Peter’s Denial (Matthew 26)

Peter’s denial of Jesus is of particular interest to me because he so fiercely fought for Jesus a few hours prior.  After all, Peter was the one who cut of the high priest’s servant’s ear when the men came to capture Jesus.  Peter wasn’t afraid of a fight.  In fact, he was expecting one.  Maybe that’s why he was so confused.  Jesus didn’t fight back the way he was expected to do.  When they came to take him in the night, he willingly gave himself over to them.  Those weren’t the actions of the political messiah whom the disciples thought Jesus was.  They had spent three years with Jesus, but did they really understand what he came to do?  When he gave himself up to the authorities and healed the ear of the servant, the disciples suddenly realized that Jesus wasn’t fighting for physical power – he wasn’t whom they expected him to be.  So when Peter denied knowing Jesus I wonder how much of that was very real.  Maybe Peter really didn’t know Jesus and was conflicted in his spirit about what was happening.  Thankfully, the story doesn’t end here with a very confused Peter.  I wonder how many people today, though, deny knowing God because they begin to realize that He’s not the God they learned about in their churches or in Sunday school.  He’s not the god of the Pharisees, which is often what we are raised to believe.  If you walked away from God, have you taken the time to understand whom you walked away from?