“Immediately the rooster crowed the second time.
Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken to him:
‘Before the rooster crows twice you will disown me three times.’
And he broke down and wept.”
(Mark 14:72)
Peter, the Rooster, and a Night of Denial
Do you remember what happened on the night of the Last Supper, just before Jesus was crucified?
That night Jesus said to Peter that before the rooster crowed, Peter would deny Him three times.
How did Peter answer?
“Even if everyone else falls away, I never will!”
Peter strongly insisted that he would never abandon Jesus.
But soon Judas arrived with Roman soldiers to arrest Jesus.
Just as Jesus had foretold, all the disciples ran away.
“Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.”
Jesus let Himself be led away, quietly and willingly, to the high priest.
Peter, who had fled, followed at a distance.
He tried to stay close enough to see what would happen, without being noticed.
But the people gathered there kept pointing at him.
They said he was one of Jesus’ disciples.
Peter denied it.
Once.
Twice.
And then a third time, when people around him said again, “You are certainly one of His followers,”
Peter began to call down curses and swear that he did not know Jesus.
At that very moment, the rooster crowed a second time.
Peter remembered what Jesus had said to him:
“Truly I tell you, today—yes, tonight—before the rooster crows twice you yourself will disown Me three times.”
He rushed outside and wept bitterly.
Seeing Myself in Peter’s Tears
Every time I read this passage, tears come to my eyes.
Because Peter feels so much like me.
Like Peter, I often tell Jesus,
“I will do anything for You.
Even if others turn away, I will not betray You.”
But as time goes by and I grow older,
my confession has changed.
Now I find myself praying,
“Jesus, I am sorry.
I failed again.
I fell again.
I sinned again.”
I realize how completely helpless I am
without the help of the Holy Spirit.
On my own, I cannot do any good thing for Jesus—
not even the smallest act of obedience.
I am weak and sinful.
Yet God receives the tears of my repentance.
He never turns them away.
After His resurrection, Jesus went ahead of the disciples to Galilee, just as He had promised.
There He met the one who had denied Him,
and restored Peter again as His disciple.
Not by Peter’s strength, but by the power of the Holy Spirit.
From Denial to Witness by the Spirit
The same is true for us.
Even if we keep stumbling,
even if we are weak and have nothing to boast about,
if we stay before God,
repenting and relying on the Holy Spirit,
we, too, can live as disciples of Jesus.
It is only by the great mercy
of the God who has compassion on us.
In front of the world,
sometimes in front of people,
and often in front of my own fears,
I am still a weak servant who denies Jesus in many ways.
But by the power of the Holy Spirit,
I long to live as a witness of Jesus Christ.
May that same blessing
rest on me and on all of us.