son of John, do you love me?” (John 21:15,16,17).
Then Jesus gave Peter, who had been called “a fisher of men” (Matthew 1:19), a greater mission:
“Feed my lambs” (John 21:15,17),
“Take care of my sheep” (v. 16).
Thus, God did not waste Peter’s sin of denying Jesus but used him and gave him a greater mission. After the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, Peter was filled with the Spirit (Acts 2:1-4) and empowered to carry out that mission.
(c) Peter denied Jesus three times, but Pilate denied the accusations of the crowd who charged Jesus with a crime deserving death, saying three times:
“This man is innocent” (Luke 23:4),
“I have found no basis for a charge against this man” (v. 14),
“This man has done nothing to deserve death” (v. 15, CEV),
“I find no basis for a charge against this man…” (v. 22).
Both the apostle Peter, Jesus’ disciple, and Governor Pontius Pilate denied three times.
But while Peter denied knowing Jesus three times, Pilate denied three times that Jesus was guilty of a crime deserving death.
(i) However, after Peter denied Jesus three times, he remembered the Lord’s words and wept bitterly (Luke 22:61-62), whereas Pilate, although finding no guilt in Jesus, handed Jesus over to the crowd who shouted loudly for Jesus to be crucified (v. 23), allowing them to have their way (v. 25).
The crowd’s loud call to crucify Jesus was stronger than Pilate’s three denials (v. 23, CEV).
· Although their voices prevailed and Jesus was crucified according to their will, it was God’s will (see Isaiah 53:10).
God’s will was that Christ, who was without sin (Hebrews 4:15), would die once for sinners (1 Peter 3:18, CEV).
“God made him, who had no sin, to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
(2 Corinthians 5:21, CEV)
Jesus did not sin, but he took our sins on himself on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live for what is right.
(1 Peter 2:22,24, CEV)