Following at a Distance

        Having arrested Him, they led Him away and brought Him to the house of the high priest; but Peter followed at a distance.  After they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter was sitting among them.  And a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the firelight and looking intently at him, said, "This man was with Him too."
       But he denied it saying, "Woman, I do not know Him."
       A little later, another saw him and said, "You are one of them too!
       But Peter said, "Man, I am not!"
       After about an hour had passed, another man began to insist, saying, "Certainly this man also was with Him, for he is a Galilean too."
       But Peter said, "Man, I do not know what you are talking about."  Immediately, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed.

       Usually when we look at this passage, we draw attention to the denial that Peter exclaimed.  Why would an apostle of Jesus Christ blatantly and explicitly deny knowing the Lord; especially a man as bold in tongue as Peter often was?

       What we don't often look at is the reasons behind his denial - Peter was only willing to follow Jesus at a distance."

        Allow me to speculate for a minute:  Peter thought he was doing good.  Peter told Jesus he would die for Him.  Peter rebuked Jesus for prophesying His death, because Peter believed in Jesus power to rise above the enemy.  Peter was likely confused when Jesus told him of his own imminent denial.  Peter was the only one of the disciples that didn't scatter when the enemy came.  He alone followed Jesus to His trial - but he followed at a distance.

        Peter wasn't bold enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Lord.  But he figured his gesture of being in the vicinity was good enough.  Peter could see Jesus.  Peter was keeping an eye on his Lord.  But Peter would not draw near in this time of trouble.

Look at what Peter did do:
 
1) Peter followed at a distance - He would not draw near to Jesus, but stayed within a "comfortable distance", straddling the line between Jesus and his captors.

2) They kindled a fire...and Peter sat among them - If he wasn't going to stand shoulder to shoulder with his King, where else would he go?  The only other option was to sit with the enemy.  Peter got cozy with those who also denied Jesus.  Sure, he was there for good intentions.  He wanted to stay close (enough) to God. But he refused to distinguish himself from the enemies of God.

3) He said, "I do not know the Man." - His comfort around the enemies' fire grew to complacency away from the Lord.  His survival instinct set in.  He was no longer talking a big game with the other disciples.  He made camp with the enemy.  And he finally tried to identify as one of them.  It was going to be way too much of a hassle to explain his relationship to Jesus and why he was there, at the enemy camp.  So, if you can't beat them, join them. 

         Peter's crucial error was not his denial - yes that was the ultimate culmination of his mistakes, but he started down a path of denial when he only followed at a distance out of fear and halfhearted zeal.  But what does that mean for me and you?

        Work, school, friends, etc.  No matter where we are or what we are doing, we will find ourselves eventually surrounded by people who deny our Lord.  The question we have to ask is, "Will we stand shoulder to shoulder with Jesus, or will we sit by the fire with Peter, following at a distance?"

1)  It's easy to go to church on Sundays.  It's easy to pray with the family.  But if that's all we do - we are just keeping our eye but not preparing to stand with Him till the end.

2) When we leave the church and go to be with our friends of the world, if we are not actively stand with Jesus then we will likely be hanging out/working with our friends and colleagues of the world and trying to fit in with them and hoping no one recognizes you from church or asks about your faith.  It's a lot more comfortable to sit around the fire and not deal with the reality that you will be on trial with your Lord if you speak up.

3) When we are comfortable and fearful, it's easy to just give in.  While we are at the fire it's just simpler and safer to say, "No, I don't really do church," or "My parent's go, but that's not really for me."  Suddenly we are explicitly denying our relationship with Christ.  And if we do that long enough, odds are we will start believing the lies ourselves.

If we are going to continue following Jesus, we cannot afford to follow at a distance.  We must stand with Him, shoulder to shoulder, or we are bound to not follow him at all.