Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Mark 14:72

And the second time the cock crew. And Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him, Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. And when he thought thereon, he wept.

72. And Peter called to mind ] That glance of sorrow went straight to the Apostle’s heart; all that his Lord had said, all His repeated warnings rushed back to his remembrance, and lit up the darkness of his soul. He could contain himself no longer, and

when he thought thereon ] for so we have rendered the original word. Others render it (i) abundantly = “he wept abundantly,” as in the margin; others (ii) “ he began to weep; ” others (iii) “ he threw his mantle over his head; ” others (iv) “ he flung himself forth and wept,”

he wept ] Not with the remorse of Judas, but the godly sorrow of true repentance. Observe that the Apostle has not lessened his fault, for it is from him, doubtless, through St Mark, we are informed “that the first crowing of the cock did not suffice to recal him to his duty, but a second was needed.” Lange.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Mar 14:68; Mar 14:72

But he denied.

The foulness of Peters sin

1. He denies flatly and peremptorily.

2. He gives a double denial; implying more resolution. And both his denials are distinct and manifest lies.

3. He denies Christ before a multitude.

(1) Bad enough to have denied Christ before one witness. How much worse before so many?

(2) He who denies Christ before any man, shall be denied by Him before the Father. What a great sin to deny Him before all men!

(3) In so great a company were a number of wicked men, and now Peter exposes the name of Christ to all their scorn and opprobrium. He animates and hardens them, and takes part with them in the rejection of Christ.

(4) There were also some weak ones and well-wishes to Christ. Peters action weakens and scandalizes these, and perhaps prevents some of them coming forward in defence of the Lord. (Dr. Thomas Taylor.)

It is hard to confess Christ in danger

1. Because of Satans malice. He will do all in his power to keep men from confessing Christ openly, and to make them deny Him.

2. The strength of our natural corruption makes it difficult to resist Satans attacks.

3. Weakness of faith and graces.

(1) Think it not an easy thing to confess Christ in trial, nor a thing to be performed by our own power; but pray for the Spirit of strength.

(2) Pray for wisdom when and how to confess.

(3) Pray for faith. (Dr. Thomas Taylor.)

The porch of sin

Many step out of the midst of sin but hang about the porch. They would not be outrageous sinners, but retain a snatch or taste; not open adulterers, but adulterous eyes, thoughts, and speeches; not noted drunkards, but company keepers and bibbers; not blasphemous swearers by wounds and bloods, but by faith, troth, God, etc. All this is to remain in the porch of sin. (Dr. Thomas Taylor.)

Difficult to quit bad company

In that Peter sticks in the porch, and comes back among those whom he had forsaken, learn how difficult it is for a man who has been long used to bad company and courses, to be brought to leave it altogether. He will either look back, or else tarry in the porch. Sin and sinners are like bird lime. The more Peter strives to get out, the more he finds himself limed and entangled. (Dr. Thomas Taylor.)

Why God did not prevent Peters fall

1. He would give us and the whole Church an example of infirmity and weakness, by the fall of such a man.

2. The strongest must learn fear and watchfulness, and while they stand take heed lest they fall, lest the enemy suddenly overcome them as he did Peter.

3. To crush mens presumption, and teach them to attribute more to the word of Christ than their own strength. Had Peter done this, he had not so shamefully fallen.

4. To take away all excuse for men in after ages setting up Peter as an idol. (Dr. Thomas Taylor.)

To avoid sin, avoid occasions

He that would avoid sin must carefully avoid occasions, which are the stronger because of our own natural inclination to evil. He that would not be burnt must not touch fire, or go upon the coals. Beware of evil company. Consider thine own weakness, and the power of evil to seduce. (Dr. Thomas Taylor.)

To avoid sin, keep close to Gods Word

He that would avoid occasion of sin, must hold himself to Gods commandment, and within the limits of his own calling. If Peter had done this, he had not fallen so foully. Christ having expressed His will and pleasure, he should not have so much as deliberated upon it, much less resolved against it. But he forgets the word and commandment of Christ, and so falls into sin. (Dr. Thomas Taylor.)

How we are to show love to a friend

Here is a notable rule to be observed in friendships. Examine the love thou showest to thy friend, by the love of God.

1. Take heed thy love be subordinate to the love of God; so that, if thou canst not please both, thou please not thy friend at the cost of Gods displeasure (Mat 10:37). Peter should first have loved Christ as his Lord, and then as his friend. Had he so done, he would have kept His word.

2. Love the Word better than thy friend. Peter should have stuck to Christs road, instead of His person.

3. See thy love to thy friend be not preposterous, that thy affection destroy him not. The subtlety of Satan creeps into our friendships and fellowships, so that by our improvidence, instead of helping, we hurt them more than their enemies could do. We must pray for wisdom and judgment, that neither willingly nor unawares we either council or lead them into any sin, or uphold any sin in them, or hinder in them any good. (Dr. Thomas Taylor.)

The corrupting influence of bad company

See how soon even Gods children are corrupted with wicked company. Even Peter, a great and forward disciple of Christ, full of zeal and courage, who will pray, profess, and immediately before draw the sword in Christs quarrel, now can deny Him among persecutors. Great is the force of wicked company to pervert even a godly mind.

1. There is a proneness in godly men to be withdrawn by evil company. As the body is infected by pestilential air, so the mind by the contagion of bad company.

2. There is a bewitching force in evil company to draw even a good mind beyond his own purpose and resolution. (Dr. Thomas Taylor.)

Reasons for avoiding evil company

1. There cannot be true fellowship with God and His enemies too.

2. Every mans company tells what he is. Ravens flock together by companies; and so do doves. The good man will not willingly stand in the way of sinners.

3. The practice of wicked men should make good men shun their company; for wherein are their sports and delights, but in things which displease God and grieve His Spirit, and the spirits of all who love God and His glory? What can a good man see in such company, but must either infect him, or at least offend him in almost everything? (Dr. Thomas Taylor.)

Godly company the best

It seems very sweet to sit warm among wicked men, to eat and drink and be jovial with them; but there is a bitter sauce for such meats. On the contrary, in company of godly men thou art under the shadow of Gods mercy for their sakes. God loves His children and their friends. For Lots sake His family was saved. (Dr. Thomas Taylor.)

The fall of Peter

A great study in human nature is here presented.

I. The origin of Peters fall. Do not overlook-

1. The quarrel in Peters heart with Christs methods. Christs plan was to conquer by suffering; Peters to conquer by resisting. This inward divergence produced the outward separation. Beware of quarrelling with Gods dealings, or methods, or demands; the most common of all sources of backsliding.

2. Peters pride helped his fall.

II. The process of Peters fall.

1. Following Christ afar off (Luk 22:54)-half-heartedly, not close, not to testify to the Sanhedrin for Him, but simply to see the end (Mat 26:58). Close to Christ in the path of duty you are kept warm; sluggish and distant, the heart chills and grows feeble.

2. He entered into temptation.

3. A subtle snare is laid for him. If the three challenges had taken place in a reversed order, probably Peter would not have fallen by them. Had the men come first, his manhood might have risen to meet the challenge. But a housemaid does not put him on his mettle. Thrown off his guard, he tells his first lie, and it has afterwards to be backed up by more falsehoods and deadlier denials, putting a gulf between himself and Christ which, but for Christs grace, would have been eternal.

III. The commonness of similar transgression. Not a question of who is guilty, but who is guiltless of this fault. All hiding of the face from Christ, all secrecy of fear, which leads people to assume we have nothing to do with Christ, all leaving Him unowned and undefended, is a sin identical in nature with Peters. Each should ask, Lord, is it I? (R. Glover.)

St. Peters fall

Let us take warning from this-

1. Not to rely on our own strength for steadfastness in the moment of trial, but to trust only in Divine grace.

2. Not to suppose our own power of resistance to temptation is greater than that of others. Rather, when we see another sin, let us in him see our own selves, and pray God for him as we would for ourselves. When we see another steadfast in the faith, let us pray that he may preserve that gift which he has unto the end.

3. To heed every warning that is mercifully given us. When the cock crew for the first time, it seems wonderful that St. Peter was not reminded of Christs prediction, nor restrained from subsequent denials. But sin deafens the heart to every voice, and blinds the eye to all signs. (W. Denton, M. A.)

Fall and restoration

There are MSS., you know, called palimpsest, i.e., written upon twice. The original inscription upon them, which was fair, and full of Divine wisdom, has been defaced, and in its place may now be seen letters and words and sentences in contrast to what was described before. So with the characters of men-even good men. Over their better nature you may see scratched in ugly scrawls very obvious imperfections and frailties. But, thank God, often do we witness, after the process of defacement, a process of restoration. Divine grace, through discipline of various descriptions, rubs out the evil and brings back the good, and causes the soul at last to reveal again most distinctly what had only been dimmed and not destroyed; even as there has been discovered a method by which such ancient writings can be made to exhibit once more what seemed-but only seemed-forever spoiled. (Dr. Thomas Taylor.)

Danger of one false step

We see in Peters fall the danger of a first false step. As he entered the house he denied his discipleship to the portress; he did wrong that good might come. He loved his Master; he sought to be with or near Him; he desired to see the end. What was the harm of merely a white lie to gain this great advantage? But the white lie led to black denial, and to a false oath. When he had assured Jesus that, though all might deny Him, yet would not he, Peter had supposed the case of his being brought up for trial before the Sanhedrin. And it is possible that he would have stood firm under such a trial, but this temptation came on him from an unexpected quarter, and when he was unprepared to meet it; that is why he fell. He would have confessed his discipleship before the High Priest, but he denied it to the young woman who kept the gate. From this we learn that we must be always prepared to meet temptation, and that the most treacherous and dangerous of temptations come upon us suddenly, without giving us time to prepare, and in a way unexpected. Peters heart was sound from first to last; he never wavered in his love. His spirit was willing, but the flesh was very weak. This makes the difference between venial and wilful sin. Wilful sin is committed by deliberate consent of the will to what is evil. The fall of Peter was not wilful. Venial sin is the fault of infirmity, the fall through weakness against the propose of the heart. Such was the fall of Peter. We see in his repentance the harmfulness of venial sin. We are apt to make light of sin if it be not wilful. This sin of Peters was not wilful, yet his heart was broken and contrite for it. (S. Baring Gould, M. A.)

Discrepancies in the narratives of the Evangelists may be harmonized

It is well known that there are varieties of detail in the four records of St. Peters three-fold denial. The discrepancies have been spoken of as irreconcilable, and attempts to shake the credibility and trustworthiness of Holy Scripture have been based upon this supposition. Careful examination will show that the incidents given by the different Evangelists are completely in harmony with the belief that there were three denials, i.e., three acts of denial, of which the several writers have taken such features as seemed to be most significant for their purpose. The multiplicity of charges may well be illustrated out of our own experience. We have witnessed, no doubt, a scene in which a crowd of people in a state of excitement are setting upon an individual whom they believe to have done something of which they disapprove. No sooner has one begun to accuse him of it than another comes up and adds to the charge, another insists upon it with gestures of violence, another can prove it if they will only let him speak, and then perhaps several cry out at once. The bewildered man tries to exculpate himself from the Babel of charges. He says anything and everything in the excitement of the moment, and at last, when matters become desperate, loses all control over his words. This is almost exactly what happened in the last act of denial in the courtyard of the High Priests palace. St. Peter was driven to bay by a multitude of excited assailants, and perhaps hardly knowing, certainly not realizing, what he said, he appealed to heaven, and called down Divine vengeance upon his head if his denial were untrue. (H. M. Luckock, D. D.)

Peter denies his Lord

I. The circumstances under which this great guilty act was performed are exceedingly dramatic. The story shifts its phases like pictures in a play.

