Jesus Stood Slone Before His Condemners

What Did Jesus Do?

The servant girl said to Peter, “You also are not one of this man’s disciples, are you?”
He said, “I am not.”
John 18.17

When Peter had declared that he was prepared and willing to lay down his life for Jesus, the Lord had predicted that before the hour of the cock’s crowing the brash disciple would not only not lay down his life, he would distance himself from Christ by three times denying that he was a follower of the Lord (See John 13.36-38). Now, in the courtyard of the high priest, the Shepherd stood alone, separated from his flock, as Peter, given three opportunities to identify himself with the Lord, each time denied any association with Jesus (John 18.17, 25-26).

I don’t know that I have ever heard anyone attribute Peter’s thrice-repeated denials as anything other than a failure of his faith at a time of severe testing, and a lack of courage in the face of possible arrest and execution. But none of the accounts in the four Gospels mention flagging faith, or cowardice inducing fear, as motivation for the denials. Whatever the reason for his denials, the Synoptic Gospels alike report that they moved Peter to bitter weeping (Matthew 26.75; Mark 14.72; Luke 22.62), while John makes no mention of any tears (John 18.27). Personally, I am not about to accuse Peter of cowardice, aware as I am of the times I have failed the Lord, which number far more than three. Perhaps Peter was guilty of loving his own life more than he loved Jesus, but when Christ later questioned Peter regarding how much he loved the Lord, the disciple capitalized on the opportunity to affirm what it appeared he had three times denied—as many times as Jesus asked, Peter confirmed that he indeed loved the Lord. Even more, the manner in which the Apostle would die added even stronger testimony as to his loyalty and love for Jesus, and those whom Jesus loved (see John 21.15-19).

Additionally, we know it caused the Lord himself no little anguish, and bitter tears as well, to submit to the Father’s will for his life (see Matthew 26.37, 39, 42; Mark 14.33-36; Luke 22.41-44). As it was the Father’s will that his Son alone should suffer and die for the sins of the world, I might even be inclined to say that Peter was passing a severe testing of his faith by denying Jesus, that the apostle’s denials were the Father’s will; Peter may have been quite willing to die with Jesus, yet constrained himself to deny the Lord so that the will of the Father would be done, and the Lamb of God alone would be sacrificed on the Cross. I believe I might call down curses upon myself if my faith actually required me to deny the Lord.

Peter had heard the Lord’s repeated predictions of his coming death; is it too much for us to consider that Peter, though he was willing to die with the Lord, reluctantly denied Jesus? Remember, it was Peter who was willing to single-handedly take up a sword in defense of Jesus and face an armed mob (John 18.10). Shusaku Endo’s novel, Silence, is a moving and powerful tale of a priest whose faith found its greatest expression in denying Jesus, and the priest’s own bitter tears of anguish and self-reproach are, perhaps as with Peter, an expression of love surmounting faith’s greatest test. While the other ten Apostles deserted Jesus, it was Peter who was called upon to deny the Lord. And I, for one, am willing to affirm that this may have been a triumph, rather than a failure, of faith, for it was the will of the Father that Jesus stood alone before his condemners.

As the Son, the Lamb of God, silently stood alone before those who condemned him, so too Peter, the Rock upon whom Christ would build his Church, wept alone for the Lord he loved yet had denied.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4