Matthew 26:31-35
I've been there. I can vividly remember sitting in the hall of my high school. My friends were walking by, yet when the bully I was sitting with started to mock them, I did so as well. That moment of self preservation still lingers in my mind. Friends whom I had grown apart from, but nonetheless didn't deserve that treatment at my hand. It's not like the bully was my friend or anything, it was just a moment of decision where I chose wrong. I don't think that my friends ever heard the conversation, and that bully is long since dead (killed in jail, I believe). But I remember, and it's one of a handful of split decisions that haunt me to this day.
Think of Peter. All full of gumption and ready to "die with you", he tells Jesus. But his vision of what was going down didn't pan out with reality. Instead of a glorious battle, there was humiliating surrender. Jesus wasn't leading them into victory, he was being lead to the slaughter, and the sheep had scattered. And in a moment of decision, in a larger moment of confusion, Peter denied his friend and master. I'll bet that scene haunted him the rest of his life. My choice has left its mark, but I think Peter's might have in some way come to greatly influence the rest of his life (although I would stop short of saying that it defined him).
It's difficult to know "how" Jesus informed Peter of his coming denial. There is no body language or tone of voice recorded, but I like to think that Jesus had a forgiving tone. He knew what was going to happen, but He didn't hold it against Peter. By letting him know what was going to happen, I think it made it all the more raw for Peter when it did, but perhaps there was also some comfort in remembering how Jesus confronted him about it.
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