June 17, 2012 – John 18 – 18:27

The denial of Peter must be right up there with one of the most hurtful things ever done to Christ.  Judas betrays Him to the Jews, but Peter was there and made the confession and was the leader and swore he would not betray Him.  Yet, and I don’t know if I have written about this before, I think it may have been necessary for Peter to do in order to become what he was going to become.  In order to preach forgiveness, you have to have felt forgiveness.  In order to preach humility, you have to feel humiliation.  Peter was being groomed as the leader of the Church here on Earth.  In order to be credible he has to be able to say, “here is where I screwed up and humbly came back to Christ and He forgave me.”  In order to teach us that our sins are forgiven, he has to show us that even his sin has been forgiven.  Christ became incarnate so that we could have a new and more intimate relationship with God.  Sometimes I think Peter had to go through what he did so that the new leader of the Church would be able and ready to fulfill that duty.