“Meanwhile, the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. ‘I have spoken openly to the world,’ Jesus replied. ‘I always taught in the synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret. Why question me? Ask those who heard me. Surely they know what I said.’” John 18:19-21 We live in a society that tolerates a lot of different belief systems. And possibly, the Gentiles in Jesus’ day did as well. But the Jewish people did not tolerate any divergence from their beliefs. They spent hours discussing and debating the finer points of their laws. They did it in public and in classrooms. And the older, wiser leaders carried more authority than younger rabbis did.
Throughout his ‘trial’ (if you can call it that), Jesus did not speak much in his own defense. But here he is defending himself, not regarding the truth in his teaching, but the truth that he was teaching in public. He was not trying to hide anything from the other rabbis but spoke openly in synagogue and at the temple. And for this answer, he was slapped. “’Is this the way you answer the high priest?’ he demanded.” John 18:22 I’m confused. It seems Jesus was as well. “’If I said something wrong,’ Jesus replied, ‘testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?’” John 18:23
It seems the trial was over before it even began. They did not want to hear what Jesus had to say. They had made up their minds. He made them uncomfortable and he had to go. It seems that the trial was set up to ‘follow procedure’ rather than an effort to discover the truth. How sad that the one who established all the laws of the universe was not given a fair hearing.
Meanwhile, out by the fire in the courtyard, Peter is trying to get warm. He is questioned again, “… ‘You are not one of his disciples, are you?’ He denied it, saying, ‘I am not.’ One of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, challenged him, ‘Didn’t I see you with him in the olive grove?’ Again Peter denied it, and at that moment a rooster began to crow.’” John 18:25-27 There is still enough boldness in him that he is staying near Jesus and wants to know what is happening to his teacher. He even finds himself standing next to people who were part of the contingent that came out to the olive grove to find Jesus and arrest him. I don’t know about anyone else, but I would have had a pretty hard time telling the truth in this situation. It seems it would have been a sure way to be standing in there next to Jesus, and at this point, it didn’t look good for his friend.
John says no more about Peter until after the resurrection. But Luke tells us that, “The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: ‘Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.’ And he went outside and wept bitterly.” Luke 22:61-62 How conflicted Peter must have been! He felt powerless to do anything. Jesus had told him to put away his sword. That was the only way he knew how to help his friend that had been taken away. He still cared enough to be there, but he couldn’t do anything. Helpless, he turned away and wept.
When I think about Peter’s personality as we see it throughout the three years with Jesus, this sense of powerless must have been part of God’s plan to totally clean Peter out from any ideas that he could save himself, that he was more important than anyone else, or that he could defend God. It was time to humble him in order to open him up to later be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. There would be no question as to who was in control. It must have been hard for Jesus to watch his friend going through this, yet he knew that Peter was going to come back a much stronger person, fully dependent upon God rather than himself.
I have a friend going through treatments for leukemia. It seems that with leukemia, the stem cells go bad and do not function properly. In order to treat leukemia, they kill off the original stem cells in the blood and transplant good stem cells in their place. In a way, that is what needs to happen to us spiritually. We need to get rid of all the old ideas and perceptions that don’t ‘work properly’ in order for God to replace them with his ways. Paul calls it ‘dying to self’ in his Epistles.
Fortunately, most of us don’t need to go through the extreme situation Peter found himself in to find the end of ourselves and the beginning of God. I have found that God works on me one situation at a time, helping me to recognize my weaknesses so they can be replaced with his power. As long as I continue to spend time building my relationship with him and give him permission to work in my life, he is faithful to do just that. And while there may be pain in the process from time to time, it is always replaced by great joy as I see him working and changing my life and others for the better. God keeps replacing my lies (I need to save myself) with his truth (his love for me has already saved me)!
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