Comfort After Denial

Matt. 26:69-75

Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. And a servant girl came up to him and said, “You also were with Jesus the Galilean.” But he denied it before them all, saying, “I do not know what you mean.” And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, “This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.” And again he denied it with an oath: “I do not know the man.” After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, “Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you.” Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know the man.” And immediately the rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.

One of the most crushing human emotions must be the hurt a parent feels when a child denies his or her love.

Imagine pouring into another so much of yourself, only to find that the child "doesn't feel loved", or rejects that love, or even denies who the parent is. And yet it happens so frequently, especially in a world characterized by the 2 Timothy 3 sin of being "without natural affection", that love which should exist naturally as a result of family relationships.

Wrapping our minds around that picture gives us just a glimpse of Peter's tragic denial of Christ. Here was someone who poured into him, thought only of his best interests - who was God in the flesh, his spiritual father. And yet Peter denies knowing him. A parent's heart can identify with the poignant addition Luke adds to the narrative: And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. (Luke 22:61)

Yet the same parental love that makes the rejection so painful longs to comfort the child who mourns. After the resurrection, Peter received a private visit from the Lord before He appeared to the Twelve (1 Cor. 15:5). No one else could comfort Peter like the one he'd denied. And God's parental love sought Peter out.

We so easily identify with the prodigal (Luke 15). But from the perspective of the father, we can see the love that undergirds mercy. We can see that mercy triumphs over judgment, because of the love that draws the father to the road, aching for the child's return. The love that took the Lord to Peter privately.

The love that can withstand denial, that remains faithful when we are faithless.

2 Timothy 2:13

if we are faithless, He remains faithful—
for he cannot deny Himself.