1. The scene is laid in the quadrangle of the High Priests house in Jerusalem, whither the miscellaneous mob of people had hurried Jesus after His apprehension in the garden of Gethsemane. It will be necessary for those who desire to understand this narrative to form for themselves a conception of Peters precise whereabouts during such a grand crisis of his history. Eastern dwellings of the better sort appear to have been built around a four-sided court-an interior space like a private yard enclosed-frequently paved with flat flagging stone, and open to the sky overhead. Into this area a passage from the street led by an arched opening through one side of the house. Heavy folding doors guarded the entrance, leaving a smaller wicket gate near by for the convenience of visitors who came familiarly or one at a time. Usually this was kept by a porter. Such, in all likelihood, was the general fashion of Caiaphas palace. Simon Peter was inside of the wicket standing there in the courtyard.

2. The company into the midst of which before this John, the beloved disciple, had found his way, and which he does not appear to have unused even to notice as he hurried through, was made up of servants and soldiers. Belated and bewildered by their unwonted excitements on the night of our Saviours trial, they had kindled a fire of coals out in the area. The hour of this arraignment was unusual, the air was chilly, and the confusion was full of discomfort. The entire group appears irritable and maliciously disposed. The girls are coarse, the military men boisterous and brutal, the Levites insolently triumphant, as they see their victim now in what they deem the right hands, and the waiters abusive and impudent. Everything shows picturesquely there among the flitting dresses and uniforms. The flame makes all the quadrangle dance with uncouth shadows, and the faces of the men and maidens are ruddy under the red glow of the coals. Ill-tempered and testy with the raw air of the midnight, they jostle each other and join roughly in gibes about the discomfiture and capture of this Nazarene prophet at last.

3. Enter Simon Peter now, the chief actor in this awful tragedy of the denial. Into the midst of the throng comes a burly figure, a quick-stepping individual, evidently trying to do that peculiar thing which almost everybody, one time or another in his life, has tried to do, and nobody at any time has ever succeeded in accomplishing, namely, to look unconscious and unconcerned when absorbently anxious, and to seem unnoticed and unembarrassed when he knows the rest are all staring at him. That newcomer is our well-known friend Simon, the son of Jonas; and he is now endeavouring to act at perfect ease, although he is certain that he is and ought to be an object of suspicion from the beginning. He sat with the servants (Mar 14:54), and warmed himself at the fire. Picture him now, away from all his friends, among the sullen enemies of his Lord. There is some evidence that this disciple imagined he might pass himself off for one of the crowd who went out to apprehend Jesus, if only he mingled unabashed with the chilly company around the coals. So he pressed nearer, and this was exactly what hastened his exposure.

4. Now commences the dialogue of the drama. A girl kept the outer door; this reminds us of the office of the damsel named Rhoda (Act 12:13), whom we meet in another part of Peters history farther on.

II. We must arrest our study of the melancholy story here, for it is high time that we should seek for the practical lessons taught in this transgression of Peter.

1. We see, for one thing, how commonplace is even the most notable of human sins. This denial of his Lord will always be quoted as the characteristic wickedness of Simon Peter. It stands out in history as one of the vast crimes of the world and the race. To deny Christ is so simple a thing that we can fall into it, and hardly know it at the time. This sin is not singular nor unusual. Christs cause is on trial now as really as was Christ Himself in the High Priests palace. We stand in jeopardy every hour. Satans ingenious policy is to come suddenly upon us with the surprise of a question with ridicule in it. So small a matter as emitting family prayer because a stranger is in our dwelling, as putting on a ribald air when one twits us with being serious, may have in it all the meaning and the meanness of Peters sin. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

2. Again: we see the immeasurable peril of just one act of wrongdoing. Indeed, one act never seems to remain alone. This first denial led to two more of the same sort; then to lying, then to profanity. It is as supreme a folly to talk of a little sin as it would be to talk of a small decalogue that forbids it, or a diminutive God that hates it, or a shallow hell that will punish it. Sin is registered according to heavenly measurements of holiness and majesty.

3. We see, likewise, a ready explanation of the mysterious falls into sin sometimes noticed in the lives of really good men. No one doubts that Simon Peter was a regenerate Christian man: how happens it that he crashes down into wickedness so suddenly? The answer to this question must be found in the disclosures of this disciples previous history. He had for a long time been preparing for this disaster. One of the brightest of our modern writers has given us a simile somewhat like this. If a careless reader lets fall a drop of ink in among the leaves of a book he is just closing, it will strike through the paper both ways. When he opens the volume again, he can begin with the earliest faint appearance of the stain, and measure by its increase his progress towards the great black point of defacement. Open it now anywhere, and he will detect some traces of the coming spot. He can turn back to it; he can turn forward from it. So of this great base act of the Apostle Peter, which we call emphatically the denial. It is a stain in the middle of his life. Most of us have a profound admiration and a tender love for this old Bethsaida fisherman, even if we do deny he was ever set up for the first pope. But hitherto, as we have been studying his biography, we might often have seemed to see the denial coming. Along the way hints of it appear. One who reads the Gospels for the first time would be likely to remark, Here is a man who will be in awful shame and trouble some day, for he thinks he stands safely; he is going to fall. This might be true of most self-confident Christians who lapse into sin; the wickedness has been growing upon them longer than they thought. Men fall, so once said Guizot, on the side towards which they lean. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)

Peters denial of Jesus

We speak of a sudden death; when the doctor had long been warning the man who has just died that he might die at any moment. We speak of a sudden bankruptcy; which, however, the commercial prophets had long secretly foretold. We speak of the sudden fall of a tree in a tempest; when, under a fair bark and a leafy shade, it had long been only a thing of powder. We speak of the sudden fall of a soul; when in that soul the causation of that fall had long been working out of sight.

I. Think of this deed in connection with a certain weakness in which it began. That sin began, not in a sin, but in a weakness. The strength of a rope is to be measured, not according to what it is in its strongest, but in its weakest point. The strength of a ship is to be estimated, not according to her strongest, but her weakest part; let but the strain come on that, let that be broken, no matter how strong in any other part she may be, the mighty ship, being conquered there, will go down. So it is with the strength of a soul. Peter had many strong points, but one weak one; and that one, undetected by himself, was at the beginning of this disaster. It was the weakness of excessive constitutional impulsiveness. Impulse is beautiful and good; but impulse is only like steam in the works of a factory, or wind in the sails of a yacht. Impulse is a good servant of the soul, but a bad master. Impulse may act with as much emotional force in a wrong direction as in a right. Even when its direction is right, if left to itself, it is not safe. But for this weakness, a soul might often be saved just in time from the special kind of danger to which other weaknesses specially lead. There is a man who feels it a pain to contradict, and a pleasure to acquiesce; and when in the company of errorists, this weakness is his danger. There is a man whose weakness is an agonizing consciousness of ridicule. There is a man, a favourite with us all, whose simplicity we love, at whose heroics we smile, but whose weakness is that he is apt to think too highly of himself. Did any man with all these foibles but take the steadfast poise of principles, did he but take time, he might be saved from the action of them all.

II. Think of this act of Peter in connection with his entrance into the temptation to commit such an act. Enter not into temptation, said the Master; and within a few minutes from the time of that order the servant entered into it. He loved Christ far too deeply to deny Him; be had never denied Him yet, and was not likely to do so now. Ah! he had never yet been tried. You, perhaps, are a man of splendid morality, but you hardly know how much your integrity depends upon circumstances; you have never yet had it tried. There may be no accident before a train starts from the station; but let there be an undetected flaw only in one axle, and, when the locomotive is spinning along the line at the rate of forty miles an hour, there may be a great crash of property and life. Peter thought himself an iron man; but there was a flaw in his iron, though he knew it not until he had entered into a trial for which he was not fitted; then the iron broke!

III. Think of Peters denial of Christ in connection with the account of its three occasions. God pity that youth who has just uttered his first lie! If eventually saved from the evil it has already set working, God alone can save him. No liar can alter the law of the lie, and that law is, that the first lie has a generative power, that one lie compels another, that one lie requires another to back it, that one lie spreads and ramifies into endless evolutions.

IV. Think of Peters denial in connection with the treatment that Christ was receiving at the time. A seer tells us that he once saw heaven, and had a glimpse of the treatment Jesus receives there. This is his report: I saw also the Lord, sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. Now turn to this place on earth, and see how the Holy One is treated there. Do you not now see how the pictured memory of this episode came into the phrase of John the Divine, the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ?

V. Think of Peters denial of Christ in connection with Christs act of restoring love. Simultaneously, the startled man turned to look at his Master, and his Master turned to look at him. We are awed before the calm sovereignty of that look, no less than by its loving kindness. He spoke with His eye, says Erasmus. We may not imagine what the look was like, but we know what effect it had upon the disciple. The outgoing power of the Lord that went with it struck his heart, as once the prophets rod struck the rock, and made the waters flew. It touched, and set flowing, frozen memories. With only self to lean upon, lower and lower would have been the inevitable fall; but just in time the Lord lifted him by a look! Some structures can only be saved by being ruined. They have in them such slack work and such bad materials, that it is of no use to patch them, or to shore them up; the only thing to be done is to pull them down altogether and build them again. Some lives can only be saved by a desperate operation. Some souls can be saved only through being for an instant hung, as by a hair, over the pit of the lost. A certain man was seen for many years rich, prosperous, influential in the State; that very man was afterwards seen, down on his hands and knees, in the livery of degradation, scrubbing the floor of a convict prison. In his days of worldly honour he had made profession of the Christian faith, and not without sincerity; but egotism was suffered to master him. He fell. In the shock of that fall, in the recoil that comes of despair, he was saved as by fire. (Charles Stanford, D. D.)

Peters denial

I. Peter never meant to deny his Lord. He believed now, as clearly as he did that day at Caesarea Philippi, Thou art the Christ, etc. He was honest in saying, Though I should die with Thee, yet will I not deny Thee. He proved that soon after by drawing his sword in defence of Christ. Any believer may have a like assurance. There is the peril. If there should come to a Sabbath congregation a voice from heaven, declaring that someone there would one day turn out a thief, how impossible it would seem! Every one would think there must be a mistake; the message has come to the wrong church, or, at least, it does not mean me. Of course not. Satan says to us all, Think of your faith, your virtue, your blood, your position. And when he has beguiled us into such self-complacency, he begins his manoeuvres, not asking us at first to do anything dishonest, but commencing on the borderline between his kingdom and the Lords, knowing if we yield to him in things that are doubtful, we will soon yield to him in things that are sure. A leading member of a city church, caught in a shameful crime, wrote his friends: I am astonished at the blindness and wickedness of my course.

II. Peter went voluntarily into the way of temptation. Peter thought very likely that he was safe in such company, because nobody would know him. A Christian had better not stay at the fire with the ungodly. Satan did not come to him as a roaring lion, but in a mere whisper. Who could draw a sword at a young girl? If he had contemplated her question, he might have had ready an answer that would have been truthful without giving offence. Often the science of truth-telling is to look out for emergencies; to have ready an answer that shall be polite and true. But that is essentially the science of all virtue. It is the trials which take us by surprise that measure our strength; it is at these crises that destiny is made. And such unlooked-for assaults are sure to come to a Christian who goes voluntarily into the way of temptation. One who does not watch has no right to pray. A man, exhorted to abandon a habit of drinking that was fast dragging him to ruin, replied: I magnify more than you do the grace of God. Without drinking anyone could save himself. I believe in grace that can save a man when he does drink. He held that delusion till he died a sot. That is a Divine law with reference to all sin. If you throw yourself from the top of the temple, God has power to keep your bones from breaking; but you had better not do so, for it is written: Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. The precept, Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall, means, if you are walking in slippery places, watch every little danger, every least step. One may slip as badly on a foot of ice as on an acre. Peter would not have fallen if he had remembered Christs caution spoken to him: Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation.

