Peter’s world had just come crashing down around him. The man he thought was God had just been arrested. The man he thought was going to free Israel from the oppressive Roman rule had given up without a fight. Now this same man was being beaten and disgraced. And because things weren’t bad enough, Peter had just denied even knowing him.
All of this came only hours after swearing that he would be willing to die for Jesus. Now Peter had to confront the fact that he had failed. Spectacularly. The thing is, Jesus had even told Peter all of this would happen. But Peter was too proud to listen. He was too sure of himself.
Up to this point Peter had a history of acting boldly. Perhaps even impulsively. He had never run away from God before. So this was new territory.
It must have been lonely.
I don’t think it’s a surprise that after all this Peter “broke down and wept.” (Mark 14:72)
If this is where the story ended it would be pretty depressing. But fortunately this is just the beginning.
All too often we live with the belief that if we fail, even a little bit, God will become angry with us. That somehow making a mistake is the worst thing we could do. And therefore we don’t try at all.
But this is clearly not the case.
Peter failed spectacularly. His mistake is recorded in the Bible, which means people will read about it for thousands of years. Talk about embarrassing! And yet God used him to do amazing things.
That’s one of the most remarkable things about God - no matter what we’ve done, he gives us another chance. He says, “don’t worry about the mistakes in the past, trust in the promises I make for your future. And act on them now.”
I guess that really takes all of my excuses away for not acting. If God can use Peter after denying God, then I think he can use me too.
