MARKAN MEDITATIONS

Meditations in the Gospel of St. Mark

St. Mark 14:66-72

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IT SEEMS traditional in the church to censure Peter strongly for his failure when he denied his Lord, which is the subject of these verses before us. However, I do not see why he should receive such censure, for however bad his fall, none of us would have done any better. What comes through to me clearly is the fact that Peter had to go through this failure in order that his spiritual life may mature and grow stronger for the work Jesus had for him in the future. What is sure is that none of the other disciples were any better. They ran away from Jesus, but because they were not courageous enough to follow Jesus to the place of his trial, they were not put under the same pressure as Peter.

Peter had to learn a very important truth, and that was to have no confidence in the flesh. In verse 29 of this chapter we see Peter with the best intentions in the world claiming that he would never fall away from owning Jesus. It is plain that he wanted deeply to stand by Jesus for ever, but what is also plain is that all his confidence was in the flesh and his own ability and courage to stand firm in trial. Even when Jesus warned him of the weakness of his flesh, he could not accept it. There is so much good here. Peter's heart was all in the right place. He truly loved and revered Jesus. He wanted to stand by him even unto death. What he did not know is how weak he was, and how with the best intentions he could not stand by Jesus for a moment in his own strength.

Jesus allowed him to go through this time of great failure and resultant pain and sorrow, because no amount of words and teaching would get the message home that he was weak and could not do anything for Jesus by himself. It is a lesson we all have to learn, first in the matter of our salvation, that we can't contribute anything whatsoever to our acceptance with God, and must humbly accept it all from the Saviour, and second in our living for Jesus that we can't serve or love Jesus in our own strength, but only in the grace Jesus gives us. Peter learnt his lesson here of humility and utter dependence on the Lord. Some of us take years before we learn it, and some never do learn it.

It is often the experience of the saint that a traumatic failure like this is part of Christ's discipline for us, because only in this way can we learn the truth about ourselves and be brought to the feet of Jesus in true humble dependence and faith.

The other thing that this account of Peter's failure brings before us is that the question was not whether Peter loved Jesus. He loved Jesus dearly. The question was HOW MUCH HE LOVED JESUS and was able to love him. Jesus brings this out when he deals with Peter after his resurrection which we read of in John 21. Peter was asked by Jesus to consider the depth of his love. Again the question was not so much the depth of love that Peter had, but how much love his weak flesh would enable him to show. Peter wanted to have deep 'agape' love for Jesus, but he had now no confidence in his ability to love when the chips were down, and so he was only able to claim the lesser 'phileo' love or friendship.

It is only when we are brought to be honest about our relationship with Jesus as Peter was here, that we can really progress. It is only when we have been brought low like this that Jesus can say to us 'feed my sheep' and place into our hands some important work for the kingdom. The reason is simple. We can't ever carry out rightly any work in the kingdom if we are depending on our own strength in any way. Jesus will not trust us with his work when we are depending on our own strength and taking glory to ourselves. It does not matter whether we are even ordained. Unless we have learnt to have no confidence in the flesh, Jesus will give us no real responsibility in his kingdom even though as an ordained person we may be in charge of congregation. However when we are brought low and throw ourselves on Jesus alone for strength and wisdom, then we will seek to work in the strength of Jesus and not in our strength. Then Jesus can trust us with his work. Then we will know the blessing of God on our labours for him.

There is one comforting thought in this failure of Peter. What he showed was the panic we all are prone to when we are suddenly faced with a great threat. Panic takes over and we just can't control it. However in this case of Peter we know that Jesus knew beforehand that Peter would fail in this way and warned him. By this we realise that nothing happens to the people of God that is not known to the Lord, and in his powerful hands. He may allow us in his wisdom to come a cropper, but he will never let us be lost. He may allow us to go through failure, but it will be always because of some good purpose for our spiritual growth. Let us not therefore fear, for we are in the hands of our Saviour who will not fail to fulfil completely in us the redemption he has won for us.