We see Peter following at a distance. We watch Peter during the rest of that cold Jerusalem night. It is at the house of Caiaphas the religious trial of Jesus is carried on. Peter sees a fire in the courtyard and joins the circle of those crowded around it trying to keep warm, only to have a servant girl identify him as a follower of Jesus. Peter responded, "Woman, I don't know him."

A little later someone else saw him and said, "You also are one of them." He replied, "Man, I am not!" About an hour later, another asserted, "Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean." Peter declared, "Man, I don't know what you're talking about!" Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed, and Jesus turned and looked straight at Peter. And Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him, "Before the rooster crows twice, you will disown me three times." Historian Luke records: "And he went outside and wept bitterly" (Luke 22:62).

Can you picture his sorrow? Can you identify with his anguish? Let me read to you another description of this fateful night. It is in the words of that great preacher Clarence Edward Macartney.

It is midnight on the night of nights. The fire burns in the courtyard of the high priests. Servants, soldiers, hangers on, and two disciples are standing about that fire. A door opens into a chamber off the courtyard and Jesus is led out, bleeding from the cruel blows which have been showered upon Him, mocked, insulted, and spat upon. Just at that moment a loud, angry voice rings out through the courtyard, saying with coarse oaths, "I never knew him!"

Who can this be? Is it the man whom his brother Andrew brought to Christ, and looking upon whom Jesus said, "Thy name is Simon. Henceforth it shall be Peter, the Rock"? Is it the man who fell at the feet of Christ in the fishing boat and sounded the prayer of all penitents, "Depart from me, O God, for I am a sinful man"?

Is it the man who, when Christ asked His disciple to tell Him who He was, confessed, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God"? Is it the man who, when many of His disciples forsook Him, answered the plaintive question of Jesus, "Will ye also leave me and go away?" with that great word which still in every crisis in life keeps the follower of Christ from the abyss of unbelief, "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of Eternal life"?

Is it the man whom Christ took up with him to the Mount of Transfiguration, and who was so inspired by what he saw and heard that he wanted to build three tabernacles and stay there forever? Is it the man who said though all forsook Christ he would not leave Him? Is it the man who with splendid courage drew his sword, and undaunted faced the mob in the garden of Gethsemane?

Yes, Peter, alas, it is thou! Thou art the man! All of heaven's sorrow and amazement is in that look of Christ when he looked upon Peter that night; and the saddest tears that were ever wept were the tears of Peter when he went out that night and wept bitterly.