The time had come at length for our Lord Jesus Christ to go to the
death which He had come to bear for us.
He had told His disciples that He would be betrayed, and given into the
hands of the Jews; and that now all the prophecies in the Old Testament
about Himself were going to be fulfilled.
The disciples had listened, but they could not believe that such
dreadful things would really happen to Him.
On the very night that He was betrayed by Judas, the Lord told them
that all of them would be offended because of Him that night; and would
forsake Him, but that after He was risen from the grave, He would go
before them into Galilee, where they should see Him again.
Then Peter answered: "Though all men shall be offended because of Thee,
yet will I never be offended!"
Jesus said unto him, "Verily I say unto thee, that this night, before
the cock crow, thou shalt deny Me thrice."
Still, Peter, confident in himself, and confident in his love for his
Master, said that he would rather die with Him than deny Him! And so
they all said.
But Peter had to find out, by bitter experience, that he was weak in
himself; for when Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss in Gethsemane, and
when the soldiers from the High Priest seized Him and too Him bound to
Jerusalem, all the disciples forsook Him and fled!
[Illustration: PETER DENIES HIS LORD.]
Peter, however, followed Him afar off, right into the High Priest's
palace; but the servants round the fire in the hall charged him with
being one of the disciples, and their raillery, and the accusations of
a maid, were Satan's wiles to cause Peter, to stumble and fall: and so
he denied all knowledge of Jesus, with oaths and curses.
And at that moment the cock crew; and Peter remembered what Jesus had
said: and horrified at what he had done, he hurried to the door; and
as he went, the Lord turned and looked upon Peter. And he went out and
wept bitterly.
Poor sorrowful Peter! Ah, no one can fathom what he went through that
night, and the next awful day of the Crucifixion: and the two following
days, when the Lord's Body lay in the grave, and Peter recalled with
agony that he had forsaken Him when He needed his love most! We can
only picture it to ourselves; but it must have been truly dreadful.
At length came the third day, when Jesus had told the disciples He
would rise from the dead.
Their hearts were so heavy with grief, and so slow to take in what our
Lord had so constantly told them, that they did not expect, when they
visited the grave on that third day, to find it empty!
The women with their loving hearts were the first to reach the spot,
carrying sweet spices to anoint their Lord!
They had expected to find His dearly loved Body lying in the
grave—dead. Instead, they found the grave empty and a Vision of Angels!
They were so frightened that they were hurrying away, but the Angel who
was sitting within the empty tomb told them not to be frightened, for
though they sought Jesus of Nazareth Who was crucified, yet He was not
there, for He was risen!
And then the Angel gave them this message from God: "Go tell His
disciples, and Peter, that He goeth before you into Galilee: there
shall ye see Him, as He said unto you."
Why was that separate message sent to Peter?
Oh, the graciousness of the forgiveness of Jesus! Peter had said "he
was not one of them," meaning not one of His disciples. And it may be,
that if the Angel's message had only been "Go, tell His disciples,"
that Peter would have been utterly hopeless.
But the sorrowing man had a message all to himself!
Ah, what that must have meant to Peter!
And we have another sweet assurance of the forgiving love of our God
and Saviour.
We read, in the last chapter of Luke, that those two whom Jesus had met
going to Emmaus after His Resurrection, had hurried back to Jerusalem
to tell the eleven that they had seen the Lord; and were greeted with
the joyful news which the other disciples had also heard—that "the Lord
was risen indeed, and had appeared to Simon Peter!"
We have no account of what Jesus said to Peter, nor what Peter said to
Jesus.
But the fact is full of deepest comfort to all of us who so often
grieve Him, that, in spite of Peter's sad denial, his risen Lord
appeared to him, forgave him his sin, and restored him to his place
among the others.
Thenceforward Peter became one of the most faithful of Christ's
disciples; and when he preached that wonderful sermon at Pentecost,
a few weeks afterwards, God gave him the honour of bringing three
thousand souls to love and believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, Who was
dead, but is alive again!
Many years afterwards, St. Paul mentions the name of Peter among the
list of those who saw the Lord after His Resurrection. He calls him
"Cephas;" but if you turn to the first chapter of St. John's Gospel,
you will see that our Lord, when He makes Simon the son of Jonas one of
His disciples, calls him Cephas, which means "a stone," or Peter; and I
have read that Cephas means "a piece of Rock," and The Rock Itself—is
Christ!