Earlier in this chapter (v.31-34) there is a conversation between Peter and Jesus when Jesus told Peter that Satan was going to "sift you like wheat". Peter responded "Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!" The Lord then told Peter he would deny Him three times. We don’t hear Peter’s response but from our knowledge of his personality I can imagine he thought "no way Lord, you are wrong."
In the verses mentioned above we see Peter doing just what Jesus said he would do, but I think we also see a tender man who is teachable. Peter did deny knowing the Lord, but we also see in v. 61 and 62 that he looked at the Lord, remembered what He had said and went outside and wept bitterly. There are a couple of lessons we can glean from Peter’s actions and response.
First, notice the passage says "the Lord turned and looked at Peter, and Peter remembered the word of the Lord". Had Peter not been looking at the Lord, he wouldn’t have known that the Lord looked at him. Regardless of what is going on in our lives we need to keep our eyes on Jesus. If things are going very well He can help us get through them with the right attitude and not be prideful. If things are not going well, He can and will help us through those situations and be better for them. I’m sure that Peter learned a valuable lesson from this situation that helped him tremendously in the future.
Remember when the apostles were arrested for sharing their faith (Acts 5) and were forbidden to continue teaching, Peter led the apostles in responding "We must obey God rather than men" and then shared His faith in Christ. The apostles were beaten and ordered to "speak no more in the name of Jesus" but they "rejoiced that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name and every day, in the temple and from house to house they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ."
We are humans and as such will fail at times. We can’t let that destroy us but we must grow from our mistakes and failures. We must also realize the tremendous asset we have with the Holy Spirit residing within us. There are times in all of our lives when we have not been faithful in sharing our testimony, especially in adverse situations, but we can confess that and move on.
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