III. Peter repented. There is no other way back to Christ for one who has fallen.

IV. Peter found mercy. (T. J. Holmes.)

The denier

Let us endeavour to understand this melancholy event, Peters denial of his Lord. In order to this, let us advert to the circumstances which attended it, and the causes which led to it; and then consider seriously the improvement which we should make of it.

I. The circumstances under which an offence is committed often greatly affect its character; they sometimes even change its complexion altogether. The first circumstance of aggravation is found in the repeated warnings which he received. Forewarned is forearmed; when, therefore, Peter had been warned by our Lord of his danger, we might have expected on his part the utmost vigilance and prayerfulness. The second circumstance of aggravation is found in the solemn protestations and vows which he made. After each warning he solemnly avowed his willingness to go with his Lord to prison and to death. Humility, self-abasement, prayers, tears, had been far more suitable in his case than those solemn protestations. And ever does it become us to say, Hold Thou me up, and I shall be safe. The third circumstance of aggravation is found in the recentcy of the warnings and vows to which we have adverted. If the warnings had been given, and the vows made, some years before, they might have been forgotten; but they were all given and made the same night in which the offence was committed. A very few hours only could have elapsed between the last warning especially, and the first denial. A fourth circumstance of aggravation is found in the repetition of the offence. It was not once that he denied his Lord, but a second, and again a third time. And this leads to another circumstance of aggravation, that is to say, the profaneness and the perjury with which his denial was attended. We have just seen that the second time he did not simply deny his Lord, but he did it with an oath. He appealed to high heaven as his witness and his judge-when he swore falsely. The last circumstance of aggravation which we shall notice is, that all this was done in the very presence of the Redeemer. It was not done in a corner: it was not a secret offence, which might forever remain unknown; but it was done publicly, before many witnesses. John was there. It was in the presence of this faithful friend that Peter denied his Lord-with oaths and curses. Above all, Jesus was there.

II. Such are the circumstances of aggravation which marked the offence of Peter; we shall now advert with great brevity to the causes of this strange conduct. How can we account for it?

1. One cause is found in the known character of Peter. He was a man of ardour, impetuosity, zeal; but, like many others of a similar temperament, he was destitute of moral courage. There is no necessary connection between physical and moral courage, some of the finest specimens of the former having proved themselves utterly destitute of the latter. How many there are who suffer from the same moral infirmity! Let our young friends especially guard against it, and labour to correct it. In order to this I would earnestly recommend two things.

(1) An intimate acquaintance with some of the noble characters presented to us in history, as well as with some of the writings of choice spirits which have the most direct tendency to strengthen the mind. Let them steep their minds in the noble sentiments which are there so appropriately expressed.

(2) An habitual realization of the Divine presence. Let them feel that Gods eye is ever upon them; and let it be their study to approve themselves to Him.

2. We have another cause in the state of mind which he had recently indulged. I refer particularly to his overweening confidence and pride. The solemn warnings of his Lord ought to have humbled him; but his confidence was in himself, not in his God. God will humble the proud, but will give grace to the lowly.

3. A third cause is found in the danger, real or imaginary, in which he was placed. It would not appear that there was any danger involved in the fact of his discipleship. John was a disciple; known as such to the High Priest, and yet he was in the palace, and appears to have apprehended no danger. But Peter had been active, in one sense mischievously active, in the garden. He had cut off the ear of the servant of the High Priest, and this might be construed into a crime; an attempt to rescue or prevent the capture of a criminal. Hence Peters fears; his wish to be unknown; his denial. How closely rashness and cowardice are allied!

III. Let us now see what instruction we may derive from this mournful spectacle. We regard it as an affecting illustration of the frailty of our nature; as a melancholy proof of what man can do under the influence of temptation, considered simply as a morally imperfect being. It thus presents one phasis at least of human character in an instructive light. Let us illustrate this. We may divide the human family into three classes. First, there are, in the worst sense of the term, wicked beings-beings whose moral nature is entirely perverted, whose good is evil; malevolent beings who can do evil for evils sake, and have real delight in mischief. There are others who have by no means attained to this completeness in evil, who are, nevertheless, the slaves of some one dominant passion. And from his affecting ease we see what evil a man may commit, how low he may sink in moral degradation from mere frailty, from inherent defectiveness of character, when sore pressed by a temptation adapted to his weakness. It may be proper to remark here, that one act, whether good or bad, does not constitute a character. We should guard against the severity, the injustice of representing men as guilty of hypocrisy, of insincerity, because they have once, or even twice, under the influence of temptation, acted in opposition to their professions. The fall of Peter is further instructive to us, as it affords a striking illustration of mans ignorance of himself. How little man knows-can know of what is in him! The fall of Peter calls upon us to review our past history, and to look carefully into our own hearts. We may learn from the case of Peter the nature of true repentance. Peter went out and wept bitterly. If we compare the case of Peter with that of Judas, we shall learn the nature of true repentance, we shall perceive the characteristic difference between that which is true and that which is false, that which is saving and that which is destructive. Wherein does the difference consist?

1. Judas saw clearly the enormity of his conduct, but it was only in and through its consequences; he had no perception of the evil of his conduct in itself.

2. The second point of difference between the repentance of Judas and of Peter is in the subject. (J. J. Davies.)

Peters second denial of Christ

He who once cracks his conscience will not much strain at it the second time.

1. Sin is very bold when once it is bid welcome. If it once enter, it knows the way again, and once admitted will plead, not possession, but prescription. An army is easier kept out than beaten out.

2. The sinner is less able to resist the second time than he was the first. Grace is weakened and decayed by yielding to the first temptation, and the strength of God, which only makes the way of grace easy, is plucked away by grieving His Holy Spirit.

3. The way of sin once set open, is as the gates of a city thrown open for an enemy, by which Satan bringing in his forces, strongly plants them, and quickly so fortifies them, that it will require great strength to remove them.

4. Every sin admitted, not only weakens, but corrupts the faculties of the soul by which it is upheld. It darkens the understanding, corrupts the will, disturbs the affections, and raises a cloud of passions to dazzle reason. (Dr. Thomas Taylor.)

Peters degeneration

A dicer, they say, will grow to be a beggar in a night; and in a night Peter will grow from a dissembler to be a swearer and forswearer. (Dr. Thomas Taylor.)

Why Christians are allowed to fall

Why (it may be asked) does the Lord leave His saints and children to themselves, by withdrawing His grace from them, and so suffer them to fall into sin?

1. To correct their carelessness and carnal security.

2. To stir them up to more watchfulness over themselves for time to come, when they know their own weakness.

3. To pull down their pride, and humble them more thoroughly before God (2Co 12:7).

4. To drive out of them all confidence in themselves, and presumption of their own strength.

5. To make them more compassionate toward others (Luk 22:32).

6. That by this means He may make them examples, and grounds of comfort to other poor sinners. (George Petter.)

The heinousness of Peters third denial

Peter was now in great danger. He hears of the garden, and is likely to be revenged for his tumult, his quarrel, and wronging Malchus. He is pressed by evident signs that he was with Christ, and now if he bestir him not, he shall not avoid present danger; or if he do, he shall be branded for a common liar and perjured person forever; and therefore out of great fear he more stoutly denies his Master than before, and because neither his simple denial will serve him as in the first instance, nor his binding it with oaths and swearing as in the second, as if he had not done enough, he curses and imprecates himself, wishing not only mischief to himself, but calling on God, a just Judge, to avenge that falsehood, and inflict the deserved punishment if he knew Him of Whom they spake. Oh, fearful sin!

1. To deny his Lord and dear Master.

2. After so many warnings on Christs part.

3. After so many confessions and professions of his own.

4. After so often, three several times, so much time of deliberation coming between. One might seem infirmity, but thrice argues resolution.

5. With lying and perjury.

6. With cursing and imprecation. Thus Peter is among the forwardest of those who make falsehood their refuge, and who trust in lies. (Dr. Thomas Taylor.)

Lying a slough of despond

Benvenuto Cellini records in his autobiography the bitter experiences he endured in being tempted to lie to the Duke, his patron, lest he should forfeit the favours of the Duchess-he, who was always a lover of truth and an enemy to falsehood, being then under a necessity of telling lies. As I had begun to tell lies, I plunged deeper and deeper into the mire, till a very slough of despond it became to him. (Francis Jacox.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Mar 14:72

And Peter called to mind the word.

Peters repentance

That the cock crew again was an ordinary and natural thing, but at this time ordained for a special end.

1. To put Peter in mind of his promise.

2. To bear witness to the words of Christ, which Peter will not, till now, believe to be true.

3. To reprove Peter of His sin.

4. To accuse Peter to his own conscience. He needs the voice of a cock to help him out of his sin! He is admonished by this voice, that the silly cock kept his watch, according to the word of his Creator; but Peter has not kept his watch with his Lord, but fearfully fallen in his station.

I. The time of Peters repentance. Then. The fittest time for repentance is immediately after the sin, without delay.

1. Consider the exhortation in Heb 3:7. Hast thou a lease of thy life till tomorrow, that thou refusest to repent today?

2. Sin gets strength by continuance.

3. Nature teaches in other things to take the fittest season; to sow in seed time, to make hay while the sun shines, to take wind and tide which wait for no man. Let grace teach thee to know thy season, thy day of visitation.

4. Late repentance is seldom true repentance.

II. The means of Peters repentance.

1. External.

(1) The crowing of the cock.

(2) The looking back of Christ.

2. Internal.

(1) Remembering the Lords words.

(2) Weighing the Lords words. (Dr. Thomas Taylor.)

Peter goes out

Peter went out-

1. In respect of the place. The hall and the porch were no places of safety or tranquility, but full of danger and fear and tumult, and no fit place for meditation.

2. In respect of the company. He sees that the longer he stays among wicked men, the more sins he heaps up against the Lord, and against his own conscience, and therefore he sees it high time to be gone.

3. In respect of the business in hand. He is to bewail his sin, to weep bitterly, to get out of himself; and to do this, he must be alone with God. (Dr. Thomas Taylor.)

Reasons for avoiding evil company

1. He that will cleave to God, must sever from Gods enemies. The same grace that binds us to God, looses us from the wicked. Solitariness is better than bad company.

2. What comfort can a sheep have among a herd of swine, which wallow and tumble in foul lusts? or a silly dove among a company of ravens? How can a good heart but grieve in their society whose sports and pleasures are in such things as only grieve the Spirit of God? How can a Christian solace himself among such as care for none but brutish delights, in eating, drinking, sporting, gaming, attended with swearing, railing, drunkenness, and idleness?

3. What safety among evil men, whether we respect themselves or their practices? For themselves, they are so poisonful, so infectious, that we can hardly participate with them in good things and not be defiled. For their practices, how just is it if we join ourselves in their sins, that we should not be disjoined in their judgments!

4. This has been the practice of the godly (Psa 26:4). (Dr. Thomas Taylor.)

How to act in bad company

If we fall among, or be cast into bad company-

1. Let us not fashion ourselves to them.

2. Consider who thou art-a disciple, separated by grace-a son of God.

3. Look upon ungodly examples to detest them, to grieve at the dishonour of God, to grieve at the wickedness of man made in Gods image.

4. See them, to stop them if possible. If there be hope of doing good, admonish them. Warn them of the wrath of God, coming on those who do such things. Win them, and pray for them and their amendment.

5. If their be no hope of winning them, yet by thy godly carriage convince them, check them, confute, shut their mouths. Let thy light shine in spite of their darkness, to glorify thy Father; and at least let them see thy watch end godly care to preserve thyself from their contagion. (Dr. Thomas Taylor.)

