Reticence and reconciliation

Albert Bogle April 16, 2025 5 5

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John 13: 36-38, 18:15-18, 25-27 (NIV)

John 13

36 Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?”

Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.”

37 Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”

38 Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!

John 18

15 Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus. Because this disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard, 16 but Peter had to wait outside at the door. The other disciple, who was known to the high priest, came back, spoke to the servant girl on duty there and brought Peter in.

17 “You aren’t one of this man’s disciples too, are you?” she asked Peter.

He replied, “I am not.”

18 It was cold, and the servants and officials stood around a fire they had made to keep warm. Peter also was standing with them, warming himself.

 

25 Meanwhile, Simon Peter was still standing there warming himself. So they asked him, “You aren’t one of his disciples too, are you?”

He denied it, saying, “I am not.”

26 One of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, challenged him, “Didn’t I see you with him in the garden?”27 Again Peter denied it, and at that moment a rooster began to crow.

We have been describing the the sheer loneliness and abandonment Jesus must have felt as a kind of wilderness experience as each story that unfolds within the biblical narrative of his passion reveals the rejection he encountered. 

Today we come to the story of Peter’s denial. Here we are faced with the reality of loyalty versus self-preservation. This is the moment when Peter came face to face with the deceptiveness of his nature. Somehow he couldn’t stay away from Jesus but on the other hand he couldn’t stay alongside Jesus. When the chips were down he pretended he didn’t know him.

Then on the third occasion of his denials the cock crowed and Peter was awakened to the pain of loved stripped bare, for Luke tells us, on hearing the cock crow, Jesus turned and gazed on Peter and Peter went out and wept bitterly.

Prayer:

Lord,

I’m back again

Following you

Through Holy Week

But too often like Peter

I’m at a distance

I’m looking at Peter 

And I’m looking at You — looking at Peter,

And at that moment 

I see myself

Looking back at you

And I too am weeping bitterly

So many promises

So many confident statements

So many denials

So many cocks have crowed

And I feel lost in a wilderness of denials

Looking for direction

And once again

I’m drawn to the foot of the cross

Uncomfortable — out of place

I feel I shouldn’t be here

Yet you have drawn me 

So today I stand before your cross

Today I lay my world at your feet

Today I kneel 

Today I keep silence

Make no promises

Today I worship

Let me stay here for ever

But you bid me rise up 

To stand up

To live 

To love

To die

To self

Today I ask for courage

To take up my cross

Deny myself

And with these anointed feet

Carry the the good news

“God and sinners reconciled!”