Devotion, March 10, 2016

Thursday: “Then seizing him, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. And when some there had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, ‘This man was with him.’ But he denied it. ‘Woman, I don’t know him,’ he said (Luke 22:54-57; NIV).

            Our temptation is to look at Peter and say, “We would never deny Jesus like that!”

            Pretty smart talk for a bunch of people who gather every Sunday without any fear of arrest or punishment!

            Pretty smart talk for a bunch of people who every time we sin ultimately are denying Jesus!

            It is one thing—and bad enough—when sin sneaks up and surprises us. It’s another thing when we see it coming. We know which people we shouldn’t talk with; we know which conversations are going to devolve into gossip and character assassination. Isn’t that the same as denying Jesus? We know we shouldn’t eat and drink to excess, but we shrug it off, “It’s only once in a while; it’s not that big a deal.” Or we know that we should let our light shine but keep it at least a little bit hidden so we don’t draw too much attention to ourselves. Denial!

            There’s a little Peter in each one of us.

            The good news: John 21:15-19. Against all hope, the resurrected Jesus forgave and restored His denier. More on that tomorrow.