Times for calling sins to mind

We ought to take all occasions offered to think of our sins, and to be stirred up to humiliation and repentance for them. Especially, for example-

1. When in the public ministry of the Word we hear such sins reproved as we are guilty of.

2. When we come to Holy Communion.

3. When we read the Scriptures, or hear them read.

4. When we are privately admonished of our sins, either by the ministers of God, or by any other that have a calling to do it.

5. When God lays upon us any grievous affliction or chastisement; such as sickness, loss of goods, loss of near friends by death, etc. When we either see or hear of the judgments of God inflicted upon others for sin. (George Petter.)

Fountains of repentant tears

Repentance is wrought by the Spirit of God. But he works it in us by leading us to think upon the evil of sin. Peter could not help weeping when he remembered his grievous fault. Let us at this time-

I. Study Peters case and use it for our own instruction.

1. He considered that he had denied his Lord. Have we never done the like? It may be done in various ways.

2. He reflected upon the excellence of the Lord whom he had denied.

3. He remembered the position in which his Lord had placed him-making him an apostle, and one of the first of them. Have we not been placed in positions of trust?

4. He bethought him of the special intercourse which he had enjoyed. Have not we known joyous fellowship with our Lord?

5. He recollected that he had been solemnly forewarned by his Lord. Have not we sinned against light and knowledge?

6. He recalled his own vows, pledges, and boasts. Have we not broken very earnest declarations?

7. He thought upon the special circumstances of his Lord when he had so wickedly denied Him. Are there no aggravations in our case?

8. He revolved in his mind his repetitions of the offence, and those repetitions with added aggravations: lie, oath, etc. We ought to dwell on each item of our transgressions, that we may be brought to a more thorough repentance of them.

II. Study our own lives and use the study for our further humiliation.

1. Think upon our transgressions while unrepentant.

2. Think upon our resistance of light, and conscience, and the Holy Spirit, before we were overcome by Divine grace.

3. Think upon our small progress in the Divine life.

4. Think upon our backslidings and heart wanderings.

5. Think upon our neglect of the souls of others.

6. Think upon our little communion with our Lord.

7. Think upon the little glory we are bringing to His great name.

8. Think upon our matchless obligations to His infinite love. Each of these meditations is calculated to make us weep.

III. Study the effect of these thoughts upon our own minds.

1. Can we think of these things without emotion? This is possible; for many excuse their sin on the ground of their circumstances, constitution, company, trade, fate: they even lay the blame on Satan, or some other tempter. Certain hard hearts treat the matter with supreme indifference. This is perilous. It is to be feared that such a man is not Peter, but Judas; not a fallen saint, but a son of perdition.

2. Are we moved by thoughts of these things? There are other reflections which may move us far more. Our Lord forgives us, and numbers us with His brethren. He asks us if we love Him, and He bids us feed His sheep, Surely, when we dwell on these themes, it must be true of each of us-When he thought thereon, he wept. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Recollection

Peters recollection of what he had formerly heard was another occasion of his repentance. We do not sufficiently consider how much more we need recollection than information. We know a thousand things, but it is necessary that they should be kept alive in our hearts by constant and vivid recollection. It is, therefore, extremely absurd and childish for people to say, You tell me nothing but what I know. I answer, You forget many things, and, therefore, it is necessary that line should be upon line, and precept upon precept. Peter himself afterwards said in his Epistle, I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them. We are prone to forget what we do know; whereas we should consider that, whatever good thing we know is only so far good to us as it is remembered to purpose. (R. Cecil.)

Peters life-long repentance

Peter falls dreadfully, but by repentance rises sweetly; a look of love from Christ melts him into tears. He knew that repentance was the key to the kingdom of grace. At once his faith was so great that he leaped, as it were, into a sea of waters to come to Christ; so now his repentance was so great that he leaped, as it were, into a sea of tears, for that he had gone from Christ. Some say that, after his sad fall, he was ever and anon weeping, and that his face was even furrowed with continual tears. He had no sooner taken its poison but he vomited it up again, ere it got to the vitals; he had no sooner handled this serpent but he turned it into a rod, to scourge his soul with remorse for sinning against such clear light, and strong love, and sweet discoveries of the heart of Christ to him. Clement notes that Peter so repented that, all his life alter, every night when he heard the cock crow, he would fall upon his knees, and, weeping bitterly, would beg pardon for his sin. Ah! souls, you can easily sin as the saints, but can you repent with the saints? Many can sin with David and Peter, who cannot repent with David and Peter, and so must perish forever. (Thomas Brooks.)

Washing with tears

Nothing will make the faces of Gods children more fair than for them to wash themselves every morning in their tears. (S. Clark.)

Tears of repentance

A saints tears are better than a sinners triumphs. Bernard saith, The tears of penitents are the wine of angels. (Archbishop Secker.)

The fall of St. Peter

And Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him, Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny Me thrice. And when he thought thereon, he wept.

I. The first error of the apostle was confidence in the strength of his own virtue, followed by its natural result-the want of watchfulness. This was the commencement of his aberration, and the origin of all his subsequent sorrow. Our only strength is in humble and earnest reliance upon the grace of Christ. It is rare that an humble and watchful soul is overcome by temptation. Temptations are seldom nearer than when we suppose them most distant. If we commit our way unto the Lord, He will direct our steps.

II. The first sinful act of Peter arose from vainglory. He wished to make a display of his courage. One extreme is always liable to be succeeded by its opposite. Rashness is naturally followed by cowardice. He who smote off the servants ear was seen, in a few minutes, hiding himself in the darkness among the trees of the garden.

III. The vacillation of Peter produced its natural result-insufficient and undecided repentance. He could not forsake his Master entirely. He dared not openly confess his fault, and meet the consequences of doing right. He followed Christ afar off. Thus difficult is it to do right, after we have once commenced the doing of wrong. A course only half-way right is as perilous a one as can be chosen. Nothing could have restored to Peter the moral courage of innocence, but going at once to Christ, confessing his sin, and avowing his attachment, no matter what the avowal might have cost him. We may be surprised into sin. Our only safety consists in forsaking it immediately. It we hesitate, our conscience will become defiled, and our resolution weakened. It is also of the utmost importance that our reformation be bold, manly, and entire.

IV. Peter heard Jesus falsely accused, and he uttered not a word in His defence. He was the friend and the witness of Christ. It was his duty to act, and to act promptly. By quietly looking on, when he ought to have acted, Peter prepared himself for all the guilt and misery that ensued. Hence let us learn the danger of being found in any company in which the cause of Christ is liable to be treated with indignity. If we enter such company from choice we are accessory to the breaking of Christs commandments. If our lawful duties call us into society, where the name of Christ is not revered, we can never remain in it innocently for a moment, unless we promptly act as disciples of Christ.

V. Peter attempted to escape from the embarrassments of his situation by equivocation. I know not, said he, nor understand what thou sayest. This only in the end rendered his embarrassment the more inextricable. Let this part of the history teach us the importance of cultivating, on all occasions, the habit of bold and transparent veracity. Equivocation is always a sort of moral absurdity. It is an attempt to make a lie answer the purpose of the truth. He who does this when his attachment to Christ is called in question has already fallen. He denies his Lord in the sight of his all-seeing Judge, though his cowardice will not permit him to do it openly. The man who has gone thus far will soon be brought into circumstances which will openly reveal his guilt.

VI. Peter was rapidly led on to the commission of crimes in themselves most abhorrent to his nature, and crimes of which, at the commencement of his wrong-doing, neither he nor any one else would have believed him capable. He began by nothing more guilty than self-confidence and the want of watchfulness. He ended with shameless and repeated lying-the public denial of his Master, accompanied by the exhibition of frantic rage, and the uttering of oaths and blasphemy in the hearing of all Jerusalem. Thus, step after step, he plunged headlong into more and more atrocious guilt, until, without the power of resistance, he surrendered himself up to do the whole will of the adversary of souls. (Francis Wayland.)

True contrition

When King Henry II, in the ages gone by, was provoked to take up arms against his ungrateful and rebellious son, he besieged him in one of the French towns, and the son being near to death, desired to see his father, and confess his wrong-doing; but the stern old sire refused to look the rebel in the face. The young man, being sorely troubled in his conscience, said to those about him, I am dying; take me from my bed, and let me lie in sackcloth and ashes, in token of my sorrow for my ingratitude to my father. Thus he died; and when the tidings came to the old man, outside the walls, that his boy had died in ashes, repentant for his rebellion, he threw himself upon the earth, like another David, and said, Would God I had died for him. The thought of his boys broken heart touched the heart of the father. (Spurgeon.)

Peters recovery

I. Let no Christian rely on his disposition or feeling for safety from falling. Virtues lean towards their vices: liberty to license; liberality to waste. And when we see only our virtues, others see only our vices.

II. Let no Christian rely upon his past conduct as a safeguard. Peter had been nearest of all the disciples to Christ for three years. He had deep and pure affection.

III. Let no Christian presume to trust in conscience to keep him right in the hour of danger. There are many moral forces which hinder conscience. The danger of Peter had been distinctly pointed out.

IV. From this example learn to realize the bitter memory of good words which come too late. The great regrets of life consist in the memory of graces which might have made us good, but which we have neglected. And oh how awful is this bitterness! (F. Skerry.)

True penitence

The naturally warm and impetuous temperament is liable to extremes under the pressure of circumstances. This tendency to vacillation can only be corrected by a severe trial. There is one sentence in the history which shows that Peter began the downward course when he followed afar off. Had he been close to the Masters side all through the trial his courage would have stood the strain. The florist who forgot to close the skylights of his conservatory, saw his rare plants withered by the frost of the night. So the warm heart of the Christian can only live in the warmth of Divine love.

I. Every sin is in the face of warning. Where there is no law there is no sin, and where there is no warning the transgression is more excusable.

II. Every sin in the face of warning awakens a painful reflection. It is not enough that sin is denounced by justice, and that warning is added to the denunciation; we must be brought into a state of observation and reflection in which to have a deep insight into the nature and consequences of sin. The very painful part of this state is the reappearance of the discarded warning. The mercy of God came to the apostle through a very humble channel; and how often we are awakened to reflection by unimportant incidents! God has blessed the tick of the clock, and the falling of a leaf, to rouse in mans breast a sense of responsibility. A thousand voices in nature call us to reflection, but sometimes a simple incident in daily life has done so more effectually. The hard-hearted father who had listened to remonstrance and warning for many a year, was at last touched. He had heard most of the temperance orators of the day, but he continued the drink. One Sunday afternoon he took his little girl to the Sunday school, intending himself to go after more drink. At the door of the school house he put the child down from his arms, but observed that tears started into her eyes. Why do you cry? he asked. The little one sobbed out her answer, Because you go to public house, and frighten us when you come home. It was enough. He never entered a public house again. God can bless simple means to reach great ends. The narrative states, The Lord turned and looked upon Peter. Nothing can hide us from the Saviours view. It was a living and a life-giving look. It brought back moral sensibility. The living heart of Jesus travelled through that look to the cold heart of Peter. He was moved by it to reflection. The look spurned the offence but recalled the offender. It was a magnet, with both a negative and a positive pole. It repelled sin, but attracted the sinner. There is mercy in Gods rebuke, and an invitation in His warning. The road back to rectitude, to truth, to honesty, to moral courage, and to discipleship was a thorny one.

III. Every sin which awakens a painful reflection leans to true penitence. And when he thought thereon, he wept.

1. His repentance was genuine. St. Matthew says, He went out and wept bitterly. His spirit was broken and his heart contrite.

2. His penitence was effective. He was led to see the error, and to feel the power of forgiveness. Here is an illustration of the power of thought-dive to the depths of sin and rise to the lights of peace. (The Weekly Pulpit.)

