Escape – John 18: 24-27

Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.
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.”
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?” Again Peter denied it, and at that moment a rooster began to crow.

Once again John’s story turns back to Peter. Part of what makes this story special is that Peter is apparently by himself. (We don’t know who or where the other disciple who let him in is.) Peter, driven by the cold has put himself at risk of discovery by drawing close to the fire where others are gathered.

His appearance must have been noteworthy. His anxiety over the Lord being bound and called in before the high priest would be written all over his face. When he opens he announces that he is Galilean much the same way as someone from the Deep South cannot hide their southern drawl. He is desperately concerned for Jesus and at the same time deathly afraid of discovery.

He would not have been known to any of the people there, most of whom were likely familiar with each other. They, too, would be on edge. They were also aware that something of unusual importance was going on. Who was this stranger standing with them in the courtyard?

Perhaps they looked at each other in the firelight. Their eyes would point briefly to Peter and then they would stare intensely with the obvious question on their face: Who is that guy? The expression in response would be a blank look and a shrug of the shoulders: “I don’t know. Don’t you?”

Finally, someone turns to Peter. “You aren’t one of his disciples too, are you?”

Peter, busily pretending he is just one of the crowd or wishing he was altogether invisible is startled. He would look around at all the faces staring at him. Then maybe he looked at the person who asked the question, but more likely he looked away or at the ground. “I am not,” he said.

Someone else standing there looks more closely now. Everyone openly stares at Peter. The man staring at Peter might have been with the crowd that arrested Jesus. It was dark in the Garden of Gethsemane, but Peter would have shown his face in the torchlight when he dashed forward to slash off the ear of Malchus. When he leaped out of the dark all they saw was his sword. When Jesus said, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” I imagine that Peter just looked at him in stunned shock. In that moment when Peter is in close to the crowd. When Jesus commands him to stop, his face would have been well lit. All those standing near him would have had a good look.

“Didn’t I see you with him in the garden?”

Peter knows he had been seen. He knows the man recognizes him. He is sunk. His only option is …

What?

What were his options?

Could he have admitted to being a disciple? Would God have allowed anything to happen to him? The answer is, of course, yes. Peter could have straightened up, put his shoulders back, and looked everyone in the eye. “Yes,” he could have said, “I’m one of his disciples. So what?”

Maybe everyone would have taken a step back and said, “Oh.” Or maybe they would have given him the bum’s rush and tossed him out of the courtyard. Maybe they would have thrown him into prison. (It is doubtful they would have bothered the high priest about him.) However, Peter was not being rational at the moment. Instead, his survival instincts took over. Again he denied being a disciple. As the words left his lips the rooster crowed, and suddenly nothing else mattered. His soul, repulsed at what he had just done, coupled with the fact that Jesus had foretold that he would do it, crushed him.

In the end, nothing happened to him. Whether they believed his denials or not, nobody bothered him. Peter escaped the courtyard and found his way back to the other disciples, but he could not escape what he had done.

Food for Thought: Is there something you need to escape from? Is there a guilty secret in your past or a weakness in your present? Are you burdened like Peter, carrying a heavy load every day? Jesus will ultimately unburden Peter and he would very much like to do the same for you.