Accounts of Peter’s denial:

Matthew 26:57-58, 69-75       

Mark 14:53-54, 66-72            

Luke 22:54-62            

John 18:12-13, 15-18

 

 

            There is a series of ads for a pharmaceutical product.  A person who looks totally healthy, follows good diet and exercise, is seen proceeding in a normal fashion.  As the screen caption indicates a high cholesterol reading, the person suddenly collapses as he or she runs into a glass door, trips entering a building, or runs into the team mascot.  The message is intended as a wake-up message.  You may think you are doing fine but you may not be.  Watch out!

 

            To the world the crowing rooster is a wake up call.  It seems that rooster knows an hour ahead of time when the sun is going to come up, when the new day is about to begin.  The old rooster gets to play that part in books and dramatic productions on stage and screen.  “Cock-crowing” was the term given to the third or final watch of the night.  The rooster is the sign of an early riser, an ambitious person.  He is the sign on weathervanes, pointing the direction the wind is blowing at the moment.  A rooster is a sign of newspapers, alerting the public of the events of the day that the edition carries.  To Christians, that rooster is a constant reminder of Peter on the night Jesus was betrayed.

 

            Peter is often portrayed as being a pretty bold, outspoken person.  He was not alone in that regard, as Jesus affectionately called James and John “the sons of thunder.”  Thomas, too, speaks up on occasion.  But it is Peter who steps forward at different times and is the voice of the disciples saying, “Let us build three shelters here,” at the Transfiguration.  “You are the Christ,” he proclaims when Jesus asks, “Who do you say I am.”  No one else dared to walk on the water.  He is bold telling Jesus, “This shall never happen,” when Jesus is explaining the events that are about to unfold in the coming days of his passion.  It is Peter who unleashes the sword trying to defend his Lord in the garden.  And, in the turmoil of the night, ten of the twelve disciples are unaccounted for, but Peter accompanies John right into the courtyard of the high priest, right into the midst of the trumped up trial of Jesus.  Now, how brave can a guy get?  Hours before he had fearlessly declared that he would follow Jesus, even to his death.

 

            A simple servant girl asks the simple question, “Aren’t you one of them?” 

Does Peter respond like this?  “Now hear this!  This Jesus you have dragged in here, he is an innocent man.  He hasn’t done anything wrong.  You guys are in this for your own gain and that alone.  Release him before I let the world know what you are really up to here.  Let him go.  For the sake of the God of our fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and if not for God’s sake, for your own decency release him.  If you don’t, there are hundreds, yes there are thousands in this town right now that when they hear what you are up to will run you out.  Why, if this were the late nineteenth century in America, they would tar and feather you and ride you out of town on a rail!”

 

            Well, it didn’t happen that way, did it?  It was a servant girl, no one of real importance.  Who would believe her anyway?  But Peter denied her the same.  All of a sudden his demeanor changed.  He wasn’t strutting around like a proud rooster in the barnyard.  He was retreating like a whipped pup with his tail between his legs, cowering from one corner to the next, afraid of being seen, of being beaten. 

 

            When is the last time you had a chance to tell someone about Jesus?  Was it at the Post Office waiting in line?  Was it over coffee with a friend or neighbor?  Was it someone you do not know who quietly said, “God bless you,” as you passed in the aisle at Jewell or Dominick’s and you quietly slipped away, at most muttering a thinly disguised, “Thank you..”  It’s easy to cry out, “Put prayer back in the schools!” while being afraid to offer a prayer before meals in a restaurant or when a visitor is at your home.  When are the last times you played “Peter” and denied your Lord in something you thought, said, or did?  Or did you deny him by what you put out of your thoughts, or did not say or do?

 

            When the rooster crowed, Peter went out and wept bitterly.  He knew who Jesus really is.  He knew what Jesus had been talking about the past couple of weeks.  He knew what he had said earlier the evening before.  And he knew what he had said and not said in the last few minutes.  He knew he had failed his Lord and his God.  Weeping bitterly, he put the blame on himself.  Weeping bitterly, he did not give up.  Weeping bitterly he did not leave other disciples through the next day.  Weeping bitterly, he did not hesitate to run to see for himself an empty tomb.  Weeping bitterly, there was a small glimmer of hope, a thin bit of faith that what Jesus had predicted, would come true.  There was a recall of the messages his Lord had been preaching since the first day he met, repent for the kingdom is near. 

 

            When that rooster crowed, it woke Peter up.  It woke him up not just for a Friday morning.  It woke him up for the rest of his life.  He did not stop being the bold, confident Peter people knew.  He ran to the tomb.  He sprinted out of the boat through the waste-deep water to greet his Lord at the shore.  He professed three times, “Lord, you know that I love you.”  He stood confidently on the temple steps a month and a half later and spoke to thousands who could just as well overrun him and the others.  He spoke brilliantly and boldly to the temple leaders.

 

            And, as a rooster, he still had some foul-ups (pardon the pun) as he slipped up under peer pressures as Paul records.  But he never again denies Christ his savior.  Instead he steps forward to boldly crow as a rooster, not bragging in himself, but proclaiming Jesus as the Christ, the savior, the way and the truth and the life. 

 

            When you hear the rooster crowing, what are you doing then that denies your savior?  When you hear the rooster crowing, it is the wake-up call to weep bitterly in repentance and in trust, faith that Jesus does forgive and restore you as he did Peter.  When you hear the rooster crowing, remember Jesus who washed not just your feet at the table, but all of your sins in baptism, making you one with God again.  When you hear the rooster crowing, remember those words, “This is my body…my blood…given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.”  When the rooster crows, remember the promise that those “…faithful, even to the point of death…will receive the crown of life.”  [Rev. 2:10]

 

            When you hear the rooster crowing, remember the Good News for Peter and for you that God forgives, even those who deny him three or three hundred times, as they repent, crying out for his mercy today and forever. 

 

Psalm 116:4-6

Then I called on the name of the LORD:

"O LORD, save me!"

The LORD is gracious and righteous;

our God is full of compassion.

The LORD protects the simplehearted;

when I was in great need, he saved me.

 

 

            Amen.