Day 29 – Christ’s Beauty Destroys Idols; Lust Creates Them

Lust trades Beauty for blight, but repentance trades darkness for Light.

Mark 14:26-31,

[After the Last Supper,] ²⁶ And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. ²⁷ And Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away, for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered’ [Zech 13:7]. ²⁸ But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.” ²⁹ Peter said to him, “Even though they all fall away, I will not.” ³⁰ And Jesus said to him, “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.” ³¹ But he said emphatically, “If I must die with you, I will not deny you.” And they all said the same.

Peter boldly vowed to remain faithful to Jesus to the end, yet within hours of declaring, “Even though they all fall away, I will not,” he denied being Christ’s disciple three times. His failure stemmed from trusting himself over Jesus, whose words are always true and beyond correction.

Matthew 26:69-75 -

⁶⁹ Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. And a servant girl came up to him and said, “You also were with Jesus the Galilean.” ⁷⁰ But he denied it before them all, saying, “I do not know what you mean.” ⁷¹ And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, “This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.” ⁷² And again he denied it with an oath: “I do not know the man.” ⁷³ After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, “Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you.” ⁷⁴ Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know the man.” And immediately the rooster crowed. ⁷⁵ And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.

Luke 22:61-62 - ⁶¹ And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” ⁶² And he went out and wept bitterly.

Peter first denied Jesus to a servant of the High Priest, then before bystanders, appealing to God as his witness with an oath, taking His name in vain by associating Him with a bold lie. An hour later (Luke 22:59), he denied Christ again, cursing himself, essentially saying, “If I’m lying, may God kill me and send me to hell.” Peter’s sin grew worse with each denial. But then, Jesus looked at him, and though He stood arrested and condemned, the beauty of Christ, His holiness, melted Peter’s heart. How could he possibly deny His perfect Savior and Lord who had never done him any wrong, only good?! Overwhelmed, Peter fled and wept bitterly.