14:26-31 – One of the truly
marvelous things about the Gospels, which derive from the disciples’ own
teaching-authority, is their honesty. Mark, in particular, shows no hesitation
in portraying all of the disciples as bumbling idiots, and none more so than
Peter. Astonishingly, according to reliable early church traditions, the Gospel
of Mark was based on Peter’s own reflections of the life of Jesus. So Peter,
for all his foibles and failings, had the humility to present himself as he
truly was, and in this story it comes out with shocking clarity. Jesus predicts
to the disciples that they will all fall away. He says this to preface his
encouraging instruction that after he has risen, he will go on ahead of them to
Galilee. Jesus, it seems, was letting them know about their failure in advance,
not to forestall it, but rather to assure them that despite it, they would
still be his disciples, and he would rise again, and they could follow him
again, right back on their old beloved stomping-grounds in Galilee, where they
had started. It’s a message of profound encouragement in the face of a fearful
time. The disciples, as they usually do, manage to miss the point entirely, and
instead fixate on the troubling prediction of their falling away. How often do
we, too, miss what the Lord is trying to do in our lives by way of
encouragement and inspiration, because we are too fixated on our own worries,
fears, and vanities? Peter speaks for the group (or, rather, against the group,
since he separates himself by saying, “Even if all fall away, I will not”) in
protesting this prediction. But Jesus repeats it, and in a far more specific
form—Peter will deny him three times before the cock crows twice. Peter
responds with his habitual bluster, and proclaims his loyalty to Jesus to the
death. Although he perhaps would have done better to respond with obedient
sorrow than with the fire of pride, his sentiment is commendable enough: he
truly wants to be true to Jesus, and not to disown him. But it’s one thing to
pledge one’s devotion when things are going well, and quite another to follow
it through when difficulties arise. How many times have we pledged to abandon
our besetting sins, but then found ourselves feeling far less powerful against
them when actually facing down the teeth of our temptation?