Facing Jesus #2 - Simon Peter
Matthew Mark Luke John
Words of Jesus are underlined
Ready, shoot, aim. That’s the Bible’s picture of Simon. When Jesus first called him to be His disciple, He gave him the name, “Peter,” which means “Rock.” Too often during the days that he followed Jesus, he was more like limp spaghetti. How did Peter face Jesus? How did his experiences lead him to finally stop telling Jesus what to do and start listening to Him? What was it that made Peter different from Judas?
How do you face Jesus? In what ways are you denying Him publicly just to spare yourself from being judged by others? What hope do we have to change?
Jesus Washes His Disciples’ Feet
Jesus knew that the Father had given everything into his hands, that he had come from God, and that he was going back to God. So he got up from supper, laid aside his outer clothing, took a towel, and tied it around himself. Next, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet and to dry them with the towel tied around him.
He came to Simon Peter, who asked him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
Jesus answered him, “What I’m doing you don’t realize now, but afterward you will understand.” “You will never wash my feet,” Peter said. Jesus replied, “If I don’t wash you, you have no part with me.”
Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.”
“One who has bathed,” Jesus told him, “doesn’t need to wash anything except his feet, but he is completely clean. You are clean, but not all of you.” For he knew who would betray him. This is why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
Jesus Predicts Peter’s Betrayal
Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will fall away, because it is written: I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.
But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.”
Peter told him, “Even if everyone falls away because of you, I will never fall away.”
“Simon, Simon, look out. Satan has asked to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And you, when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” But he replied, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.”
“Will you lay down your life for me? Truly I tell you, Peter,” Jesus said to him, “today, this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.”
But he kept insisting, “If I have to die with you, I will never deny you.” And they all said the same thing.
Jesus Gets Arrested
Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it, struck the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.)
At that, Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword away! Am I not to drink the cup the Father has given me?”
Jesus, Followed by Peter, is Taken to the High Priest
They led Jesus away to the high priest, and all the chief priests, the elders, and the scribes assembled. Peter followed him at a distance, right into the high priest’s courtyard. He was sitting with the servants, warming himself by the fire.
Peter’s Denials
Then the servant girl who was the doorkeeper said to Peter, “You aren’t one of this man’s disciples too, are you? You also were with Jesus, the man from Nazareth.”
But he denied it: “I am not.” he said. “I don’t know or understand what you’re talking about.” Then he went out to the entryway, and a rooster crowed.
When he had gone out to the gateway, another woman saw him and said, “You’re one of them too.” She began to tell those standing nearby, “This man is one of them.” And again he denied it with an oath: “I don’t know the man!”
About an hour later, one of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, said, “Didn’t I see you with him in the garden?”
Those standing there said to Peter again, “You certainly are one of them, since you’re also a Galilean.”
Then he started to curse and swear, “I don’t know this man you’re talking about!” Immediately a rooster crowed a second time, then the Lord turned and looked at Peter, and Peter remembered when Jesus had spoken the word to him, “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.
(John 13:3–11; Mark 14:27–29; Matthew 26:33; Luke 22:31–34; John 13:38; Mark 14:30–31; John 18:10–11; Mark 14:53–54; John 18:17; Mark 14:67–68; John 18:17; Mark 14:68; Matthew 26:71; Luke 22:58; Mark 14:69; Matthew 26:72; Luke 22:59; John 18:26; Mark 14:70–72; Luke 22:61; Matthew 26:75 CSB17)
How many times in these readings is Peter telling Jesus what to do? How did that work out for him?
In what ways have you been telling Jesus what to do instead of listening to Him?
Why do you think it took the rooster crowing twice for Peter to remember “the word Jesus had spoken to him?”
Peter’s denials of Jesus are shocking in the light of Jesus’ direct warning. It’s easy to be shocked at somebody else’s failure. In what ways have you been denying Jesus just to spare yourself somebody’s criticism of your Christian faith?
When is the last time you “wept bitterly” over your denials of Jesus?
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