One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of him whose ear Peter cut off, said, “Did I not see you in the garden with Him?” Peter then denied again, and immediately a rooster crowed. John 18:26-27
One of the hardest lessons a Christian can learn is that they were all wrong in their thoughts of the Savior. Human reasoning fills our head with the physical knowledge before us and we start to look at life’s situation through the lens of human reasoning.
God doesn’t operate in that realm, but in the unseen spiritual. Our disciple, Peter had just realized how painfully wrong he was to doubt the words of Jesus when they were spoken: Jesus answered him, “Will you lay down your life for My sake? Most assuredly, I say to you, the rooster shall not crow till you have denied Me three times. John 13:38 The truth of Jesus reveals an un-surrendered part of our hearts. We argue with God rather than surrender and try to explain to him that his assessment just can’t be so. Jesus must be wrong, after all, he knows I love him Peter must have thought. Maybe so, but there is a part of our human nature that has to be exposed. Not for the purpose of punishment, but for greatness.
What do you mean, “Greatness”. The theme of our journey is to be made more into the image of Christ: For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Romans 8:29 The only way to make this happen is to allow ourselves to be placed in the winepress of the Holy Spirit. As Christians, we become ever so aware of our human frailties through this process. We look to Jesus to take out the parts of us that will not yield to the Lord’s working in our lives. We say to him, “There’s no way I’d ever do this or that” but, that is exactly what we do.
When we humble ourselves before God we allow whatever seems fitting to the Savior to be done in us so we can be an exact representation of Christ we were designed to be. When Peter came to the point of humility he realized he was wrong and although his fellow disciples tried to comfort him it was too late. He probably thought his ministry days are over. His Christian walk was now done away with, but the word greatness again is now being proclaimed.
You see Jesus always sees us at the endpoint rather than the current. Jesus already knew that Peter would one day be standing up in front of thousands and boldly proclaim the gospel to all on that day of Pentecost. For that day to occur Peter needed to deal with the unsurrendered parts of his heart in order to prepare him for something greater. In order to prepare Peter for greatness, the Lord had to walk with him through this very difficult time in Peter’s life. The experience of denying him three times never left his writing all the days of his life. Peter could point out the love of Jesus and the grace and mercy of our Lord and Savior because he lives it out. Jesus did not scold him nor belittle him when he was restored because Jesus wasn’t looking at his faults but to the greatness in him.