66Now as Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came. 67And when she saw Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, "You also were with Jesus of Nazareth."
68But he denied it, saying, "I neither know nor understand what you are saying." And he went out on the porch, and a rooster crowed.
69And the servant girl saw him again, and began to say to those who stood by, "This is one of them." 70But he denied it again.
And a little later those who stood by said to Peter again, "Surely you are one of them; for you are a Galilean, and your speech shows it."
71Then he began to curse and swear, "I do not know this Man of whom you speak!"
72A second time the rooster crowed. Then Peter called to mind the word that Jesus had said to him, "Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times." And when he thought about it, he wept.
Even in our determination, how weak we are! Peter, who was even forewarned a short while ago that a situation would come up where he would be tempted to deny Jesus, lost in his determination.
Poor Peter. He did not get enough sleep the night before. He is under a lot of stress as he is seeing his best friend dragged in for something He does not deserve. Jesus warned him that He would have to die, but Peter still wasn't prepared for it to happen. He was about to lose his best friend, his teacher, his leader to what seemed to him to be a senseless death. Even though he was determined in his conversation the night before, it could not stand up in all the stress.
Peter lied. Peter cursed and he swore. And after he realized what he did, he wept. There are some things that happen because they are God's will, and some that happen because those are the choices we make. I think Jesus' prediction that everyone would scatter was God's will. I think Jesus' prediction that Peter would deny Him was a prediction of Peter's choice. I don't think God's will would ever force us to do something we would regret later. Our regrets are from choices we made ourselves. God doesn't depend on us for His will to be carried out. His will will be carried out regardless what choices we make.
So why do we do this? Why do we make the bad choices even when we know better. Sometimes we are so determined to do the right thing. Sometimes the harder we try, the harder it gets. And in the end, we can't do it. Why is it that when push comes to shove, when we are under stress, when we least expect it, we fail in our best intentions?
We are all human. Just like Judas who was tricked by the chief priests and Peter who could not keep his word to Jesus. These were two of the 12 closest people to Jesus, and even they failed. So knowing Jesus and being close to Him is still not enough to protect us from our human failings. Jesus knows we are all human and that we all stumble. But how do we keep from being lead astray?
Jesus predicted that they would all scatter, but then he said that after He was raised He would go before them. Here is the key. We cannot do anything through our own determination. The shepherd was being struck down. Peter didn't have Jesus before him. He couldn't handle it by his own determination. We cannot accomplish anything without Jesus before us either. Give up your personal efforts, turn your burdens over to Jesus, and you will accomplish greater things. If you do not want to be lead astray, you can't just let your determination lead you. Let Jesus lead you.