Monday, March 20, 2006
Lenten Reading for Monday, Third Week in Lent
Today's reading comes from the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 22, verses 60-62:
Just as he was saying this, the cock crowed, and the Lord turned and looked at Peter; and Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, "Before the cock crows today, you will deny me three times." He went out and began to weep bitterly."This is one of those places in the bible where my own conception of "how it happened" doesn't really match well with what is going on in the Gospel. When we combine this reading with Friday's and Saturday's, it's difficult to get a sense of the layout of the room or the order that things occurred. It seems to me that this notion of Peter "following at a distance" and joining the guards at "a fire in the middle of the courtyard" of the "house of the high priest" is clouding some other event. Could it be that Peter was present at the trial of Jesus and actually testified against him? If Jesus was indoors with the Sanhedrin and Peter was in the courtyard, how could he "turn and look at Peter," without being led outside? This is how the event is usually portrayed in art and film, but it's not really what's being said by Luke. In Luke, we get the sense that they're all in the same room. Since I do not consider the Gospels to be historical documents, I don't think it's worth much time trying to figure out these issues. More likely, aspects of the "historical" kind (layout of the high priest's house, Jesus being led out into the courtyard by guards) are omitted by the author becuase their purpose is not to leave an historical record of Jesus' life, but to tell a spiritual parable of his own.
