_edited.png)
In the movie, Popeye, Popeye ponders over how to impress the love of his life, Miss Olive Oil. During a scene of worry and soul-searching, Popeye asks, “What am I? Some kind of judge or lawyer or doctor? What am I? Well, I sho' ain’t no physicists but, I knows what matters to me, and, “I know you don’t have to be no fish to know when you’re floundering.” And, on that awful Thursday night, y’all, despite Peter’s emotional declaration in verse 35 of this same chapter – “even if I have to die with you, Jesus, I will not deny you!” – Peter realized that he, too, was floundering.
Jesus and Peter had history. If someone had asked him that morning if he was one of Jesus’ disciples, Peter would have boasted, “I’m not just one of His disciples, I am His main man, His boy!” And, the fact that, according to John 18, Peter was the disciple who cut off the soldier’s ear in the Garden of Gethsemane is proof that Peter meant what he said. This was the Peter who, in Matthew, chapter 14, trusted Jesus enough to step onto the Sea of Galilee and walk on water towards Jesus. And, on that occasion in Matthew, chapter 16, when Jesus asked the disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” without hesitation, it was Peter who spoke up and accurately declared, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God!” So, while it is obvious that Peter knew the Lord, on this night, when the servant girl insisted, “You also were with Jesus,” our text provides us with the disappointing truth that Peter denied knowing Jesus before them all.
And, please permit me to take a moment right here to establish that denial is not always intentional. Sometimes, denial is a “this just can’t be happening! And if it is happening, it just can’t be happening to me” reaction to some catastrophic event in our lives. It is that “man in the mirror or woman in the mirror” moment when a person’s painful reflection of his or her own guilt and shame feels like a knife penetrating the soul.
And, let us be clear that although Peter’s denial caught him by surprise, it did not catch Jesus by surprise. In fact, nothing catches Jesus by surprise. Jesus prophesied in verse 34 that before the rooster crowed, Peter would surely turn his back on him… that night.
Let us also understand that the one who was hurt most by the denial was not Jesus, but Peter. Why? Because the denial conflicted with who Peter thought he was. And, my sisters and my brothers, when who we think we are conflicts with the ugly truth of who we actually are, the revelation of that conflict can cause so much damage to our spiritual stability, that very essence of who we are is potentially at risk…