Mark 14:66-72

Peter Acts Out Jesus’ Prediction of Denial

Mark 14:66-72 – Peter Denies Jesus

⁶⁶ When Peter was down below in the courtyard,

one of the female servants of the high priest came along.

⁶⁷ She saw Peter keeping warm,

and looked closely at him,

and said, “You were with the Nazarene, Jesus.”

⁶⁸ But he denied it,

and said, “I do not know him,

nor do I understand what you are saying.”

He then went out into the forecourt,

and a rooster crowed.

Peter tried the easy way out. Rather than directly dissociate himself from Jesus, he claimed he did not understand what the girl was talking about. Ominously the rooster crowed.

⁶⁹ The young servant who had seen him

began again to tell those standing around,

“This fellow is one of them.”

⁷⁰ But he denied it once more.

The girl did not argue with Peter, but commented to the bystanders, obviously in his hearing, that Peter had been one of the group to which Jesus belonged. Peter explicitly denied the connection.

After a little while, the ones standing around said to Peter,

“You really are one of them –

you are a Galilean,

and your accent is the same.”

⁷¹ But he started to declare on oath and to swear,

“I do not know the man you are talking about.”

The bystanders took up the charge, claiming that his origin from Galilee gave him away. Feeling unmasked and vulnerable, Peter repeated his denial of Jesus, emphasising his point by swearing an oath. One lie led inexorably to greater ones. His unconscious desire to be accepted within the group exposed him to the contagion of their hostility towards Jesus, their victim. For Peter, Jesus had become threat.

⁷² Straight way the rooster crowed a second time.

And Peter remembered the statement that Jesus had made,

“Before the rooster crows twice,

you will disown me three times”;

and he went out and wept loudly.

Roosters crowing announce the dawning of the new day. With the crowing of this rooster, light began to dawn for Peter He saw the truth of what he had done, the reality of his sin. Tastefully Mark called attention to Peter's change of heart: he let down his defences, accepted his failure, and wept loudly – but presumably made his exit. Mark relentlessly detailed the shortcomings of the disciples.

Next >> Mark 15:1-15