“Then seizing Him, they led Him away and took Him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. But when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down with them…
…but he denied it. ‘Woman, I don’t know Him.’
…’You also are one of them’…’Man, I am not!’ Peter replied.
…Peter replied, ‘Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!’ Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter.” (Luke 22:54, 57-61)
Could you deny Jesus? If you say anything other than “yes”, you have deceived yourself or you have been deceived. We are all capable of falling into the pit that Peter found himself that night. The real question is, how can we avoid the situations that would bring this failure about? Looking at the verses above we can learn some simple lessons from Peter that can help us on our journey with Jesus. I think that Peter does two things that facilitate his denials.
First, we see that Peter followed Jesus to the courtyard of Caiaphas but, the Scripture says he followed “at a distance”. Peter loved Jesus and was bold enough to want to see what was going to happen but fear kept the big fisherman at arms length from his Master. To be too close may be dangerous or, at least, make for some uncomfortable confrontations. Many of us who have a relationship with Jesus want to be with Him but we follow at a safe distance. We are afraid to step out and be identified with the Savior. We don’t mind being associated with Him on a Sunday morning in the comfort of the church with other disciples but keep our distance the rest of the week in the courtyards of the marketplace. “If they find out I am a Christian it could make things complicated.” Denial is around the corner. “I avoid conversations about God and keep my faith to myself.” Denial is standing by. Here’s a warning from the life of a disciple; if you are following Jesus from a safe distance you are setting up the perfect scenario for denial.
Secondly, Peter not only keeps his distance but, he also tries to blend in with the crowd…”Peter sat down with them”. Instead of getting close to the event at hand and encouraging Jesus by being there, he was getting comfortable by the fire held captive by his fears. “If I just act like everyone else maybe they won’t talk to me about it.” The stage is set. If you are trying to blend in so you won’t have to talk about your faith, you are already living denial and the words are soon to follow.
Jesus calls us to a faith that can be sometimes dangerous and frequently inconvenient. If we are to avoid the temptation to deny our Lord in these times we must keep near Him. Jesus said, “Remain in Me, and I will remain in you” (John 15:4). We also must not be ashamed of Him and attempt to live the life of an under cover disciple. Jesus said, “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.” (Matthew 5:14).