Peter follows safely behind Jesus and the crowd that captured our Lord. While Jesus meets with the Sanhedrin who is judging Him, Peter stands outside the meeting place where there is a fire warming some people. A girl there says to him with the others listening that he was one of those who was with Jesus. Peter immediately denies her statement. A short time later, another girl makes the same charge that Peter had also been with Jesus. He emphatically denies her statement too by saying he does not know the man Jesus. Finally, some of the others say that he must be one of the followers of Jesus because his accent (Galilean) proved it. Next the Scripture says that Peter curses and swears and says again that he does not know the man.
Immediately after that, the rooster crows and something else very important happens. The Scripture says that the Lord turns and looks at Peter and their eyes meet. Oh, how devastating that must have been to Peter. He immediately remembers the Lord’s words that he would deny Him three times before the rooster would crow. Knowing how he had just done that as Jesus had prophesied and seeing Jesus face to face after his denial makes him leave and weep bitterly.
Our hearts go out to Peter. Would we have denied Jesus put in the same situation knowing we might face a flogging and crucifixion by telling the truth? We probably would have done the same thing. However, our Lord Jesus is a forgiving God and He not only forgives Peter but restores him as we will see later.