The First Denial

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

THE FIRST DENIAL

John 18:12-18

12 Then the detachment of soldiers with its commander and the Jewish officials arrested Jesus. They bound him 13 and brought him first to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. 14 Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it would be good if one man died for the people. 15 Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus. Because this disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest's courtyard, 16 but Peter had to wait outside at the door. The other disciple, who was known to the high priest, came back, spoke to the girl on duty there and brought Peter in. 17 "You are not one of his disciples, are you?" the girl at the door asked Peter. He replied, "I am not." 18 It was cold, and the servants and officials stood around a fire they had made to keep warm. Peter also was standing with them, warming himself.

NIV

The arrest has happened and the procedure to have Jesus killed has begun. They have him bound, and in their grip, but for the sake of appearing righteous they are going to go through these steps. It is not absolutely clear why they needed the blessing of Annas for their evil deed. He had once held the office of the high priest and all five of his sons had succeeded him, also holding that office, now his son-in-law was the high priest. So it is assumed he still had a great deal of influence among the Jewish people and perhaps his house was the closest or first one they came to. Either way, it appears he was wealthy enough to have a home with a courtyard. It is unclear as to who the other disciple, who was known to the high priests, is. It is unlikely this was John, although he often uses the third person in describing himself. However, most of the time he describes himself as the one loved by Jesus. But this is not the person of interest here as Peter is the central figure of the disciples, which John uses this charade to show how Peter fulfills the words Jesus spoke to him about his denial. So Peter gains access to the courtyard through this other disciple. Apparently, this girl was the gatekeeper of the household, a servant no doubt of the ex-high priest Annas. Many people surely have come and visited this house and were needed to be admitted by someone. No one was able to just walk in, even to the courtyard, must less the home itself. As Peter was admitted, he must have looked different somehow then the others, or this girl may have seen Jesus with his disciples at the temple court, or some other place in Jerusalem. Either way she recognized Peter as one of Jesus’s disciples and questioned him about his identity. Was Peter that afraid to say, “Why yes I am”? Yet he still wanted to follow Jesus into this house, to be near him, maybe to watch over him, maybe to just be near because of his love for him. Nevertheless, he denied being one of the disciples of Jesus. Was this because he was in fear of being arrested along with Jesus? His love for him was not enough yet, to lay down his life for him. Later he would, but as yet, he had not been filled with the Spirit, so this love was tempered with fear. Here is where we can do some self-examination. Is our love for Jesus outright unabashed or is our love also tempered with a little fear? It is one thing to say that we are Christians, but maybe that is not enough. Many people, who are non-believers call themselves Christian because they live in this country and they are not of some other faith, such as Islam, Hindu, or Buddhist. Most people would not consider themselves Atheists either. So just saying we are a Christian may not define us as one who loves Jesus enough to lay down our life for him. There has to be another way for us to define ourselves, to separate ourselves from the masses who refer to themselves as Christians. They must be a way for us to show that we love Jesus, that we are one of his disciples, and not afraid to admit it. Perhaps we just have to use that kind of language. We love Jesus, we are his disciple, and we follow Jesus no matter the consequence. Let the chips fall where they may, we will not deny Jesus.