rou heard his denial when the maid frightened him. When he was too full of
SERMON 2290
PREACHED ON THE SATURDAY OF THE EASTER OCTAVE
Date: 4221
Peter's threefold confession of love makes up for his threefold denial
1. You have heard Peter's confession when the Lord questioned him, just as rou heard his denial when the maid frightened him. When he was too full of limself, you see, he was told, You will deny me (Mk 14:30); when he was full of affection, he was asked Do you love me? (Jn 21:16). What made the apostle Peter stagger, after all, was his being too sure of the strength of his own spirit. The psalm, though, had long ago said, Those who trust in their own strength . . ? (Ps 49:6). So Peter had turned out rather like that man of whom we sing in the psalm, I said in my abundance, I shall not be shaken for ever (Ps 30:6). In his abundance he had said to Christ, 7 am with you to the death (Lk 22:33). The Lord, though, like an experienced doctor, knew better what was going on in the sick man than the sick man did himself. Doctors do for the indispositions of bodies what the Lord can also do for the indispositions of souls. After all, let me ask you why you think that a sick person should expect to hear from the doctor what's going on inside him. I mean, he's quite capable himself of knowing what pains he's suffering; but whether they are dangerous, and what's causing them, whether he can or cannot get over them—well, the doctor feels his pulse, and himself tells the patient what's going on in the patient.
So when the Lord said to blessed Peter, Three times you will deny me (Mk 14:30), he was taking the pulse of his heart. Lo and behold, what the doctor foretold came about, and what the sick man was so sure of turned out to be untrue. There in the same psalm, you see, the Holy Spirit continues: 7 said in my abundance, I shall not be shaken for ever, as though too sure of the strength of his own spirit; he added straightaway: Lord, in your good will you granted strength to my rank; you turned your face away, and I became dismayed (Ps 30:7). What has he said? "Whatever I had, I had from you, and I thought it was from myself. You turned your face away, you took back what you had given me, and I became dismayed. I discovered who I really was, because you had withdrawn."
So the Lord, to make Peter healthily humble, abandoned him for a time; and