I don’t know him.

Four relatively minor words when spoken in all honesty. Something quite different when spoken in a lie.

Peter had spent three years following Jesus as one of his closest apostles. One of the chosen few. The inner circle. Yet, on the night Jesus was betrayed by another apostle, Judas Iscariot, while Jesus was being interrogated and abused, Peter fulfilled what Jesus foretold would happen. Peter denied ever knowing his master. Jesus.

I’ve heard enough Peter-bashing over this incident, to know that’s not some place I choose to go. You want to know why? Because I’ve denied Jesus, too. And I imagine you may have as well.

We don’t mean to. Certainly. That would never be our intent. We love Jesus with all our heart and soul. He is our Master. Savior. Friend. Yet, we deny we know him.

We deny Jesus when we tell that little white lie. When we hold a grudge. When we refuse to forgive. Lose our temper. Slander others. Consult horoscopes. Go along with the wrong crowd.

Sure, we don’t come right out and say, “I don’t know him”, like Peter did, but our response is the same.

Fortunately for Peter, and for each of us, Jesus forgives. He invites us back into relationship with him. He wants us to go out, spread the word about him, and feed his sheep.

It doesn’t matter how many times we fall. The important thing is how many times we get back up.

What are your thoughts on the subject?

Then Annas sent him, (Jesus) still tied up, to Caiaphas the High Priest. Peter was still standing there keeping himself warm. So the others said to him, “Aren’t you also one of the disciples of that man?”

But Peter denied it. “No, I am not,” he said.

One of the High Priest’s slaves, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, spoke up. “Didn’t I see you with him in the garden?” he asked.

Again Peter said “No”—and at once a rooster crowed.

John 18:24-27 (GNT)

I wish you well.

Sandy

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