"Peter Wept Bitterly"

Matthew 26:73-75: A little later those who stood by came up and said to Peter, Surely you also are one of them, for your speech betrays you. Then he bagan to curse and swear, saying, I do not know the Man! Immediately a rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus who had said to him, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times. So he went out and wept bitterly.

Each of the gospels adds something to this picture of the denial by Peter. Mark adds that this was the second time that the rooster crowed. Luke adds the look that the Savior gave to Peter after he cursed in front of the crowd. John adds that one who was in the group of the servant of the high priest (whose ear Peter cut off) placed Peter in the garden with Christ. Matthew emphasizes the pathos of the moment in Peter's life--he went out and wept bitterly.

Peter knew what he was doing as he denied Christ with curses against His Savior. How that must have hurt Christ far more than those who struck Him in the face.

But think what it meant to Peter as well. When country music legend Tammy Wynette died, the real story was that former husband George Jones stood outside the church and wept bitterly. Was he responsible for her early demise? I am sure that those who knew all that he had done to her in their marriage would respond in the affirmative. He was most likely drunk, but he remembered what he had done. The key word in this passage is "remembered." That is a frightening concept--it wakes you in the night and you can't get back to sleep. The regrets of that brief episode would have placed Peter on the shelf for the rest of his life, and there would have been no relief. He could have done something, but he lied instead.

Perhaps uppermost in Jesus' mind was the restoration of His broken disciple, which is detailed in John 21.. Jesus looked beyond Peter's fault and saw his need. Thankfully that is what Jesus has done for us when He went to the Cross. Truly, amazing grace.