It’s a guy thing. We don’t cry as often as women do. I know I don’t cry as often as my wife. Like her, I cry differently for different things. There are sad movies and comic relief times that draw a few tears. I even admit to bumping my leg recently with such force that it brought me to the ground and I shed a tear or two in pain. When I am sorry and feel bad for something I have done, sometimes I cry.
In this passage we see yet another kind of crying—weeping bitterly. Peter felt such deep remorse for his behavior that he cried a broken-hearted cry. What happened to him that crushed his spirit so completely?
I call it progressive regression. Peter did not see that he was falling away from Jesus. It happened so subtly and gradually that he did not notice. Denial, denial with an oath, denial with cursing and swearing was his step-by-step regression. That is the way sin works in my life, too. So gradually and subtly that it takes outside intervention of some kind to set me back on course.
It took the crow of a rooster to awaken Peter to the error of his ways. Later accounts of his life show he learned from this experience. Where are the quiet inroads of sin in my life that are causing me to slip away from my savior? Like Peter, I need a “rooster’s crow” to shake me up. My “rooster” often comes in words from my wife or friends. Sometimes words from reading the Bible or a sermon or a song or a sunrise offer the shake up I need to restore my relationship with God.
Steve Louden
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