Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus…
Philippians 2:5
Peter answered Him, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.” Jesus said to him, “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” Peter said to Him, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!” And all the disciples said the same.
Matthew 26:33-35
And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how He had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.
Luke 22:60b-62
Perhaps these verses seem strange under the title of this message. If I had seen them before today, I would have thought them strange too. What does Peter’s denial of Christ have to do with the mind of Christ? Hopefully, we can look to these two gospels together for that answer.
First of all, I don’t want to discount what this account tells us about ourselves. Don’t think that because I am focusing on the mind of Christ that I believe it to be the most important lesson in the story of Peter’s denial. Peter’s denial is primarily to humble us and help us to realize that the most adamant of Christ followers can fall away and deny Christ if it were not for God’s grace in sustaining our faith. Additionally, I’ve always admired Peter’s persistence even after weeping bitterly for what he had done to his friend. He admitted his failures. He bounced back. He grew stronger. Jesus blesses those efforts. Just look at what Peter did for the Kingdom of God!
With that said, consider with me what Peter’s denial of Christ tells us about the mind of Jesus. Imagine the emotions that you might feel after being rejected by one of your best friends. Perhaps it isn’t necessary to imagine. Maybe it has happened to you. Maybe you can relate to Jesus a little bit here. I know I can.
If you are like me, being denied and rejected brings with it a wave of emotions. There is immense pain. Loneliness. Bitterness. Sadness. Anger. Desire to lash out.
It would take an entire post to write about dealing with these emotions, which would take away from the scope of this essay. So, I hope it good enough to say that I do not condone acting on any of these emotions nor do they change what one’s response to rejection should be. “What is that to you? You follow Me!” That is Jesus’s response to us no matter what our trial.
Now, consider the Son of God. He came to earth as a humble servant. He poured Himself into the lives of twelve men for three years. He hand-picked these men to take His message of salvation to the ends of the earth. He loved them with an eternal love that has always been and will always be. All of Jesus’s eggs were in one basket. His disciples would either succeed or all of Christ’s work would be in vain.
Here is Peter. He’s a natural leader. He’s bold. He’s fearless. He’s the first to step up to the plate and take a swing. He’s one of Jesus’s closest friends, and we see more accounts of Christ’s instruction to Peter than most of the other disciples combined. Perhaps only John is as close to Jesus as Peter is.
Jesus loved Peter. Jesus cared for Peter and provided for him. Jesus disciplined Peter and molded him into the leader that would boldly proclaim the Gospel in a magnitude that was farther reaching than Jesus Himself.
And Peter denied Christ three times in one evening. One of Jesus’s closest friends denied that he even knew Him! If we think that Jesus was emotionless, we have forgotten the Jesus who wept for Lazarus and loved the rich young man who desired to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Jesus is the epitome of real emotion! For His great friend to deny Him must have hurt terribly. He must have battled the same temptations of bitterness, anger, vengeance that any other human would battle after being rejected. To say that He didn’t would deny His humanity.
What I find fascinating is that Jesus did not sin. He did not lash out at Peter. He did not pridefully try and make Peter feel bad. He didn’t hold Peter’s denial against him. Not even for one second in time. Imagine that! Imagine a heart so pure that it never grumbled against Peter a little bit!
Jesus saw accurately what we so often fail to see. We make mistakes. We wrong each other. Sometimes those closest to us reject us for a season. Sometimes the rejection lasts the rest of our lives. But the compassion that we feel towards others who reject us should overwhelm and put to death the anger and bitterness that we may be tempted to embrace.
If Jesus had such great compassion on Peter as He was being held prisoner, ought we not to have the same compassion for those who we love, regardless of how we have been treated?
Look:
No rejection we face compares to our own rejection of Jesus Christ.
He was kind toward us.
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