When Jesus was seized and taken to the high priests, Peter followed at a distance with one of the other disciples who was known to the high priest, and was therefore let into the high priest’s courtyard. Once inside, the other disciple asked the girl on guard duty if Peter could join him, and once he received permission, he brought Peter into the courtyard. The people who were there started a fire and sat down beside it, where Peter joined them. A short time later, a servant girl came up to him and said, “You were also with Jesus of Galilee,” but Peter denied it and said, “Woman, I don’t know Him.” For the first time, Peter had denied that he knew Jesus.

A little while later, Peter walked to the gateway where a second servant girl saw him and said, “This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.” Peter had now denied that he knew Jesus, for the second time.

He said with an oath, “I don’t know this man!” A short while later some people walked up to Peter and said, “Surely you are one of them [one of the disciples of Jesus,] because your accent gives you away; to which Peter replied again angrily while cursing himself, “I don’t know this man.”

As he said this a rooster crowed and Jesus looked straight at Peter. Peter was horrified! – He remembered the words of Jesus, “[Peter] before the rooster crows twice, you will deny [that you know] me three times.” Jesus had told Peter this would happen, and it did. Peter then left the courtyard and cried bitterly because of his denial of Jesus.

This is certainly one of the saddest moments in the Bible as Jesus has just been grabbed and taken away, to stand accused in a false trial and then be killed. If this is not bad enough, His friends desert Him as well.

The scene would have been terrible: late at night and very cold, with the fire throwing an unfriendly light and shadows on the faces of the people. The people themselves would have huddled around the fire and gossiped about Jesus’ fate, with none of them caring whether He lived or died. This was a brutal time in history which meant the death of one person meant nothing to the average person, but what unbelievers didn’t realize was that the accused was not a person: He was Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Among this crowd was Peter, who really loved Jesus with all his heart, but he was too powerless and terrified to do anything. Peter went through an agony that we will probably never have to live through; he knew Jesus was the Son of God, and he knew that he was going to deny Jesus because Jesus had told him so, but despite that, he denied Jesus anyway.

When we read this some of us cry and some of feel great sadness; a few of us even think they would have acted differently and with more courage, but that isn’t true. Each time we are too shy to talk about or acknowledge Jesus in public, we are denying Him; further, each time we sin, we are denying Him.

Why did Peter deny Jesus? He denied Jesus to make Jesus’ words come true; to highlight the fact that Jesus was truly alone because even His closest friends abandoned Him, and simply because this was God’s will. God works in ways we cannot understand, and this was an example of that.

One large reason for Peter denying Jesus was to show us that even after a horrible act like this was done to Jesus, He still forgave Peter. The message is, that no matter what someone does to us, we must forgive them.

The passage ends with Jesus looking straight at Peter and Peter then crying bitterly for his denial. To deny Jesus is a serious thing, but a godly person will immediately repent, ask forgiveness and then realize he is forgiven. Peter, after agonizing, did all this then went on to do great things for Jesus and was finally martyred (killed for his faith).