The Look

I don’t know how your mother let you know that trouble was on the way, but in my house, it was “The Look.” Mother had a way of looking at you that spoke volumes. This look was so powerful that you didn’t even have to see her eyes to know it was there – you could feel it. As I grew older, I felt it even when I wasn’t in the same room with her. I am now convinced that “The Look” is genetic. I don’t have it, and neither did my Dad. However, my wife and both of my daughters possess very well developed versions of this phenomenon.

Luke 22
⁶¹At that moment the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered that the Lord had said, "Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny me three times."

Jesus had told His disciples all of the things that would happen to Him at the hands of the Jewish leaders of the day. They knew that He would be betrayed by one of them. They knew that He would be arrested and tried before a kangaroo court. He told them that He would be viciously beaten and then hung on a cross to die. Jesus had also told them that the grave would not be able to hold Him and that He would secure victory, even over death. They had heard all these things, but they still did not understand.

Earlier in this chapter, after their last meal together, Jesus turned to Peter and told him that Satan was about to test him like never before. He also said that He had pleaded in prayer to the Father that Peter’s faith would not fail. As was his nature, Peter brashly told Jesus that he was ready to go anywhere Jesus went, even to the point of prison and death. One can almost imagine the look of compassion on Jesus’ face when He told Peter that he was not up to that challenge. Jesus told him that, before the sun rose in the morning, he would deny Jesus three times.

Peter, being the most impetuous one in the bunch, probably didn’t allow these words of Jesus to sink in – he just went on being Peter. When the soldiers came to take Jesus away, he was ready to fight them all by himself. As Jesus was being led away, he was evidently the only one who followed. He even went into the courtyard of the high priest as Jesus was waiting for his first hearing. However, when the opportunity presented itself to stand up for Jesus, Peter told the people, “I don’t know Him.”

Immediately after the third denial, the rooster crowed. The Bible doesn’t say if Peter realized that He had done just as Jesus said He would, but at that very moment Jesus looked at him. This passage says that, when Jesus looked his way, Peter left the courtyard, crying bitterly. One look from the Savior did more than all the words in the Bible could do to bring repentance to Peter’s heart. He knew he had failed Jesus.

Peter did not fade into obscurity as an apostle of Jesus. Even though he had abandoned Jesus in His most trying time, God forgave him and continued to use him. Why would God do that? Because Peter’s heart was sensitive to “The Look.” He recognized his failure and sought forgiveness for it. As humans, we will fail. As children of God, we can be forgiven if we acknowledge our sins and seek His forgiveness. That is the beauty of God’s salvation – it is forever and it goes on forever.

We serve an awesome God!!!!!