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When the rooster crows

Muriel Larson

Have you ever wondered about that rooster that crowed right after Peter denied his Lord (Matthew 27:73-74)? Christ had predicted that would happen. Through the cock’s crowing, Peter realized the awful sin he had committed and wept bitterly in repentance.

We know the Lord loved Peter. We know also that He dearly loves each one of His followers. Thus, as Christians, can we not be assured that if He had a rooster crow at the right time for Peter, He will have a rooster crow for us when we stray off the path of righteousness?

Could it be that our downward path toward disobedience and sin starts in the same way as Peter’s? When Jesus predicted that His disciples would desert Him, Peter declared, “Even if all fall away on account of You, I never will” (Matthew 26:33). Oh, how sure we get of ourselves sometimes! We get so sure that we find ourselves relying on our own strength instead of the Lord’s. The longer and stronger we go with the Lord, the more prone we seem to do this.

Then we go to sleep, as Peter did in the Garden of Gethsemane. “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?” Jesus asked Peter (Matthew 26:40). We may get so wrapped up in our ritual of “serving the church” that we go to sleep. We lose our vision. We settle into a nice, restful rut. We tell the Lord we would never deny Him, but we fall asleep when He needs us most.

We may still have some intermittent spurts of zeal. As the soldiers came to arrest Jesus, Peter leapt up with his sword and lopped an ear off the servant of the high priest. On the surface, this looks pretty brave, but Peter had not stopped to pray about it, even when he had been told by Jesus what would happen. In the flesh, Peter lopped off an ear; in the Spirit, Jesus restored it (Luke 22:51). Sometimes, in our spurts of zeal for the Lord, our efforts drive lost souls further from Him. How careful we must be in all His work to be led by His Spirit!

Now Peter’s faith was low. His Lord had been arrested and led away for trial. In the darkest hour before dawn, temptation struck, and Peter fell. He cursed and lied, but, worst of all, he denied three times the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Similarly, temptation strikes us at the darkest hour after we have relied upon ourselves, gone to sleep and worked in the flesh. Like Peter, we may fall.

Then, God has a rooster crow for us. It may be a sermon, a devotional message or a Bible lesson, or an illness or financial troubles may awaken us to the sin in our lives. When God confronts us and we realize how we have sinned, then, like Peter, we can repent, be forgiven and go on in His power to make our lives count for Him.

Muriel Larson is a freelance writer from Greenville, S.C.

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Last modified March 30, 2001.

© 2001 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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