NOT ME!

The older we get, the more inclined my wife and I are to criticize the driving habits of other road users. ‘She’s using a phone,’ ‘He overtook on double lines,’ ‘Dip your headlights!’ Then we realize that, in our distraction, we are driving at 40 miles per hour in a 30 zone. It’s just like Jesus’ comment about removing the log from our own eye before examining the speck of sawdust in someone else’s.² So it is with Peter. ‘Even if everyone else fails you, I won’t’, he declares with bravado (see v. 29). We’ll leave his dramatic failure until later.

Emotions are running high among the disciples. Jesus has just revealed that there is a traitor among them. Now he declares that they will all, every one of them, let him down. As they walk toward the Mount of Olives, the bond of trust within the group broken down, Peter impetuously voices what the others want to say. Mark gives us a warts-and-all portrait of the man whose recollections lay behind his gospel. At this moment Peter, no doubt, believed in his own courage. So did the others (v. 31). Jesus knew them better.

In the heat of the moment, we can be tempted to say it like it is. I have been known to do so, and at such times, I totally believed in the right of what I said. I felt justified. Jesus knew me better—and he knew the circumstances that would unfold. For Peter and for me there was the necessity to face reality and experience brokenness before Jesus could rebuild in unexpected ways. The irony of it was that Jesus had already dropped the hint that this was not the end: ‘But after I have risen …’ (v 28). However, no one was listening.

Where do you find it most difficult to listen carefully before reacting and answering? What tends to be the outcome?