A Different Take on Peter’s Denial

July 16

Read: Mark 14:53-72

A Different Take on Peter’s Denial

“And Peter had followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest. And he was sitting with the guards and warming himself at the fire…” (v.54)

Peter gets a bad rap. My friend Brian Onken and I were talking about this a while back… we were wrestling with the matter of Peter’s denial. What was it that drove Peter’s denial? We are so often told it was a matter of him “losing nerve” or “being scared”. The passage is often taught as an example of how “even those closest to Jesus are susceptible to giving up / losing faith / or “falling away””. Maybe even we have been told that in that moment Peter was “ashamed” of Jesus. But when you read the account as a part of the larger story, then it takes on a different light.

Look at Peter’s actions leading up to this moment. Peter was opposed to Jesus’ dying… he was adamant that Jesus not be killed. This plan - God’s plan for Christ - made no sense to Peter. (cf. Mark 8:33) In his earthly mind he could not reconcile how the anointed one of God - the Messiah - could usher in the Kingdom of God by being crucified. Peter was very protective of Jesus… and did not want him to suffer or die. Peter’s “plan” was different than Jesus’ plan… his methods of “ushering in the Kingdom of God” where oriented in a different way than Jesus’. Peter had a habit of responding rashly in the moment and taking matters into his own hands.

The synoptic gospels do not tell us who chopped the ear off of the guard when they came to get Jesus. (v.14:47, etc.) I normally do not like to leave the book we are studying to try and import another authors take… if it was important to Mark to ID the sword-chopper… he would have. If God wanted to inspire the name of the swordsman for Mark’s account… we would have it. Nonetheless, If we want to establish the character of Peter… it seems fair to look at all the biblical accounts of Peter. So (reluctantly) if we turn to the gospel of John we read that it was Peter that chopped the guards ear off. (cf. John 18:10,11) This scene establishes once again Peter’s propensity to take matters into his own hands… his propensity to act BOLDLY and rashly to do what HE thinks is right. Peter thinks he is doing something BRAVE, BOLD, and good for Jesus. (This is not the case and Jesus rebukes him for his misunderstanding again.) The point is this: Peter has never displayed himself as someone who is ashamed, afraid, fearful, or unwilling to take a risk for Jesus. In fact, quite the opposite… Peter has consistently acted BOLDLY, BRAVELY, and RADICALLY… albeit misguided by his own ideas of how things should go down.

So now, look at Peter as he follows Jesus all the way to the courtyard. (v.54) Is he ashamed? Is he afraid? Is he trying to hide? If that was really the case… do you think he would tail Jesus all the way into the “belly of the beast”? I don’t think so! That is not Peter’s character. UP until this point, Peter has been fighting against Jesus being killed. Peter has been taking matters into his own hands and leaning on his own understanding of what HE thinks should happen. He has been working against them taking Jesus away and crucifying him. There was a light that went on for me when Brian and I thought through this together… I don’t think Peter was ashamed / scared / fearful / lacking faith… he is not guilty of that. He is guilty of wanting to do things HIS way… take matters into his OWN hands… he is “guilty” of trying to stop Jesus from being killed! He is no more “ashamed” or fearful of Jesus than an embedded spy is “ashamed or fearful” of his country if he denies his origin while undercover. An undercover police officer is not ashamed or afraid of the law or of the police force if he denies being a police officer while working the case undercover! Peter’s real issue is his not trusting JESUS’ PLAN… JESUS’ METHODS.

I think this is a much bigger problem for us as Christians. I know that we may be tempted to “deny Christ” someday if people ask us… but it is probably more an issue for us that we DO NOT TRUST GOD’S PLAN. We are much more prone to “take matters into our own hands” and solve problems the way WE want to than we are to deny Jesus because we are embarrassed. We may have occasional questions of “are you a Christian “ that we will have to answer… but DAILY we have to wrestle with our impetuous nature and desire to do things our own way! That is why this reading of Peter is important. We need to be as committed to not taking matters into our own hands as we are not being ashamed of Jesus! So here’s to Peter maybe not being a chicken after all! Love you guys. - JDP