Chapter 7: The Denial

A servant girl looked at Peter's face across the fire.

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. Another servant saw him there.

SERVANT“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 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“Did I not see you in the garden with Him? Surely you also are one of them, for your speech betrays you.”— John 18:26, 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. And Peter remembered the words Jesus had spoken at the table just hours earlier.

JESUS“Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.”— Luke 22:61

He went outside and wept bitterly.

The rock had not held. It had not cracked slowly under pressure. It had collapsed the moment any weight was placed on it. Peter had discovered something about himself that no amount of confidence or good intentions could have prepared him for. He was not who he thought he was. And now he knew it.