COMMENTARY.
Our Blessed Lord's Omniscience. When, the evening before, our Lord said to His disciples: “All of you shall be scandalized in Me this night”, Peter would not admit the possibility of such a thing in his case: “Although all shall be scandalized”, he protested, “I will never be scandalized!” In spite of his protest, our Lord then distinctly told him: “To-day, even in this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny Me thrice”; and so it came to pass. He knew’ beforehand precisely how many times, and exactly at what hours Peter would deny Him; and, though He could not possibly have seen with His eyes at the time, what was happening in the outer court of the High Priest’s house, He knew exactly what was occurring. Our Blessed Lord proved Himself to be Omniscient, i. e. God.
Peter’s sin was a very grievous one. Out of fear of man, Peter lied three times, and denied his faith; and the third time he even swore falsely. The sin of Peter grew, and became more grievous each time he committed it. At his first denial, he simply said of our Lord: “I know Him not.” The second time, he asserted: “I know not the Man”, thus repudiating as a disgrace any connexion with Jesus; and the third time he confirmed this assertion by an oath. He contemptuously called his Lord and Master “the Man”, acting as if he did not even know His Name! And this was the same Peter who, but a few hours before, had declared that he was ready to lay down his life for his Lord!
The following circumstances may serve as a partial excuse for Peter. He was thoroughly exhausted, excited, confused, and half out of his mind with sorrow at the events of that terrible night. Moreover, from the moment he joined the company of his Master's fierce enemies, he was in a very real danger of death. Finally, he did not sin from malice, but from weakness and panic; and he did not lose his faith, although he outwardly denied it.
The causes of Peter's fall were these: 1. He did not avoid the proximate occasions of sin; for at the time of his fall he was associating with the enemies of Christ. If he had left their company even after his first denial, he would not have fallen so low. “He that loveth danger shall perish in it” (Ecclus. 3, 27). 2. He had paid too little attention to our Lord’s warning words: “Satan hath desired to sift you as wheat . . . This night thou shalt deny Me thrice”; and he trusted too much in himself: “Though all shall be scandalized, yet not I. I will lay down my life for Thee!” When he said those words he meant them, for Peter had a very firm faith in our Lord, and an ardent love for Him; but he ought not to have forgotten that he was a weak man, and that without God’s grace he could not remain faithful. Our Lord had said to him but a very short time before, as they were walking up the Mount of Olives: “Without Me you can do nothing!” 3. He
