An ordinary rooster made history on the last Passover announcing more than the break of dawn, announcing a breakdown. Peter’s breakdown.
A perfect day with Jesus followed a chaotic night apart from Him.
When the scary parts of the prophecies are to be fulfilled and Jesus is arrested, the disciples split just as Jesus warned them “This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written: ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ ” Matthew 26:31
Most of the disciples go into immediate hiding, except Peter, the risk-taker. Once he walked on water, but now he plays a shameful game of hide-and-seek: behind a tree, around a kindled fire, wherever Jesus’ trail takes him … to make sense of ‘What just happened in the Garden?’ The kiss, the swords, the clubs, the five hundred soldiers, the multitudes, the arrested Messiah?
No time to process. No one to ask. No plan to pursue. No Jesus to instruct him. Peter follows his gut. As always. He enters the courts of the high priest with the help of ‘the other disciple’ (it could be John).
Gripped by fear, Peter could only hope to go unnoticed among the large number of soldiers, temple police, high-priests, scribes, elders, servants, and curious crowds. Even so, it was hard to camouflage his Galilean accent, or his recognisable face that spent so much time with Jesus.
Spotted on three different occasions, Peter negates being connected to Jesus in front of a servant girl of the high priest; later in front of another servant, a relative of Malchus whose ear Peter cut off; about an hour later in front of others warming up by the fire who asked the same.
Funny enough, Luke 22:31 sounds very much like Job 1 “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat.” That was part of the deal.
To sift [siniasai] = to winnow, meaning to blow a current of air to separate grain from chaff.
Why not flee after his first lie?
Jesus knew it took Cephas (Peter, the stubborn ‘rock’) three waves of winnows to remove the chaff of his self-confidence; to shatter it completely so he could gain solid Christ-confidence. Grain alone. That’s why Jesus asks him three times “Do you love me?”; to make up for the three denials.
Only a well ‘sifted’ Simon Peter could preach Acts 2 with godly confidence and see three thousand people “added to their number”. Only ‘a chaff-less’ Simon Peter, an ordinary- unschooled man could speak with great boldness in front of the highest Jewish authorities and leave them clueless of how to handle this threat of spreading the Gospel (Acts 4). Only that kind of Simon Peter was ready to endure well jail, threats, hardships, and even a horrid death.
… The rooster crows announcing Peter’s breakdown, but amidst the chaotic sounds, and wicked happenings of the night it only registered with him when “The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him…” (Jesus’ look was not one of judgment. “For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.” John 12:47)
Peter handles his unbearable setback differently than Judas, who chose to put an end to his misery (committing one last selfish act). Peter weeps bitterly shocked by his own failure because only hours ago he looked Jesus in the eye and said “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.” (Luke 22:33)
Jesus saw Peter through his restored identity. “But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail [eklipe]. And when you have turned back [epistrepsas= switch directions], strengthen your brothers.” Luke 22:32
And so he does. Peter strengthens thousands of brothers and sisters as the book of Acts teaches us, only after hitting rock bottom.
How are you being sifted through your setbacks? How will the Lord use your priceless lessons to strengthen others? Let’s stop wasting great setbacks. Stand up, dust off, and rejoice that our Lord looks at us through our restored identity.