You can’t hide
A little while later the bystanders accused Peter again, ‘You can’t deny that you are one of them, because you, too, are from Galilee’.
Then Peter said, ‘I swear that I am telling the truth! May God punish me if I am not! I do not know the man you are talking about!’
Just then a rooster crowed a second time, and Peter remembered how Jesus had said to him, ‘Before the rooster crows twice, you will say three times that you do not know me’. And he broke down and cried.
(verses 70b-72)
Read Mark 14:66-72
You can run but you can’t hide, so the saying goes. No-one likes to be hauled over the coals. Stubborn human nature has a canny way of justifying itself. Sin has a clever way of covering its tracks. But, in the end, truth always finds you out. Truth, it seems, found Peter out. His two-faced game of lies finally caught up with him. What was it that brought him to his senses? What was it that undid his self-defence and brought him to tears of repentance?
Was it accusation that exposed his errors? No. The pointed finger only deepened his defences. Was it honest introspection? No. Peter’s most solemn declaration was a blasphemous lie. It was the word of Jesus. His word is always true. His word brings the darkest secrets to light. And, sure enough, when ‘Peter remembered ‘ that word, his defences collapsed. His doubletalk dissolved. Peter didn’t know it yet, but he wasn’t just found out. He was found.
Oft are hardened sinners, Lord, struck with terror by thy word;
but to those who for sin grieveth, comfort sweet and hope it giveth.
by Adam Cooper, in ‘New Strength for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 1998)
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