Advent Day 22: Read: Luke 22

Today’ reading is heavy. The final days of Jesus begin with the Passover celebration with his disciples followed by his arrest and trial.

Jesus warns of the impending events, but Peter quickly replies he is willing to go to prison and even die, if necessary. Jesus gently informs Peter that he will deny even knowing him three times before morning.

I understand Peter’s bravado. I fear I would have done the same thing, including denying that I even know Jesus. Perhaps Peter’s mistake was not seeing within himself the good and the bad.

We are a bundle of dichotomies. I am good and bad. I am honest and deceptive. I am brave and cowardly. I am strong and weak. It is when we refuse to see these differences that we open ourselves up to failure.

Peter did not see himself capable of denying Jesus until it already happened. It could be that if he entertained the possibility of doing, so the outcome would have been different.

Jesus’ words to the disciples when he went to the garden to pray are, perhaps, the key:

Then, accompanied by the disciples, Jesus left the upstairs room and went as usual to the Mount of Olives. There he told them, “Pray that you will not give in to temptation.”

Luke 22:39-40

Accepting my humanness and knowing I need help doing the good thing, I bend my knees and bow my head to the One who can strengthen me. I invite you to do the same.