Chapter 3: The Courtyard

They led Jesus through the gates of the high priest's house. Peter had followed at a distance through the darkened streets and slipped inside behind the crowd. In the courtyard a charcoal fire burned against the night cold. He sat down among the servants and guards and waited.

A servant girl studied his face in the firelight.

SERVANT GIRL“This man was with him.”— Luke 22:56

PETER“Woman, I do not know him.”— Luke 22:57

He moved away toward the gateway. A little later someone else looked at him.

BYSTANDER“You also are one of them.”— Luke 22:58

PETER“Man, I am not.”— Luke 22:58

An hour passed. The fire crackled. The guards talked. Then a relative of Malchus, the man whose ear Peter had cut off in the garden, looked at him carefully. He had been there. He had seen Peter's face.

RELATIVE“Certainly this man was with him. He is a Galilean — his accent gives him away.”— Luke 22:59, Matthew 26:73

PETER“Man, I do not know what you are saying.”— Luke 22:60

While he was still speaking, a rooster crowed.

At that moment Jesus was being led across the courtyard. He turned and looked straight at Peter. Peter remembered the words from the table — before the rooster crows you will deny me three times. He went outside and wept bitterly by a fire, in a courtyard, before a servant girl and two bystanders.