Poor Peter. It seems we have a hard time giving him a break when we read this passage in Mark 14:66-72. How could he deny Jesus? Not once, not twice…but three times! You think he would have been ready for that. Jesus warned him!
Thankfully, the rooster crowed, and it woke him up to a reality he couldn’t see before. And then he wept. It seems that Peter’s passion for living life awake to reality grew from there.
But what was the reality he became awakened to? Was it a deeper understanding of his fear and weakness? Was it an immediate awareness that Jesus knew him better than he knew himself? Might it have been the love he and Jesus had for each other assuaging the shame he might otherwise have felt?
We can’t say, but we can bear witness to a deep love relationship between Jesus and Peter that was enhanced by a crowing rooster—a servant of awakening to life-giving, rather than shaming, possibilities.
Have you heard a rooster crow lately? What are you being invited to awaken to?
Are you “One of those with Jesus of Nazareth?”
© Brenda Henry
Mark 14:66-72
Meanwhile, Peter was in the courtyard below. One of the servant girls who worked for the high priest came by and noticed Peter warming himself at the fire. She looked at him closely and said, “You were one of those with Jesus of Nazareth.”
But Peter denied it. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, and he went out into the entryway. Just then, a rooster crowed.
When the servant girl saw him standing there, she began telling the others, “This man is definitely one of them!” But Peter denied it again.
A little later some of the other bystanders confronted Peter and said, “You must be one of them, because you are a Galilean.”
Peter swore, “A curse on me if I’m lying—I don’t know this man you’re talking about!”
And immediately the rooster crowed the second time.
Suddenly, Jesus’ words flashed through Peter’s mind: “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny three times that you even know me.” And he broke down and wept.
For reflection and prayer:
Is there a word, a phrase, an image, or something else that stood out to you as you listened? As you sit with that, what else does the Spirit seem to be communicating to you?
What would your response be today in the present moment if someone looked at you closely, as this woman did Peter, and said, “You were one of those with Jesus of Nazareth?” What do you notice within?
What might a “crowing rooster” be for you? What are you being invited to awaken to?