Blotting out

The old Greeks thought that memory must be a source of torture in the next world, so they interposed between the two worlds the waters of Lethe, the river of forgetfulness; but believers in Christ want no river of oblivion on the borders of Elysium. Calvary is on this side, and that is enough. (Dr. Alexander Maclaren.)

.

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 72. And when he thought thereon, he wept.] Or, he fell a weeping. This Mr. Wakefield thinks comes nearest to the original, . Others think it means the wrapping of his head in the skirts of his garment, through shame and anguish. Others think that rather refers to the violence, or hurry, with which he left the place, being impelled thereto by the terrors and remorse of his guilty conscience. Our own translation is as good as any.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

72. And the second time the cockcrewThe other three Evangelists, who mention but one crowingof the cockand that not the first, but the second and last one ofMarkall say the cock crew “immediately,” but Luke (Lu22:60) says, “Immediately, while he yet spake, the cockcrew.” Alas!But now comes the wonderful sequel.

The Redeemer’s Look upon Peter,and Peter’s Bitter Tears (Mar 14:72;Luk 22:61; Luk 22:62).

It has beenobserved that while the beloved disciple is the only one of the fourEvangelists who does not record the repentance of Peter, he is theonly one of the four who records the affecting and most beautifulscene of his complete restoration (Joh21:15-17).

Lu22:61:

Andthe Lord turned and looked upon PeterHow? it will be asked. We answer,From the chamber in which the trial was going on, in the direction ofthe court where Peter then stoodin the way already explained. Seeon Mr 14:66. Our SecondEvangelist makes no mention of this look, but dwells on the warningof his Lord about the double crowing of the cock, which wouldannounce his triple fall, as what rushed stingingly to hisrecollection and made him dissolve in tears.

And Petercalled to mind the word that Jesus said unto him, Before the cockcrow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. And when he thought thereon,he weptTo the same effect is the statement of the FirstEvangelist (Mt 26:75), savethat like “the beloved physician,” he notices the”bitterness” of the weeping (Lu22:62). The most precious link, however, in the whole chain ofcircumstances in this scene is beyond doubt that “look” ofdeepest, tenderest import reported by Luke alone (Lu22:61). Who can tell what lightning flashes of wounded love andpiercing reproach shot from that “look” through the eye ofPeter into his heart!

AndPeter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said untohim, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny Me thrice.

Lu22:62:

AndPeter went out and wept bitterlyHow different from the sequel ofJudas’ act! Doubtless the hearts of the two men towards the Saviourwere perfectly different from the first; and the treason of Judas wasbut the consummation of the wretched man’s resistance of the blaze oflight in the midst of which he had lived for three years, whilePeter’s denial was but a momentary obscuration of the heavenly lightand love to his Master which ruled his life. But the immediate causeof the blessed revulsion which made Peter “weep bitterly”(Mt 26:75) was, beyond alldoubt, this heart-piercing “look” which his Lord gave him.And remembering the Saviour’s own words at the table, “Simon,Simon, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat;but I prayed for thee, that thy faithfail not” (Luk 22:31;Luk 22:32), may we not say thatthis prayer fetched down all that therewas in that look to pierce and breakthe heart of Peter, to keep it from despair, to work in it”repentance unto salvation not to be repented of,” and atlength, under other healing touches, to “restore his soul?”(See on Mr 16:7).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And the second time the cock crew,…. Immediately, as soon as he had so said and swore, as the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions read, and as it is read in one of Beza’s copies; which was about three of the clock in the morning, and is what is properly called the cock crowing:

and Peter called to mind; upon hearing the cock crow a second time,

the word that Jesus said unto him, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice: as he now had done twice, to the maid or maids, and a third time to the servants that stood by the fire along with him:

and when he thought thereon; on the words of Christ, and on his sin in denying him, and on the aggravated circumstances of it. The Arabic version renders it, “he turned himself to weep”; he turned away from the company, he threw himself out of it, and got out of doors as fast as he could, and broke out into a violent fit of weeping. The Syriac, Persic, and Vulgate Latin versions, render it, “he began to weep”; this phrase is omitted in the Ethiopic version: some choose to render it, “he looked upon him”, that is, on Christ: as Christ looked upon him; which produced true evangelical repentance in him, so Peter looked upon his dear Lord with concern, whom he so had shamefully denied; he looked upon him and mourned, he looked upon him with an eye of faith, and sorrowed for his sin after a godly sort: but the true sense of the word is, “he covered himself”; he cast his garment over his head, he veiled himself as mourners did, who covered their heads, and their faces, and even their lips. So Maimonides o;

“from whence, says he, is uncovering the head, forbidden a mourner? For, lo! it is said to Eze 24:17, “cover not thy lips” at all, for the rest of mourners are obliged to the covering of the head; the linen cloth, or veil, with which he covers his head, he covers with a part of it, a little over his mouth; as it is said, Le 13:45, “He shall put a covering upon his upper lip”: and Onkelos paraphrases it,

, “as a mourner he shall cover himself”.”

And so it is said of Haman p,

“that he went to his house, and mourned for his daughter,

, “and put a covering on his head as a mourner”: for his daughter, and for his reproach.”

And this, it seems, was the custom of the Ishmaelites: hence that saying q,

“all veiling (in mourning) which is not as the veiling of the Ishmaelites (who cover all the face), is no veiling?”

And thus Peter, through shame, and as a token of sorrow and mourning for his sin, threw his garment over him:

and he wept; as Matthew says, “bitterly”: being fully convinced of his sin, and heartily sorry lot it; [See comments on Mt 26:75].

o Hilch. Ebel, c. 5. sect. 19. p Targum in Esther vi. 12. Vid. Targum in Mic. iii. 7. q T. Bab. Moed. Katon, fol. 24. 1.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Called to mind (). First aorist passive indicative. Mt 26:75 has the uncompounded verb while Lu 22:61 has another compound , was reminded.

When he thought thereon (). Second aorist active participle of . It is used absolutely here, though there is a reference to above, the word of Jesus, and the idiom involves so that the meaning is to put the mind upon something. In Lu 15:12 there is another absolute use with a different sense. Moulton (Prolegomena, p. 131) quotes a Ptolemaic papyrus Tb P 50 where probably means “set to,” put his mind on.

Wept (). Inchoative imperfect, began to weep. Mt 26:75 has the ingressive aorist , burst into tears.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

When he thought thereon [] . From ejpi, upon, and, ballw, to throw. When he threw his thought upon it. ===Mr_15

CHAPTER XV

Compare verses 1 – 5 with Mt 27:1, 2, 11 – 14.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “And the second time the cock crew,” (kai euthis ek deuterou alektor ephonesen) “And immediately (for) a second time, a cock crew,” as the Lord had specifically predicted, Mar 14:30; Mat 26:34; Luk 22:34.

2) “And Peter called to mind,” (kai anemnesthe ho Petros) “And the Peter of the disciples remembered,” thought thereon, recalled with deep sorrow, like a person running into an open door in the dark.

3) “The word that Jesus said unto him,” (to hrema hos eipen auto to lesous) “The word of warning, as Jesus and said, told to him,” when he persistently affirmed, never to deny the Lord, Mat 26:34-35.

4) “Before the cock crow twice,” (hoti prin alektora dis phonesai) “That before a cock crows twice begins to crow a second time, as cited in Mat 26:34-35.

5) “Thou shalt deny me thrice.” (tris meaparnese)”You will deny me three times,” and he had! Luk 22:34.

6) “And when he thought thereon, he wept.” (kai epibalon eklaien) “And thinking on what Jesus had said, he wept,” he went out and wept, bitterly sobbed tears of sorrow, and regret, and remorse, Luk 22:62; 2Co 7:10-11.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

(72) When he thought thereon.The Greek word is a somewhat peculiar one, and means literally throwing at, or on. The English version assumes that it means casting his mind or thoughts, just as to reflect is to bend the mind, and is probably right. The marginal readings give two conjectures. Yet another may be found in the idea that the word describes St. Peters action casting himself down, he wept, but there is not enough authority for any other interpretation to justify a change in the text.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

‘And immediately the second time the cock crew. And Peter called to mind the word, how Jesus had said to him, “Before the cock crows twice you will deny me three times.” And when he thought on it he wept.’

Brave Peter, always ready to run into danger, courageous to the very end. But not capable of the cold, steel nerves of the spy. He knew he had failed his Master. And he wept. How deeply he must have felt it. It would take the Master’s forgiveness to enable him to forgive himself. It is a warning that in times of persecution it is folly to deliberately run into danger. By doing so we would make ourselves vulnerable. God’s grace is not given arbitrarily.

‘And immediately the second time the cock crew.’ Nobody else would have taken much notice of the cock, but to Peter it was an expression of condemnation and derision. It would have been as though the cock had spat on him.

‘Before the cock crows twice.’ Not necessarily the same cock, but the same sound.

‘Deny me three times.’ A threefold denial would be seen as a complete denial. But only Peter knew. Yet he told the world. He wanted them to know how good Jesus had been to him, and how He had forgiven him when he could not forgive himself.

‘When he thought on it.’ This translates ‘epibalon’, to ‘throw over, throw oneself, think of, set to’. It is problematic. Thus some have translated, ‘threw his cloak over his head’, ‘threw himself to the ground’, ‘set to and wept’. Perhaps it indicates that he ‘threw himself into the thought’, indicating the violent nature of the realisation.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Mar 14:72. And when he thought thereon, he wept. Raphelius, and some learned critics, would render , throwing himself out of the company, in a passionate manner, which it is very probable he did: but others, and particularly Elsner, Salmasius, and Bos, with much better authority, would translate it, covering his head, which was a token of mourning and shame, well becoming Peter on this occasion. Compare 2Sa 15:30. Est 6:12 and Jer 14:3-4. The expression is elliptical, and should be supplied thus: , as is evident from Lev 19:19. LXX. u922? . Besides, it was the custom of persons in confusion to cover their heads, as in the aforementioned place of Jeremiah; They were ashamed, and confounded, and covered their heads. Wetstein defends, by a variety of instances, our version: but see Duport’s excellent “Letters on Theophrastus,” p. 232.

Inferences on Christ’s apprehension, &c.Wherefore, O Saviour, didst thou take those three chosen disciples with thee, but that thou expectedst some comfort from their presence? Mar 14:33. A seasonable word may sometimes drop from the meanest attendant; and the very society of those whom we trust, carries in it some kind of satisfaction. Alas! what broken reeds are men! wrapped up in sleep and security, while thou art sweating in thine agony! Admonitions, threats, entreaties, cannot keep their eyes open: thou tellest them of danger; they rather prefer dreams of ease; and, though twice roused, carelessly sleep out thy sorrow, and their own danger.

What assistance hast thou from such followers!In the mount of thy transfiguration they slept; yea, and fell on their faces, when they should have beheld thy glory. In the garden of thine agony they fall upon the ground for drowsiness; and when they should compassionate thy sorrows, lose themselves in a stupid sleepiness, Mar 14:37. Perhaps even this disregard made thy prayers but so much the more fervent. The less comfort we find on earth, the more we seek above; nor didst thou seek more than thou didst find: an angel supplies the place of men; that spirit was vigilant, while thy disciples were heavy. Happy exchange!

No sooner is this good angel vanished, than that domestic devil appears in view. Judas comes up, (Mar 14:43.) and shews himself at the head of those miscreant troops. He, whose too high honour it had been to follow so blessed a Master, is now the wicked leader of this rabble; the fleece is now cast off; the wolf appears in his own likeness; yet still the bold traitor dares to mix hypocrisy with villainy, and murders with his very salutations and kisses.

