Peter's Denial

 This week in the Come Follow Me we are studying the events that occurred Thursday night of the last week of Jesus' life.  Of course, the most important thing that happened that night was the Jesus took upon himself our sins while praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, but I that is too big of a topic for a blog post. Instead, I want to explore Peter's betrayal.  There are two main views of Peter's betrayal among members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The most prevalent view is the one held by most Christians, that Peter had a moment of weakness, and fearing for his own life betrayed Jesus.  Then afterward he felt terrible about it and "wept bitterly" (Matt 26:69).  The other is one set forth by then Elder Spencer W Kimball (later president of the church) in a talk given at BYU on July 13, 1971.  In that talk Elder Kimball hypothesized that Jesus not only prophesied that Peter would deny him, (Matt 26:24) but also commanded Peter to deny him so that Peter would not at that time suffer his fate.

The issue here is the lack of video recordings of the event.  There is no way to know what facial expressions, what gestures, what pregnant pauses occurred as the lines were being spoken. Even a few emoji's could have helped:  "this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times" (;-)) would have cleared up a lot. But there is not video recording and there are no emoji's so we have to go by the evidence in the text.  I am generally of the opinion that Peter did have a moment of weakness.  Who can judge him?  He was watching Jesus be tortured by the mob.  Many of us can face death with courage, but fewer of us can face torture. Survival instinct kicks in and we are no longer in control of what we are saying or doing.  If this is the true interpretation, then the story of Peter's life after this event is inspiring.  He goes from denying Christ to being is most staunch and courageous advocate. He becomes the example of Jesus' love and long suffering for us, and a role model of how each of us can overcome weakness and become stronger. 

As I was studying these passages this week, I did see, however, more evidence than I had noticed before of Elder Kimball's version. Here are a few of them:

In Matthew 16:21 and Mark 8:31 Jesus clearly states that he was about to be betrayed and killed and then resurrected. I am not sure if Peter understood why this must happen, but he understood that it would happen.  Therefore, when he says, "If I must die with you, I will not deny you.” it was not a hypothetical boast.  He really believed that people would be dying and he could be one of them and he seemed to have steeled himself to that possibility.

Later, when Jesus is about to leave the upper room, Jesus says "When I sent you out without purse or bag or sandals, did you lack anything?” “Nothing,” they answered. “Now, however,” He told them, “The one with a purse should take it, and likewise a bag; and the one without a sword should sell his cloak and buy one."  (Luke 22:25-26).  In hindsight we understand that he said this because he knew that the Christians would be persecuted after his death, but the disciples thought he was asking them to arm themselves to defend him that evening.  Who was the one most eager to use force to defend Jesus?  It was Peter, of course.  He used one of the swords to cut off Malchus' ear (John 22:50).  Jesus knew Peter had misunderstood him, so his rebuke was gentle.  He healed Malchus' ear and then said to Peter, "shall I not drink the cup which the Father has given me?"  Could he have been reminding Peter of his command to stay safe and out of harm’s way as Jesus did what he knew he had to do?

 If Jesus knew that Peter would jump into the fray on his behalf and maybe get himself killed, he might have suggested to Peter that he should, instead, deny Jesus to save his own life.  Having to do so would have, I believe, also made Peter go out and weep bitterly afterward because he could not save Jesus when he so wanted to.  Or, Peter may have had a moment of weakness.  As he watched Jesus be mistreated by the Jews and the Romans, he could have lost his courage and that is why he denied Jesus.  We will all have to wait until the next life and ask Peter himself which it was. Could it have been a mixture of both?  The main take-a-way is that even though Peter denied Jesus that night, he was able to get over it, regain the respect of his brothers, and move forward to become the “Rock” Jesus had foretold he would.