It was a foggy morning. The fog was just beginning to lift as the sun was beginning to rise and Peter and the disciples had been fishing all night and caught nothing. They were frustrated. And then on the shore stood a solitary figure. Jesus showed up and that changed everything. It changed the fish story. More importantly, it changed Peter. Peter had denied Jesus three times. Jesus had met with Peter and the disciples in the upper room, but it wasn’t until this scene on the lakeshore that Peter knew that his relationship with Jesus was ‘ok’.

Isn’t it great that God’s Word reveals real men with real struggles. They are not white-washed historical figures. They are men with failures so that we will know how to deal with our failures, we will know how to return, how to get straight, how to get back on board.

The book of Mark is the gospel that Peter inspired because it was written by Mark under Peter’s guidance, so it gives Peter’s insights, his specifics into what happened. While eating the Passover meal, the Last Supper, Jesus told His disciples what was soon to happen. Mark 14:17-28 says: In the evening Jesus arrived with the twelve disciples. As they were sitting around the table eating, Jesus said, ‘The truth is, one of you will betray me, one of you who is here eating with me…. It is one of you twelve, one who is eating with me now. For I, the Son of Man, must die, as the Scriptures declared long ago. But how terrible it will be for my betrayer. Far better for him if he had never been born!…. All of you will desert me. For the Scriptures say, ‘God will strike the Shepherd and the sheep will be scattered.’ But after I am raised from the dead, I will go ahead of you to Galilee and meet you there.’” Peter heard what Jesus said and declared his loyalty. “Even if everyone else deserts you, I never will.” Jesus turned to him and said, “Peter, I tell you the truth. Today, yet this very night, before the cock crows two times, you will deny me three times.” But Peter insisted, “Jesus, you’re wrong, even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” The others also pledged their loyalty.

Peter was an aggressive individual. He brimmed with self-confidence. Peter meant what he said to Jesus. He fully intended to stay by Jesus’ side. The problem is that he tried to do it in his own strength. Jesus is quick to recognize this. He warns Peter, “You are going to deny me three times in just a few minutes. You are going to desert me.” Self-confidence is the first step in drifting away from God because we think we can handle everything on our own. “I have come a long way, I can deal with this. Jesus, let me make you proud of me how much power and how much strength I have, how mature I’ve grown. I can figure this one out on my own. I’m not a kid anymore. I want to do it myself. God, go help those other people. They need it more.” First Corinthians warns us that when we think we are spiritually strong we need to be careful because we are ready to fall. Proverbs promises that a proud attitude leads to ruin. The problem is thinking yourself to be more than you are. Building yourself up and pushing God out. We slowly but surely edge God out of our lives. Not because we hate him but because we do not think we need Him. We leave Him out of our family life. Pretty soon we edge Him out of every important area in our lives. Our self-confidence deceives us.

When Jesus is arrested, what does Peter do? He attempts to fulfill his promise to Jesus with a sword. He is willing to risk his life in a sword fight for Jesus. But that is not what Jesus wanted. How does a man who was willing to draw a sword to show his loyalty, desert that very person minutes later? Obviously, Peter was willing to risk his life for Jesus’, then why the desertion?

Remember, the gospel of Mark was written by Mark under Peter’s guidance. We find an interesting reference in Mark 14:51-52 that does not appear in the other three gospels. Peter must have wanted it included for a reason. “There was a young man following along behind, clothed only in a linen nightshirt. When the mob tried to grab him, they tore off his clothes, but he escaped and ran away naked.” That young man must have been humiliated. Humiliated! Just the sound of that word frightens us. Peter saw what happened to that young man and he wanted no part of it. “That is not going to happen to me,” he might have thought. Frightened and running from humiliation, he ran into a little servant girl, a teenage girl, who cowered him into denying Jesus by simply saying, “You were one of those with Jesus, the Nazarene.” Just then the first rooster crowed a warning to Peter to deny Jesus no more. Peter soon denied Jesus two more times. And then the rooster crowed a second time. “And [Peter] broke down and cried” (14:72). Peter was willing to die for Jesus but he was not willing to risk humiliation for Him!

Peter’s fear was later conquered. Look at 2 Peter 1:1-2. “This letter is from Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ. I am writing to all of you who share the same precious faith we have, faith given to us by Jesus Christ, our God and Savior, who makes us right with God. May God bless you with his special favor and wonderful peace as you come to know Jesus, our God and Lord, better and better.” F. B. Meyer says this concerning Peter’s last day: “After reducing Rome to ashes by the conflagration that his wanton cruelty had kindled, Nero cringed before the passionate resentment of his subjects, and in his endeavor to divert it from himself, imputed the hideous crime to the Christians. In his search for victims he scoured the empire, striking first and hardest at the most illustrious and well-known Christian leaders. Among these Paul was certainly one, and Peter was almost certainly another.

“What befell them in Rome is not chronicled by inspiration. Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth in the second century, states that Peter and Paul suffered martyrdom at the same time; and Jerome, in the fourth century, attests that Peter was crucified and crowned with martyrdom, his head being turned earthward and his feet in the air, because he held that he was unworthy to be crucified as his Lord was. Such was the death that he experienced at Rome. By such an exodus—for that is the Greek word—he passed out from this world to the bosom of the Redeemer, whom he had so ardently loved.” Crucifixion is a humiliating way to die. There is nothing dignified about it. Yet, Peter consented to be crucified upsidedown. Peter was always willing to die for Jesus Christ, but he was not always willing to be shamed for Him. Peter’s love for Jesus changed that!

Coyright by Pastor Dave Strem