Mark 14:66-72--Peter Denies Jesus

Mark 14:66-72
English Standard Version
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Peter Denies Jesus
66 And as Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came, 67 and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, “You also were with the Nazarene, Jesus.” 68 But he denied it, saying, “I neither know nor understand what you mean.” And he went out into the gateway and the rooster crowed. 69 And the servant girl saw him and began again to say to the bystanders, “This man is one of them.” 70 But again he denied it. And after a little while the bystanders again said to Peter, “Certainly you are one of them, for you are a Galilean.” 71 But he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know this man of whom you speak.” 72 And immediately the rooster crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had said to him, “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.” And he broke down and wept.

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Though all the disciples had run away in the Garden, Peter and John followed Jesus from a distance and since John's family was friends with the high priest's family, he was able to get into the courtyard.  At first, Peter had to stand outside, but John went to the servant girl at the gate and was able to get Peter to be allowed inside the courtyard with him.  This is where we pick up the story here in Mark with Peter (and John, though he is not mentioned) already inside the courtyard in a position below Jesus.

One of the servant girls came to Peter while Peter was warming himself by the fire and said, "You also were with the Nazarene, Jesus."  The word "also" here is unusual unless maybe John has already been identified as being with Jesus and now, they have turned to Peter and said, "We recognize you too."  However, Peter denied the fact by saying, "I neither understand nor know what you mean."  He moved away from the fire towards the gateway and a rooster crowed (remember that Jesus said that before the rooster crowed twice, Peter would deny Him three time.  This is Peters "warning" that he has started down that road.)

The same servant girl saw him again and began to try to get all the others around to look at Peter and confirm her suspicions, saying, "This man is one of them."  Again, Peter denied it, but after a little while the other people in the crowd agreed with the servant girl and said, "Certainly you are one of them, for you are a Galilean." (The people from the northern part of the country had an accent that was different than the people from the southern part of the country, and it's recorded in other gospels as them saying, "Your accent gives you away.")  Imagine the people from Jerusalem thinking that everyone from north of Samaria that had a Galilean accent was automatically guilty by association and suspected of being one of His followers.  That's essentially what's going on here.  John even tells us that one of these bystanders was a relative of the servant who got his ear cut off by Peter in the Garden and fingers Peter and says, "Did I not see you in the garden with him?"  Eyewitness testimony like this is pretty hard to beat, and I'm sure you'd remember the person who just cut off your relative's ear.

Peter is now caught, and all he knows to do is to try to act in a way that would distance himself from Jesus, so he starts to use profanity to curse himself and swear that he doesn't know the man of whom they speak, which is clearly a lie, but Peter is trying to save his own skin at this point.  It is at this point that the rooster crowed a second time and Peter remember the prophecy.  He realized what he had done, and he ran away and wept bitterly--he didn't even want to see how things turned out anymore because he had denied the one that he had just said he would die for a few hours earlier.  We can be much the same way and think we are going to do the right thing when we come under fire, but we also need to "take heed lest we fall" (see 1 Corinthians 10:12-13).