Peter is Tasked to Tend the Sheep
Peter recovers after denying Jesus publicly Pt. 1
Sometimes we don’t want to admit we are Christians. It could be because we are not strong in our faith yet. It could be that we think we will be excluded from a gathering. In some parts of the world, it can be physically dangerous to admit to following Jesus. In our denials, we become ashamed.
We are not the first to stumble this way. Peter, the rock on which Christ said he would build his church, denied Christ on the eve of His arrest, leading to His crucifixion. Here we are reading the account as recorded in the Book of Luke.
Luke 22:54-62
54 Having arrested Him, they led Him away and brought Him to the house of the high priest; but Peter was following at a distance.
55 After they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter was sitting among them.
56 And a servant-girl, seeing him as he sat in the firelight and looking intently at him, said, “This man was with Him too.”
57 But he denied it, saying, “Woman, I do not know Him.”
58 A little later, another saw him and said, “You are one of them too!” But Peter said, “Man, I am not!”
59 After about an hour had passed, another man began to insist, saying, “Certainly this man also was with Him, for he is a Galilean too.”
60 But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.” Immediately, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed.
61 The Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had told him, “Before a rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.”
62 And he went out and wept bitterly.
Then, Jesus tells Peter to tend his sheep
We’d like to think we would do better. That, if put to the test we would never deny the Lord. Sometimes I wonder if I were subjected to some form of physical torture, like those in the military might have to endure, would I be able to stand fast in my dedication to Jesus?
We’ve been looking at Biblical characters who experienced things that made them feel God abandoned them, or committed a sin so heinous that they felt they could not be forgiven. Or, that would be hard for US to forgive. Today we are looking at Peter. The same Peter whom Christ said His church would be built on.