Following at a Distance

And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly. (Luke 22:54–65)

Our passage follows the betrayal of Jesus with a kiss from Judas. Now, as Jesus is seized and kept under guard at the high priest’s house, we can only imagine the shock and fear that Peter and the other disciples must have felt. Peter, who had violently resisted the temple troops to prevent Jesus’ arrest just hours before, now follow “at a distance”, trying to blend into the crowd. Jesus had predicted in the garden that same night that Peter would deny Him three times before the crowing of the rooster (Mathew 26). When Jesus had confronted him in the garden, Peter boldly contradicted Jesus, almost boasting that he would die before betraying Jesus. How quickly Peter’s mindset and attitude changes to self-preservation once the stakes are raised, he is recognised as one of the disciples by a girl in the crowd. It’s shocking to see that Peter’s denial of Jesus is just as immediate and vehement as his defence of Jesus that same night. Then Peter not only doubles down, but then he triples down, denying Jesus three times.

What could possibly have led to this complete reversal? The sad truth is that we are a lot like Peter. We rely on ourselves too much until times get tough, and then we find ourselves in trouble. We are proud to call ourselves Christians, but we often fail to do many things that would protect us in times of trial and temptation.

We know that spending time in prayer, Scripture reading, and worship can guard against sin and protect us with spiritual armour. Still, we often don’t make those things the top priority of our “busy” lives. The fact that Peter, who spent every day with Jesus, could still fall victim to pride and over-confidence should be very sobering to those of us today who walk “at a distance.”

Undoubtedly, Peter was influenced by his surroundings in the crowd—just as we are influenced by the world, we live in today. Suppose we don’t anchor our hearts and minds in the Gospel. In that case, we, like Peter, can be easily swept away and overcome by the currents of a material culture that surrounds us and crowds into our lives every day. Fortunately for us, we worship a God who seeks a relationship with us each and every day and who will protect us!

LET US PRAY - Lord, help us to rely on Your strength, not our own. Help us to maintain a close walk with You daily. Let us understand that we are weak and that all of us can easily be overcome by sin if we allow pride and overconfidence to govern our lives. In Jesus' name. Amen.