The Crow

When it was clear to the eleven disciples that Jesus was being arrested, fear gripped them. They all did what they never dreamed they would never do: they ran.

Now that Jesus was in their custody, the Jewish guards led the Roman cohort to the home of Annas. Although Annas had been a high priest years before, he had been removed from the office. The title of high priest had been given to all five of Annas’s sons in succession. Now his son-in-law, Caiaphas, held the title of the official high priest. But everyone knew Annas was really in charge, and they still called him the high priest.

Peter and John had followed the soldiers who arrested Jesus from a safe distance. They saw Jesus taken to Annas. John knew the high priest so he was allowed into the courtyard. Peter was left standing outside. John asked the doorkeeper to allow Peter to enter too. When Peter passed by the female servant who kept the door, she said,

“You are not also one of this man’s disciples, are you?”

“I am not,” Peter answered.

Peter wanted to get away from the girl. The night was cold. A charcoal fire was burning in the courtyard. Peter joined the servants and officers who stood around the fire for warmth. He wondered what was happening to Jesus. What would they do to Him?

Everyone in the courtyard knew they had just taken Jesus of Nazareth to be questioned by Annas. The people gathered around the fire looked at Peter.

“You are not also one of His disciples, are you?” asked someone.  

“I am not,” Peter said.

One of the high priest’s servants warming by the fire had been in the garden during the arrest. He had seen it all. It was his relative, Malchus, who had his ear cut off by one of Jesus’s disciples. And miraculously the man Jesus healed his ear. The garden had been dark but the servant stared at the stranger. He looked familiar. He looked a lot like one of the men in the garden with Jesus.

“Did I not see you in the garden with Him?” he asked.

“Surely you too are one of them; for the way you talk gives you away,” said another.

“I do not know the man!” Peter swore.

Peter heard a rooster crow.

Suddenly it all came rushing back to Peter. Earlier that night Jesus had told him:

“Before a cock crows, you will deny Me three times,” Jesus stated.

Peter had boasted that he would never leave Jesus. That he would die with Jesus if need be. That he would never deny Jesus. Now, Peter had deserted Jesus. He ran away in fear. He denied even knowing His Lord.

Peter ran out away from the others. The weight of what he’d done filled him with despair.

He wept and wept and wept.

Carla Killough McClafferty