Easter Saturday
Flashback
The Morning After The Night Before
‘“You will all fall away,” Jesus told them, “for it is written:
“‘I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep will be scattered.’
But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.”
Peter declared, “Even if all fall away, I will not.”
“Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “today—yes, tonight—before the rooster crows twice you yourself will disown me three times.”
But Peter insisted emphatically, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the others said the same.” Mark 14:27-31
The coals that night, they throbbed, glowing orange and red. Sparks danced splintering the dark. It drew him closer, coaxed by the warmth, pushed by the chilled night air and the rising dark.
“It was cold, and the servants and officials stood round a fire they had made to keep warm. Peter also was standing with them, warming himself.” John 18:18
But his glazed eyes didn’t see the coals at all, his hands, not his mind felt their throbbing warmth. He was elsewhere in another place; head spinning, heart pounding, mind racing. He was elsewhere in another place.
It was all tumbling down, falling down, burning down, this Kingdom, this hope, this man. Darkness was winning. How was darkness winning? It wasn’t supposed to be this way. NO, NO, NO, he screamed silently. This can’t be the plan!
Voices murmured, fingers pointed. Startling him from his daze.
“A servant-girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, ‘This man was with him.’ Luke 22:56
The night, black with thickening dark, spun and writhed and whirled around him. ‘This man was with him’ the words echoed in the distance… he had thought he was with Him. But was he? He didn’t know any more, anything. Most of all Him.
But he denied it.
‘Woman, I don’t know him,’ he said.” Luke 22:57
“I don’t know Him” The speed with which these words left his mouth startled, stabbed. His mind wheeled in circles wildly and the courtyard reeled as though the earth had fallen off its axis. This can’t be the plan, I don’t know this plan, I don’t want it. I don’t know this, this plan, this path, this man…