Mark 14:72 Immediately the rooster crowed the second time. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows twice you will disown me three times.” And he broke down and wept.

The other Gospels mention the rooster, but Mark, recording Peter’s own recollections, specifies it crowing twice. I’m sure every detail of Jesus having told him this would happen, and then of it actually playing out, was etched in Peter’s memory like it was engraved in stone. The different Gospels also use different expressions to describe Peter’s response to the realization of what he had done. Matthew and Luke both say he “wept bitterly,” but here it says he “fell apart weeping,” to use the specific terminology in the Japanese. The picture painted is about the same, but I’m sure Peter felt he could do nothing but weep. The fact that the rooster crowed twice puts an extra twist on the story. How could Peter not have realized what was going on when he heard it the first time?  I think that’s a testimony to how uptight he was, how wrapped up in the fear that he too might be arrested and crucified. The sound probably didn’t even register, except in memory after the second crow. It wasn’t that Peter was forced to do this, but rather that his human weakness, common to us all, was in full display. That’s why Peter is such an important example for us.

I have done things, and particularly said things, that I regretted as soon as they happened. Even in the moment, it almost seemed like I was in slow motion, but I still didn’t stop. I can’t explain it, but I certainly identify with what Paul wrote in Romans 7! The comfort in that is that I have also experienced God’s incredible grace, mercy, and forgiveness. I am never to condemn myself, but neither am I to excuse myself. Sin must be acknowledged and confessed for it to be forgiven. I wish I didn’t have quite so much experience in that! However, it should give me empathy for those around me, helping me forgive as I have been forgiven. Again, forgiving isn’t the same thing as excusing. I’m sure Peter was quite forgiving after this, but that didn’t keep him from speaking sternly to Ananias and Sapphira. (Acts 5) As I have commented before, I don’t enjoy exercising church discipline, but I must not run from it. God has corrected me, and I must be willing to be His instrument in correcting others, when that is called for.

Father, thank You again for Peter’s example. I have been encour­aged many times by his letters, remembering his history. I am certainly as flawed as he was, but I want to be as available and useful to You as he was, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!