So they arrested him and led him to the high priest’s home. And Peter followed at a distance. The guards lit a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat around it, and Peter joined them there. A servant girl noticed him in the firelight and began staring at him. Finally she said, “This man was one of Jesus’ followers!” But Peter denied it. “Woman,” he said, “I don’t even know him!” After a while someone else looked at him and said, “You must be one of them!” “No, man, I’m not!” Peter retorted. About an hour later someone else insisted, “This must be one of them, because he is a Galilean, too.” But Peter said, “Man, I don’t know what you are talking about.” And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. At that moment the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Suddenly, the Lord’s words flashed through Peter’s mind: “Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me.” And Peter left the courtyard, weeping bitterly. (NLT)
The story of Peter’s threefold denial of Jesus is well known. But we may miss out on a small incidental detail recorded by Luke. After Peter has denied knowing Jesus three times, and after the crowing of the rooster, Jesus turns and looks directly at Peter.
We may well ask what was the look on his face. We presume it wasn’t anger or bitterness, which would be foreign to Jesus. It may have been a “told you so” look of grim satisfaction that his prophecy had come true. Even then, it doesn’t quite fit in with what we know of Jesus’ love for his colleagues.
More likely it was a look of sad recognition that sprang from both an understanding of frail human nature, and a love of those who exhibited such frailty. We know that after his resurrection, Jesus restored Peter to leadership of the disciples. Jesus distinguishes between the wickedness of Judas and the weakness of Peter.
Which raises the question: if we imagine Jesus to be turning to look straight at us, what might be the look on his face? Do we imagine him frowning with frustration, or with a face of weary resignation which indicates he is fed up with us? Or is there a look of wistful love and deep compassion?
What we imagine to be on Jesus’ face as he looks at us tells us quite a bit about how we see him and how we assume he sees us.
Blessings
David
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