Maundy Thursday 10.45pm

Thursday
10:45pm   

The Cock Crows

Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard.  A servant girl came to him and said, ‘You also were with Jesus the Galilean.’ But he denied it before all of them, saying, ‘I do not know what you are talking about.’ When he went out to the porch, another servant girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, ‘This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.’ Again he denied it with an oath, ‘I do not know the man.’ After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, ‘Certainly you are also one of them, for your accent betrays you.’ Then he began to curse, and he swore an oath, ‘I do not know the man!’ At that moment the cock crowed. Then Peter remembered what Jesus had said: ‘Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.’ And he went out the wept bitterly (Matthew 26: 69-75)

Sitting there in the courtyard he tries to look inconspicuous – but he is a northerner down in the big city.  He only has to speak to give the game away and, despite denying knowing Jesus three times, it’s obvious that he is one of them, one of the band of disciples of the prisoner inside.