Disloyalty

Peter had been with Jesus since the very beginning.  If Jesus had a best friend, it was Peter.  Now Jesus was in big trouble.  He was under arrest and could be facing the death penalty.  Did Peter stand by him?  No, he pretended he didn’t know him, not once, but again and again.

Peter must have hated himself, especially when he remembered that Jesus had once predicted that he would do just that.  Jesus knew him better than he knew himself.  He wept bitterly, partly for good the friend he was losing, but also for the bad friend he had become.

Matthew 26: 69-75

Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him. “You also were with Jesus of Galilee,” she said. But he denied it before them all. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. Then he went out to the gateway, where another servant girl saw him and said to the people there, “This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.” He denied it again, with an oath: “I don’t know the man!” After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, “Surely you are one of them; your accent gives you away.” Then he began to call down curses, and he swore to them, “I don’t know the man!” Immediately a rooster crowed. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: “Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.