66 While Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came by. 67 When she saw Peter warming himself, she looked closely at him.
“You also were with that Nazarene, Jesus,” she said.
68 But he denied it. “I don’t know or understand what you’re talking about,” he said, and went out into the entryway.
69 When the servant girl saw him there, she said again to those standing around, “This fellow is one of them.” 70 Again he denied it.
After a little while, those standing near said to Peter, “Surely you are one of them, for you are a Galilean.”
71 He began to call down curses, and he swore to them, “I don’t know this man you’re talking about.”
72 Immediately the rooster crowed the second time. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows twice you will disown me three times.” And he broke down and wept.
-Mark 14:66-72
Jesus called it. A while back, he predicted Peter’s betrayal. He knew that Peter was going to deny knowing Jesus due to the danger surrounding Jesus’ arrest. This is in addition to the fact that Peter abandoned Jesus when Jesus was being arrested. Peter ran away when Jesus needed his friends the most. Talk about a backstab.
While I never been in Peter’s situation, I know living in a more anti-religious or anti-Christian part of America can definitely add pressure for me to deny my faith by subtly hiding it. I’m slow to tell my colleagues that I’m a Christian. I’ve been working now for 16 years so I think most people know by now, but it’s not like it was something I wanted people to know off the bat. When there are discussions I disagree with as a Christian, I tend to stay silent rather than speak up and offer respectively a different perspective.
Maybe you feel the same way at school. Perhaps there are times when you feel embarrassed by your Christian faith or even afraid for others to find out that you’re a Christian because they will judge you a certain way.
This passage is a good reminder to you and me that in the midst of struggling with how we can engage an unbelieving world, Jesus still loves us and desires to help us grow in our faith. This timid Peter who abandoned and denied Jesus would later be martyred for his faith. Historians say that Peter would die for proclaiming Jesus by being crucified and even requested to be crucified upside down for he considered it unworthy to die the same exact way Jesus died.
God’s not done with me yet. God’s not done with you yet. May that encourage us.
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