O Saviour, this is no news to thee: all those who, under a mere shadow of godliness practise humility, do still betray thee thus. Thou who hadst said, “one of you is a devil,” didst not now say, “get thee hence, Satan;” but, friend, wherefore art thou come? And yet all this sunshine of mildness cannot thaw that obdurate heart. The sign is given; Jesus is taken, Mar 14:46.

Wretched traitor! why wouldst thou for this vile purpose be thus attended? And ye, foolish priests and elders, why sent you such a band, and so armed? One messenger had been enough for a voluntary prisoner. Had my Saviour been unwilling to be taken, all your forces, with all the legions of hell to help them, had been too little: when he did but say, I am he, that easy breath alone routed all your troops, and cast them to the earth, (Joh 18:6.) whom it might as easily have cast into hell! Had he but said, “I will not be taken,” what would your swords and slaves have done against Omnipotence?

Those disciples who failed of their vigilance, failed not of their courage: they had heard their Master speak of providing swords, and now they thought it was the time to use them: Shall we smite? They were willing to fight for him now, with whom they were not careful to watch. But of all other, Peter was most forward: instead of opening his lips, he unsheathes his sword;and instead of “Shall I?”smites: Mar 14:47. He had noted Malchus, a busy servant of the high-priest, too ready to second Judas, and to lay his rude hands upon the Lord of life: against this man his heart rises and his hand is lifted up; that ear which had too officiously listened to the unjust and cruel charge of his wicked master, is now severed from that worse head which it had mis-served.

I love and honour thy zeal, O blessed disciple: thou couldst not brook the wrong done to thy divine Master! Had thy life been dearer to thee than his safety, thou hadst not drawn thy sword upon a whole troop. It was in earnest that thou saidst, Though all men,yet not I,though I should die with thee, yet I will not deny thee, (Mar 14:29-30.) Lo! thou art ready to die upon him that should touch that sacred Person: what would thy life now have been, in comparison of renouncing Him? Since thou wert so fervent, why didst thou not rather fall upon the traitor who betrayed him, than upon the serjeant who arrests him? Surely the sin was so much greater in him, as the plot of mischief is more than the execution; as a domestic is nearer than a stranger; as the treason of a friend is worse than the forced enmity of a hireling. Was it that thou couldst not so suddenly apprehend the odious depth of that villainy, and instantly hate him who had been thy old companion? or was it that, though Judas was more faulty, yet Malchus was more imperiously cruel? However, thy courage was now awakened with thyself; and thy heart no less sincere, than thy hand was rash: Put up thy sword again, &c. Mat 26:52. Good intentions are no warrant for rash actions: thou, O Saviour, canst at once accept our meanings, yet censure our deeds: warm as was Peter’s love, and just as was his quarrel, neither of them can shield him from thy rebuke: thy meek tongue smites him gently, who had furiously smote thine enemy: Put up thy sword.

It was Peter’s sword; but to be put up; not used. There is a sword which Peter may use, but it is of another metal: our weapons are, as our warfare, spiritual. When the Prince of peace bade his followers sell their coat and buy a sword, he meant to insinuate the need of these arms, not their improvement; and to teach them the danger of the time, not the manner of repulsing the danger. Can I choose but wonder how Peter could thus strike unwarranted? How he, whose first blow made the fray, could escape from being hewn in pieces by that band of ruffians? This could not have been, O Saviour, had not thy power restrained their rage, had not thy seasonable and sharp reproof prevented their revenge.

Peter’s ear is no less smitten now by the mild tongue of his Master, than Malchus’s ear by the sword of Peter. “Weak disciple, thou hast zeal, but not according to knowledge. There is not more danger in this act of thine, than inconsideration and ignorance: The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it? Thou drawest thy sword to rescue me from suffering: alas! if I suffer not, what would become of thee? What would become of mankind? Dost thou go about to hinder thy own and the world’s redemption? Canst thou be so weak as to imagine that this suffering of mine is not free and voluntary? Have I not given thee and the world many undeniable proofs of my omnipotence? Didst thou not see how easy it had been for me to have blown away these poor forces of mine adversaries? Dost thou not know, that, if I would require it, all the glorious troops of heaven (any one whereof is more than troops of men) would presently shew themselves ready to attend and rescue me? My power could have triumphed over the impetuous malice of my enemies; but as I am determined to ransom mankind, my mercy must rather be approved; and this cannot be done without my suffering. Thus then, O Peter, thy well-meant valour is no better than a wrong to thyself, to the world, to me, to my Father.”

O gracious Saviour, while thou thus smitedst thy disciple, thou didst heal him whom thy disciple smote, Luk 22:51. Many greater miracles hadst thou done; none that displayed more of mercy and meekness than this last cure. Of all other, this ear of Malchus has the loudest tongue to blazon the praise of thy clemency and goodness to thy enemies. Wherefore came that man, but in a hostile manner to attack thee? And if he had not been more forward than his fellows, why had he not escaped as unhurt as they?

Yet,even amid the throng of thy enemies,in the heat of their violence,in the height of their malice,and thine own instant peril of death,thou didst heal that worthless ear, which had been guilty of listening to blasphemies against thee, receiving cruel and unjust charges concerning thee!

O Malchus! could thine ear be whole, and not thy heart broken and contrite with remorse, for rising up against so merciful and so powerful a hand? Couldst thou choose but say, “O blessed Jesu, I see it was thy providence that preserved my head, when my ear was smitten: it is thine Almighty power which has miraculously restored that ear which I had justly forfeited: this head of mine shall never be guilty of plotting any further mischief against thee: this ear shall never entertain any more reproaches of thy name: this heart shall ever acknowledge and magnify thy tender mercies, thy divine omnipotence?”
Could thy fellows see such a demonstration of power and goodness with unrelenting hearts? Unthankful Malchus, and cruel soldiers! ye were wounded, and felt it not: ye still persisted in your bloody impious enterprize:They that laid hold on Jesus, led him away, &c.

REFLECTIONS.1st, The scene of our Saviour’s sufferings now approaching, we have the steps preparatory thereto.

1. The anointing him as he sat in the house of Simon the leper, so called, probably, as having been cured by Jesus of that nauseous disease. Note; When the sin is forgiven, and the backslider restored, the reproach will still frequently abide. While Jesus was at supper, a woman came behind him, and poured upon his head a box of precious spikenard. Some of the disciples, with Judas at their head,* with indignation beheld what they esteemed such unnecessary waste, the value of the ointment amounting to above nine pounds, which they suggested might have been much more profitably employed in charitable uses; but Christ, who knew the secret murmurs they were afraid to utter, reproved their rash censures, and commended the deed as highly praise-worthy; it being intended as a burial unction, which, according to her power, willing to honour her Lord whilst alive, thus she anticipated, as she would not have an opportunity to do it for him after his death. Their care indeed for the poor was commendable, but they being ever present, abundant occasions would offer to relieve them. Therefore, as he was ready to depart, it was the only opportunity of shewing him respect which would be ever afforded her: therefore to her honour shall this be mentioned, wherever in future days the Gospel shall be preached; and this remarkable instance of her faith and love shall for ever accompany the narrative of his death and resurrection. Note; (1.) They who love the Lord Jesus Christ, never think they can do enough to testify their regard for him. (2.) They who honour him, whatever censures others may cast on them, he will honour.

* See Joh 12:3; Joh 12:50 where I shall compare the evangelists concerning the anointing of our Lord, and fully account for the seeming contradictions.

2. The scheme laid for his betrayal and ruin. Determined upon his death, the chief priests and scribes consulted only on the means of effecting it with the least noise; and at first thought that on the feast day it would be dangerous to arrest him, for fear of the people: but while they were in council, a most unexpected incident fixed their resolutions. Judas, one of the twelve apostles, came and offered to betray his Master. The bargain was instantly struck, the money engaged for, and immediately he set himself to find the properest opportunity to put him into the hands of these his implacable enemies. Note; (1.) Where the love of filthy lucre reigns, whatever profession a man may make, there wants nothing but temptation to draw forth the apostacy of his heart. (2.) The devil often favours his servants with most unexpected success, in order to embolden and harden them in wickedness, and to bind them faster in his chains.

2nd, We have,
1. Christ’s celebration of the passover with his disciples. By his orders, two of them had been sent with particular directions where to prepare it; and having accordingly found the person with the pitcher of water and followed him home, they were shewn by the master of the house a furnished room, where they prepared the supper; and in the evening Jesus came with his disciples, and sat down to eat the paschal Lamb. Note; (1.)When we have our Lord’s orders, we must go forth depending on his providence, even when we know not whither we go. (2.) The purest societies must not expect to be always without false brethren on this side the great millennium: of twelve apostles, one was a traitor.

2. At the table he startled his disciples with information the most alarming,that one of them, who now appeared so friendly, would prove a traitor, and betray him into the hands of his enemies. Exceedingly grieved at such an assurance, each, unwilling to suspect another, and unconscious of such design, Judas excepted, began to say, Lord, is it I? I dread the thought of such villainy, and wish not a moment to lie under the suspicion of it. In answer to their question, Christ points out the traitor, by directing them to one of the twelve then dipping in the dish with him, adding a most fearful commination against him, if any thing at last might touch that hardened traitor’s conscience. Note; (1.) A zealous soul is grieved but to be suspected of unfaithfulness. (2.) We cannot be too jealous over ourselves. A sincere disciple wishes others to search him, and prays the Lord every day to try the ground of his heart, and shew him if there be any hidden iniquity there, that it may be repented of and renounced. (3.) Not one jot or tittle of God’s word can fail: even wicked men, when most invenomed against him, are nevertheless made subservient to his purposes; though this neither extenuates their guilt, nor will at all mitigate their punishment.

3. At the close of the paschal supper, our Lord instituted that ordinance, which in his church should supersede, and supply the place of this solemn feast. Having taken bread, he blessed it, brake, and gave to each of them, to be eaten in remembrance of his broken body, which should procure for them a more glorious redemption than in the passover they commemorated; a redemption from sin, and death, and hell. Then taking up the cup in like manner, after his solemn benediction, he bid them all drink of it, as they did; and this he explains as his blood of the New Testament; by the shedding of which, all the promises of the covenant of grace would be confirmed to them, and to as many as in faith, would receive these instituted seals of that covenant, and cleave to him, faithful unto death. And hereupon our Lord takes his farewel of them, till the day came when they should sit down with him in glory, and drink the new wine in the kingdom of God, partaking of the joys at his right hand for evermore. Then closing the solemnity with a hymn, they departed for the mount of Olives.

4. In the way to the retirement whither Jesus went, he took occasion to warn his disciples of their approaching desertion of him, which the Scriptures had foretold and they were about to fulfil that very night. But to encourage them to return to him again, he lets them know, that though he should be smitten, and they scattered from him, yet, after his resurrection, they should again see him to their comfort in Galilee. Peter, shocked at the thought, confident in himself, and with warmth relenting the suspicion, solemnly engages, that, though every one of his brethren should desert his Master, he never would. And notwithstanding the repeated warnings which our Lord gives him that he would not only forsake him, but deny him before the morning returned; more resolute and peremptory than before, Peter with vehemence insists that he would die with him, sooner than deny him. And all the rest, unwilling to be outdone in assurances of fidelity, declared this also to be their determined resolution. Note; We know not our own hearts, when we confidently boast what we will do. The first temptation may prove our weakness.

