And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” 62 And he went out and wept bitterly.
Eye contact is a powerful thing that elicits many emotions. Think of a newborn and its mother staring into each other’s eyes. It produces romantic love between a boy and a girl. It also exposes sheer terror when someone catches us red handed. Imagine Peter’s emotions as the Lord turned and looked at him. It most likely was not a glare of anger or a stone faced stare. The next three words tell us why the look Jesus gave Peter was so devastating. Those three words, “And Peter remembered…”, take us back to all the descriptions in the gospels of the miracles of Jesus, the healings, the transfiguration, and the feeding of the multitudes. Peter was there and saw everything. He remembered the distant past. Then he remembered the recent past when he said, “I do not know the man, I am not one of them, and I do not know what you are talking about.” His reaction, weeping, is understandable.
The best thing about this story is the part that comes later. Jesus is risen, a conqueror over death, Peter is restored and becomes a pillar, as Paul called him, of the church. This is the best thing because it means that, no matter what we have done, he is risen, we are restored and we become a living stone in the church. Peter dreaded his eye contact with Jesus. We will not because we are his.
Remember that.
Pastor Brad Boyer
Cape Community Church