Before the Rooster Crows – Mark 14:29-30

Peter declared, “Even if all fall away, I will not.”
“Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “today—yes, tonight—before the rooster crows twice you yourself will disown me three times.”

Mark 14:29-30 NIV

I have always found this passage to be somewhat sobering. Because I can see myself in Peter’s place, telling Jesus I would never deny him. I am quite confident that Peter was fully convinced that nothing would cause him to deny this one that he had faithfully followed for the past three years. And, as I sit here at my keyboard, it is hard to imagine what might realistically happen to cause me to follow Peter in denying Jesus.

Peter was a big tough fisherman who seemed to fear little. He knew the danger they were all in by coming to Jerusalem, the center of opposition to Jesus. And, later this same evening, he took up a sword in an attempt to defend Jesus from the crowd who had come to arrest him. And Peter even followed that crowd into the very courtyard of the High Priest. There was likely no place in all the land that was more dangerous for him than there. Yet he went.

Hope for the Broken

But then reality struck and he found himself afraid. And he did the very thing he swore he would not do. Three times, before the rooster crowed, he denied knowing who Jesus was. And he left a broken man. But Jesus was not through with him. He restored Peter and used him greatly in advancing the kingdom of God. And that gives me hope as well. Jesus can, and will, use even the fearful, the fallen, and the broken who come to him with repentant hearts. And for that, I am very thankful.