3rdly, We have before us in this chapter the amazing scene of the Redeemer’s agony in the garden of Gethsemane. Having left eight of his disciples at a greater distance, he took three of them to be nearer spectators of his sufferings.
1. His anguish was unutterable. Amazement and horror seized his soul, and a sense of the divine wrath oppressed him with its intolerable load. Sorrows, like the agonies of death, compassed him about; and pains, like those which the damned feel, gat hold upon him. He acquaints his three disciples with something of what he endured, which words were too feeble to express; and bids them wait there, and watch with him, in this hour of temptation.
We may here, as in a glass, observe, (1.) The dreadful evil of sin; and every pang the Redeemer feels should be a dagger to our hearts, begetting the deepest self-abhorrence and most unfeigned grief for those abominations, which nothing but the sufferings of the Son of God could expiate. (2.) The sure foundation of our faith: the Lord has laid on him the iniquities of us all. (3.) The inexpressibly transcendent love of our Lord and Saviour, willingly resigning himself thus for our sakes: what returns, then, do we not owe him? (4.) The comfort procured for us under our afflictions and trials. Whatever we suffer, Jesus has drank deeper of the bitter cup; and having been thus tempted himself, can tenderly feel for his believing people, and will succour them under their sorrows.
2. His prayer was humble, fervent, importunate, submissive. As man, he could not but wish that the bitter cup might remove; as Mediator, he bowed submissive to his Father’s will, content, whatever might be endured, to finish the work which God had given him to do. Thrice he renews the same request, and thrice resigns himself to suffer whatever might be for the glory of the divine justice to inflict. Note; (1.) We are not forbid to mourn, and pray for a removal of our burdens, even when most resigned to suffer God’s holy will. (2.) Though our troubles be not soon removed, we must not be weary in waiting upon God. In his time they shall end, and we shall finally receive an answer of peace, if we faint not; either deliverance from our trials, or strength to endure them.

3. On coming to his disciples, he finds them asleep; and therefore rouses them with a just and sharp rebuke, especially addressed to Simon, who had lately appeared so zealous, and promised such distinguished fidelity. How shameful, that they could not watch one hour with their agonizing Master! or if not for his sake, at least for their own, when it was so needful for them to watch and pray; such a temptation being ready to overtake them, as nothing but Almighty grace could enable them to bear: but while he thus upbraids and warns, the tender Saviour pities them, and kindly seeks to excuse what he must condemn. Their spirit was willing; he knew their hearts; but the flesh was weak to withstand the effects of weariness and the oppression of grief: and the infirmities incident to this feeble frame disabled them from doing what they desired. A second time he goes to pour out his sorrows before God; again he returns, and they are asleep, and, when awaked, are unable to answer his just rebuke, after having received such repeated admonition. The third time he retires to redouble his cries, yet finds them on his return sleeping still. Now therefore he bids them sleep on, if they dared any longer; or, will ye sleep yet? when danger was now at the door; he calls them, therefore, to go with him to meet his betrayer. Note; (1.) Slothfulness in prayer is usually the forerunner of sad falls. (2.) Jesus, by his word and providence, is repeatedly knocking at our stupid hearts, to awaken our attention, and rouse us to watchfulness and prayer. (3.) Those who have made the strongest professions, are peculiarly criminal if they act unsuitably. (4.) It is well for us that we have a compassionate High-priest, who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. (5.) They who do not watch and pray when danger threatens, will be unprepared to meet it, and sink under the temptation.

4thly, His internal sufferings in the garden being ended, his external sufferings began; so fast doth billow roll on billow, till all the storms of wrath are gone over him.
1. He is apprehended by a band of men sent from the chief-priests, scribes, and elders, under the conduct of Judas the traitor; who, as it was night, that they might not mistake the person of Jesus, gave them this signal,that they might know him, by his going up and killing him. And hereupon, with great pretended respect, approaching Christ, he kissed him, and they who were at his heels laid hands upon him. Note; (1.) Apostates ever prove the blackest instruments of hell; and no height of office, or profession, is safe from temptation. We need not stumble at the falls of the greatest apparent Christians, when we see an apostle a traitor and a devil. (2.) The basest schemes of villainy are often crowned with success, and the wicked triumphant; but their time is short.

2. Peter, ever violent, no sooner saw his Master apprehended, than he attempted a rescue; and, drawing his sword, struck at one of the men who had seized Jesus, and cut off his ear: his intention was good, but his zeal intemperate. Note; (1.) Many have more zeal than prudence, and their good intentions are no excuse for their rashness. (2.) In times of persecution, it is much easier to draw the sword and fight, than patiently to bow down and meekly suffer.

3. Christ expostulates with his enemies on this clandestine manner of apprehending him, as if he had been some infamous villain and murderer that needed to be seized, and overpowered with arms and numbers; when they knew that he had every day appeared in the temple, where they might easily have taken him: and now the disciples no sooner saw him submit quietly to be bound, than they all forsook him and fled, glad every one to shift for himself, lest they also should be apprehended. Note; (1.) The most innocent men are often proceeded against, as if they were the vilest of mankind; and such accusations are studiously raised against them, to cloke the malice of their persecutors. (2.) We need not think it strange, if in times when we most need such support, our dearest friends abandon us, through fear of being involved in our troubles. In these seasons we should remember Jesus in the garden.

4. A young man near the garden, perhaps disturbed by the noise, started up from his bed, and ran down with only a sheet about him, or some linen garment, to inquire into the cause; and followed the crowd a little way. Being observed by one of the soldiers, and perhaps suspected for a disciple, they attempted to lay hold of him; but with the loss of his garment he got loose, and fled naked. This incident seems to be related, to shew the inveteracy of those enemies of Jesus: none that looked like his disciples, might expect to receive any quarter from them.
5thly, Our blessed Lord, after being dragged through the streets as a criminal, is now carried before the high-priest and Sanhedrim, in order that some matter of accusation might be found whereon to ground his condemnation: and Peter, now a little recovered from his fright, and prompted by strong curiosity to see the end, at a distance followed the band; and, having got admission into the palace, sat and warmed himself with the servants at the fire, presuming that in such company none would take him for a disciple. We are informed,
1. What pains were taken to suborn false witnesses, in order to have a pretence for putting Jesus to death, this being their bloody resolution, and the process a mere veil to cover the murder. But though many, to please the priests, witnessed against him: and though some, perverting the words which he had spoken of the temple of his body a long time before, and applying them to the temple of Jerusalem, would have represented him as an enemy to their worship and religion; yet all the charges they could muster up, amounted to nothing capital, while the most glaring contradictions appeared in their evidence.
2. Unable to condemn him upon the evidence of others, the high-priest seeks to extort from himself something more material. Finding him silent under all these frivolous and false accusations, and not to be prevailed upon to reply aught to these charges, he rose with vehemence, and solemnly adjured him to say directly, whether he really was, as he pretended, the Messiah, the Son of the blessed God? Then Jesus, undismayed, with dignity becoming his office, asserted his divine character as the Son of God, with an awful warning to them who now thus despised and set him at nought,that the time would come, when they should tremble at his presence, and behold him executing his temporal judgments on their place and nation, and yet more fearfully meet him at the great day, when they must stand at his tribunal, and perish eternally. The high-priest, hereupon, pretending indignation against what he termed blasphemy, rent his clothes, exclaimed against the need of further evidence, and, branding our Lord as a blasphemer, appealed to the rest for their opinion; who, following such a wicked example, unanimously condemned him to death. Note; (1.) We must not be staggered, if we see the most reverend, aged, wise, and noble, conspiring against the cause of Jesus, and persecuting his people. By such was Jesus himself condemned. (2.) The silence of our Redeemer under every accusation should teach us patience when we are thus reviled, committing our cause to him that judgeth righteously. (3.) It is easy to brand those as blasphemers, who, in the highest, desire to give glory to God. The best men have often been dressed up in the most shocking colours, and blackened with the most opprobrious names, in order to make the persecution of them appear necessary and laudable.

3. No sooner was judgment given against him, than they began to insult him with the most grievous indignities. They spat upon him, blindfolded him, buffeted him, struck him on the face, and in derision bid him exercise his prophetical office, by telling who smote him. Thus did not he hide his face from shame and spitting, that we might be enabled without shame to stand before the tribunal of God.
6thly, Peter’s fall had been foretold; and we, in this chapter see the prediction sadly verified.
1. He had rushed needlessly into temptation, and thrust himself into the midst of bad company, and then no wonder that he fell. He was first ashamed of Christ, and that was but one step from denying him. Note; They who care not to be found among the disciples of Jesus, because it is reproachful, and associate with the world in order to gain estimation, and to be thought well of, will pierce themselves through with many sorrows.

2. On the slightest trial Peter repeatedly denied and disowned his Master; and from words descended to oaths, sealing perfidy and lies with foulest perjury. Lord, what is man, when left to himself! A servant-maid confounded an apostle, when trusting for a moment to the strength of his own resolution. Peter’s mouth hardly knew how to pronounce an oath, and would before have shuddered at the thought; but, when a lie had first opened the door, profaneness and perjury easily entered. When once men turn aside from the path of truth never so little, they know not to what dreadful lengths they may be hurried. Complicated crimes loaded the apostle’s conscience; denial of his Master, falsehood before God, repeated lies, horrid profaneness, and wilful perjury. Yet even this melancholy history may be improved for the good of others. Many a poor sinner might have despaired, if he had not seen such examples, and read in their pardon and recovery the possibility of his own.
3. When he was sunk into the lowest depths of sin, the infinite grace of God once more made him an offer of help. Once had the cock crowed, after his first denial of his Master, and that warning had passed unnoticed. The second time after his repeated crimes this herald of God reminds him of his Master’s words, and his dire fulfilment of them. And now in full view his horrid guilt stared him in the face: every reflection shocked him: and, unable to bear that place, he retired to pour out in tears his bitter anguish. Some render the words, covering his face as a mourner, he wept bitterly, with penitential sorrow returning to a pardoning God: and it stands upon record, for the comfort of the chief of sinners, that he found mercy with him.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

REFLECTIONS.

READER! let us look up for the teachings of GOD the HOLY GHOST, while in the perusal of this sacred chapter, that all the blessed contents of it may be engrafted in our hearts. Who can read of the Jewish Passover, and here contemplate CHRIST our Passover sacrificed for us, and not earnestly desire to keep the feast. LORD JESUS! give to all thy redeemed which attend thy table, a portion of the same grace as filled the heart of this woman. Oh! for the Spikenard of the HOLY SPIRIT, to anoint the feet of JESUS at his table!

LORD! let thy sweet teaching be upon us, while reading the denial of Peter, and the desertion of all the Apostles, still to mark the essential difference between backsliding, and the total want of grace, as in the instance of the traitor Judas. LORD! give us grace to praise the great Author of his discriminating mercy! Dearest JESUS! let Gethsemane be ever dear to the remembrance of thy people. Here in faith would the souls of thy redeemed delight to roam and meditate thy soul-agony and conflicts and temptations. And LORD when we see thee, taken from thence, to prison and to judgment! oh! for grace to behold thee; as wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace as upon thee, and by thy stripes we are healed. Oh! the wonders of redemption, that He who knew no sin, should be made sin for us; that we, who knew no righteousness, should be made the righteousness of GOD in Him

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

72 And the second time the cock crew. And Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him, Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. And when he thought thereon, he wept.

Ver. 72. And when he thought thereon ] Or adding to his grief, proportioning his sorrow to his sin; a or, throwing his garment over his head (which was the garb of deep mourners,2Sa 15:302Sa 15:30 ; Ezr 6:12 ), so Theophylact expounds it. Or, prorupit in fletum, he burst out and wept. That is an impudent fable, that, long after this, he solicited the blessed virgin, after her assumption, to intercede to Christ for pardon of his thrice denying him, and that Christ thereupon made him and his successors his vicars here, &c. As Xaverius reporteth in Peter’s life, written by him in the Persian language.

a Augens, id est, abunde flevit, .

