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This week we continue our discussion of chapter 22 of Luke’s Gospel. Please read verses 54-62 every day this week and, if possible, use a different translation each day, asking God to open your eyes to fresh revelation from His Word.
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Luke 22:54 (New Living Translation – NLT)
‘So they arrested him and led him to the high priest’s home. And Peter followed at a distance.’
National Security is a pretty hot topic these days and with continual prospects of terrorist attacks, the threat level is constantly high. With so many possible suspects, it’s almost impossible ‘to keep tabs’ on everyone. I’ve often wondered how exactly the security services manage to follow suspects without being seen.
I’ve seen many films where someone is being followed in a car a few hundred metres behind. I’m sure that you’ve heard someone use the phrase ‘Follow that car’ as they step into a taxi and want to follow a potential suspect. This whole area is quite controversial but in the modern day, security services have multiple personnel, many cars, vans and of course CCTV footage meaning that you really can be followed almost everywhere and not be aware of it. The whole point of the exercise is to ensure that you don’t lose sight of the suspect without being seen or detected.
There are many, many tragic verses in the scripture and our verses today are my personal list of the worst. Peter couldn’t have been closer to Jesus. He was one of the three in the so-called ‘inner circle’. He was eye-witness to so many wonderful things including the transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Hermon. He was one of those called closer to receive extra revelation and teaching. He really couldn’t have been any closer. Yet, here we read that ‘Peter followed at a distance’. There are few things sadder than seeing someone who was following closely, drift away and follow from a distance.
It’s tough to stay close all the time, especially when you really don’t want to be seen. We know from later verses that Peter didn’t want to identify with Jesus at this point and so he was being torn inside. He desperately wanted to be with Jesus while was afraid of the consequences. He was seemingly behaving just like the policemen mentioned above. Staying in the shadows while maintaining line of sight to Jesus. His heart was following Jesus but the circumstances were dominating his actions.
This inner circle I referred to earlier included the oldest disciple – Peter and the youngest – John. One would think that Peter being the oldest of the disciples would know better, because we always eq uate wisdom with age. However, perhaps we’re doing Peter a disservice here. At least he continued to follow Jesus. So many of the others simply ran away. Peter (and John) were determined to follow Jesus to the place of His trials.
My simple request today is that we all ‘keep our eyes on Jesus’. Even when the circumstances get so bad that we think we can’t go on, let’s follow Peter’s example and maintain that line of sight to the Saviour. Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. Let’s fix our eyes on Him.
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