Foolish Games

Luke 22:54-62 The Message

54Arresting Jesus, they marched him off and took him into the house of the Chief Priest. Peter followed, but at a safe distance. 55In the middle of the courtyard some people had started a fire and were sitting around it, trying to keep warm. 56One of the serving maids sitting at the fire noticed him, then took a second look and said, "This man was with him!"

57He denied it, "Woman, I don't even know him."

58A short time later, someone else noticed him and said, "You're one of them."

But Peter denied it: "Man, I am not."

59About an hour later, someone else spoke up, really adamant: "He's got to have been with him! He's got "Galilean' written all over him."

60Peter said, "Man, I don't know what you're talking about." At that very moment, the last word hardly off his lips, a rooster crowed. 61Just then, the Master turned and looked at Peter. Peter remembered what the Master had said to him: "Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times." 62He went out and cried and cried and cried.

We must’ve all once known what it was like to be caught by our own blissful ignorance, puffed-up arrogance and foolish pride. The Master’s piercing gaze caught Peter right at this moment, and he remembered his bold proclamations of loyalty and love to Jesus.

Yet, I notice that it wasn’t Jesus’ heart that broke, but Peter’s own. I suppose Jesus is never quite sorry for the mistakes that we have committed or the stumbles that we experience along the way. Taking it in His stride, He perhaps knows better than we do ourselves, that it is through times of testing where we fail the test miserably that we become aware of our sin and weaknesses, learn His truths irrevocably well, and emerge from the dust and ashes refined to become a little more like Christ.

An image that has captured me is the one of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. ‘Pray that you won’t give in to temptation,’ He instructed His disciples (Luke 22:39-40). We don’t have to pretend to be stoic before God our Father in the face of testing and temptation. We may be honest before Him presenting our prayers, petitions – our weaknesses and desires – before Him. Jesus Himself prayed to the Father for the cup to be removed from Him. In the same breath, He also prayed to God for help in times of weakness, ‘But please, let not my will but Yours be done’ (Luke 22:42). And at once, an angel from heaven was at His side, strengthening Him (Luke 22:43).

Many times we think we have to pray what we think God wants to hear. Take your cue from the Psalmists and lay your heart bare before Him. With the blood of Christ covering us in His cloak of righteousness, we no longer have to hide behind the bushes as God comes walking past. We are no longer naked – and there is no more need to be ashamed.