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

72. ] No entirely satisfactory meaning has yet been given for this word. 1) Hammond and Palairet supply but besides this being most fanciful, the fact was not so: see Luk 22:61 . Luk 22:2 ) The vulgate, Syriac [50] ., Euth., Thl., Luth., Kuin., take for , ‘ he began to weep .’ But granting that this is a later meaning of the word (Kuin. cites , cantillare cpit, Diog. Lart. vi. 2. 4, and Suid [51] has ), yet this participial construction will not bear that interpretation. Act 11:4 , which Kuin. cites to support it, has quite another meaning see note there. 3) Grot., Le Clerc, alli [52] . render it ‘ addens flevit ’ i.e. he continued weeping (so Theophr. Char. 8. Diod. Sic. p. 345 B); but then his beginning to weep would have been noticed before. Grot. wants to give it the sense of ‘ prterea .’ 4) Beza, Raphel, Bretschn., Wahl, alli [53] . say, ‘ quum se foras projecisset ;’ but although or may mean ‘ to rush upon ’ (see 1Ma 4:2 ), it cannot stand alone in this meaning. The chief support of this sense is the of Matt. and Luke: but this cannot decide the matter. 5) Thl. alli [54] . supply , ‘ casting or drawing his mantle over his head ,’ but this, without any precedent for such an ellipsis, although it suits the sense very well, appears fanciful. 6) Wets [55] . alli [56] . take it for ‘ attendere ,’ and some supply , others : Wets [57] . and Kypke have however shewn that the word is used absolutely in this sense, in Polyb. and other late writers. One example given by Kypke is much to the point: ‘ , , , semper quidem cognoscit, sed diversis modis res animadvertit, imo magis interdum et minus:’ Hierocl. in carm. Pythag. p. 14.

[50] The Peschito (or simple) Syriac version. Supposed to have been made as early as the second century . The text as edited is in a most unsatisfactory state.

[51] Suidas the lexicographer, 980

[52] alli= some cursive mss.

[53] alli= some cursive mss.

[54] alli= some cursive mss.

[55] Wetstein.

[56] alli= some cursive mss.

[57] Wetstein.

The above list is taken mainly from De Wette (Exeg. Handb. p. 247), who while preferring this last sense, yet thinks that it was before expressed in . But contains more than .: that was the bare momentary remembrance the occurred to him; this is the thinking , or, as we sometimes say, casting it over ; going back step by step through the sad history. This sense, though not wholly satisfactory, appears to me the best.

In , Bp. Wordsw. well points out the imperf. “wept, and continued weeping: something more than .”

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Mar 14:72 . : omitted in the MSS. which insert a first cock-crow in Mar 14:68 , as implying that this was the first crow at that hour, as in Mt. (omitted in [141] [142] because apparently implying a first cock-crow during the denial, which they omit) must be understood with Weiss as referring to the second time of cock-crowing (three in the morning), the first being at midnight. : another puzzle in Mk.’s vocabulary; very variously interpreted. Most modern interpreters adopt the rendering in the A. V [143] and R. V [144] , “when he thought thereon” ( ). Weizscker: “er bedachte es und weinte”. Theophylact took = , having covered his head (that he might weep unrestrainedly), a rendering which Fritzsche and Field ( Otium Nor. ) decidedly support. Field remarks: “it may have been a trivial or colloquial word, such as would have stirred the bile of a Phrynichus or a Thomas Magister, who would have inserted it in their Index Expurgatorius , with a caution: ”. Brandt ( Die Ev. Gesch. , p. 31), adopting a suggestion by Holwerda, thinks the original word may have been = going out, or flinging himself out. Klostermann ingeniously suggests: “stopped suddenly in his course of denial, like a man, running headlong, knocking suddenly against an obstacle in his way”. The choice seems to lie between the renderings: “thinking thereon” and “covering his head”.

[141] Codex Sinaiticus (sc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.

[142] Codex Regius–eighth century, represents an ancient text, and is often in agreement with and B.

[143] Authorised Version.

[144] Revised Version.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

word = saying. Greek. rhema. See note on Mar 9:32.

Before = that (hoti) before. See note on Mar 14:25.

shalt = wilt.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

72. ] No entirely satisfactory meaning has yet been given for this word. 1) Hammond and Palairet supply -but besides this being most fanciful, the fact was not so: see Luk 22:61. 2) The vulgate, Syriac[50]., Euth., Thl., Luth., Kuin., take for , he began to weep. But granting that this is a later meaning of the word (Kuin. cites , cantillare cpit, Diog. Lart. vi. 2. 4, and Suid[51] has ), yet this participial construction will not bear that interpretation. Act 11:4, which Kuin. cites to support it, has quite another meaning-see note there. 3) Grot., Le Clerc, alli[52]. render it addens flevit-i.e. he continued weeping (so Theophr. Char. 8. Diod. Sic. p. 345 B);-but then his beginning to weep would have been noticed before. Grot. wants to give it the sense of prterea. 4) Beza, Raphel, Bretschn., Wahl, alli[53]. say, quum se foras projecisset; but although or may mean to rush upon (see 1Ma 4:2), it cannot stand alone in this meaning. The chief support of this sense is the of Matt. and Luke: but this cannot decide the matter. 5) Thl. alli[54]. supply , casting or drawing his mantle over his head, but this, without any precedent for such an ellipsis, although it suits the sense very well, appears fanciful. 6) Wets[55]. alli[56]. take it for attendere, and some supply , others : Wets[57]. and Kypke have however shewn that the word is used absolutely in this sense, in Polyb. and other late writers. One example given by Kypke is much to the point: , , , semper quidem cognoscit, sed diversis modis res animadvertit, imo magis interdum et minus: Hierocl. in carm. Pythag. p. 14.

[50] The Peschito (or simple) Syriac version. Supposed to have been made as early as the second century. The text as edited is in a most unsatisfactory state.

[51] Suidas the lexicographer, 980

[52] alli= some cursive mss.

[53] alli= some cursive mss.

[54] alli= some cursive mss.

[55] Wetstein.

[56] alli= some cursive mss.

[57] Wetstein.

The above list is taken mainly from De Wette (Exeg. Handb. p. 247), who while preferring this last sense, yet thinks that it was before expressed in . But contains more than .: that was the bare momentary remembrance-the occurred to him;-this is the thinking, or, as we sometimes say, casting it over; going back step by step through the sad history. This sense, though not wholly satisfactory, appears to me the best.

In , Bp. Wordsw. well points out the imperf. wept, and continued weeping: something more than .

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Mar 14:72. , he betook himself) To weeping, or, as Stapulensis interprets it, He broke forth into weeping. The French happily express it, il sc mit pleurer Theophr. charact., – : as to which see Casaubon [Engl. Ver., When he thought thereon.]

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

the second: Mar 14:30, Mar 14:68, Mat 26:34, Mat 26:74

Peter: 2Sa 24:10, Psa 119:59, Psa 119:60, Jer 31:18-20, Eze 16:63, Eze 36:31, Luk 15:17-19, Luk 22:60

when he thought thereon, he wept: or, he wept abundantly, or he began to weep, Eze 7:16, Mat 26:75, Luk 22:62, 2Co 7:10

Reciprocal: Son 5:6 – my soul Mat 10:33 – deny me Mar 16:10 – as Luk 22:32 – and when Luk 22:34 – the cock Joh 16:20 – That Joh 18:27 – and Joh 21:17 – grieved

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

PETERS FALL

And Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him, Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny Me thrice. And when he thought thereon, he wept.

Mar 14:72

There is no more painful incident in the whole Bible than St. Peters fall. What are its lessons? It contains a threefold warning.

I. Against self-confidence.This was St. Peters weakness, and through it he fell. Though all should deny Thee, yet will not I. How often we see this. As if I could fall into this error. As if I should leave that duty, or weakly give way to this temptation. I with my bringing up and my advantages, my education and my training. And yet some of the most grievous falls of professing Christians have been from self-confidence.

II. Against unwatchfulness.This was St. Peters error. In the face of warning and of past experience, he was unwatchful. It is when we are off our guard that the enemy is most likely to attack us. And watch most of all against your constitutional failing. Your faults of temperament; sloth, pride, etc. Even against the good points in your disposition and character you must be on your guard. Constitutional tendency, remember, is no excuse for failure in Christian duty.

III. Against cowardice.This was St. Peters sin. His sword is sheathed now. He is following afar off. He is keeping well out of sight, lest detection should lead to his arrest. Is this the man who said: Lord, I am ready to go with Thee both to prison and to death? Though I should die with Thee, I will not deny Thee in anywise? Ah! he was ashamed of his connection with Jesus. A seen religion is not always real; but a real religion is always seen.

Rev. Prebendary Eardley-Wilmot.

Illustration

St. Peter was in a dangerous situation. Dangerous, however, in another sense than he supposed. He was in fear of bodily peril; danger to his soul he did not think about, and yet this was very near. It is always dangerous when a follower of Christ is sitting among Christs enemies without letting it be known what he is. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. St. Peter joined the throng of the enemies of Jesus. Profane jest and ribald laughter, derisive glee at the capture of their victim, met his ears on every side. And St. Peter was silent, if not worse than silent. The rest is soon told. He did not confess Jesus Christ, and he ended by denying Him, and denying Him with oaths and curses. And then, the shrill crow of the cock pierces the babel of voices and reaches St. Peters ear; and from the inner room where the captive stands, the Lord turned and looked upon Peter. Then St. Peter remembered; then he knew his weakness and his sin; then he felt the folly of his self-reliance; and full of shame and grief and repentance, he wept.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

2

Matthew says this second crowing was immediately after the third denial (Mat 26:74). This fact, (together with the look that Jesus gave him, Luk 22:61), recalled the specific prediction of Jesus about his denials. When he thought thereon, he wept, or, upon considering the whole event, he was overwhelmed with remorse. Mat 26:75 says “he went out and wept bitterly.” The conduct of Peter was different from that of Judas. Both men were disappointed over the way matters were going with Jesus, and the things they had said or done. But Judas destroyed his own life while Peter repented through godly sorrow.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Mar 14:72. Mart repeats the saying of our Lord with the same accuracy as in Mar 14:30.

And when he thought thereon, he wept. Continued weeping is implied. The word translated thought thereon means literally, casting on; then casting it over, reflecting on it. The calling to mind was the momentary act of remembrance occasioned by the crowing of the cock, this the serious and continued reflection on the sin. Other interpretations are given: rushing forth, i.e., he threw himself out of the place; beginning continuing, covering his head, etc. The most fanciful view is: casting (his eyes) on (Him), i.e., looking at the Saviour as He passed.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Verse 72

Called to mind, &c. He was reminded of it by a look from the Savior.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

Mark alone noted that this was the second time the cock crowed (cf. Mar 14:68). Peter had evidently received an earlier warning but had disregarded it. Now he remembered Jesus’ prediction and broke down (Gr. epibalon, cf. Luk 22:61). He remembered too little and too late.

Peter now drops out of the picture until after Jesus’ resurrection. He had finally learned his own weakness and consequently seems to have felt unable to face the pressure of public identification with Jesus.

The parallels between Peter’s behavior and Jesus’ are all too evident. Both men faced a three-fold temptation. One defeated the tempter, and the other fell before him. While Jesus served God faithfully as His Servant on the upper floor, Peter failed to serve God faithfully on the lower floor. The reason for the difference goes back to Gethsemane. Disciples must learn from Peter’s failure as well as from Jesus’ success.

"The importance and relevance of Peter’s denial for the church to which Mark writes is obvious. To a church under severe pressure of persecution it provided a warning. If denial of Jesus Christ was possible for an apostle, and one of the leaders of the apostles at that, then they must be constantly on guard lest they too deny Jesus. The story also provided assurance that if anyone did fail Jesus under the duress of persecution, there was always a way open for repentance, forgiveness, and restoration (cf. Mar 16:7)." [Note: Wessel, pp. 771-72.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

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