Peter and the Rooster

Peter's Denial and the Fall of Satan

Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written:

‘I will strike the Shepherd,
And the sheep will be scattered.’

“But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee.”

Peter said to Him, “Even if all are made to stumble, yet I will not be.”

Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you that today, even this night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.”

But he spoke more vehemently, “If I have to die with You, I will not deny You!”

And they all said likewise.

… 

Now as Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came. 

And when she saw Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, “You also were with Jesus of Nazareth.”

But he denied it, saying, “I neither know nor understand what you are saying.” And he went out on the porch, and a rooster crowed.

And the servant girl saw him again, and began to say to those who stood by, “This is one of them.” But he denied it again.

And a little later those who stood by said to Peter again, “Surely you are one of them; for you are a Galilean, and your speech shows it.”

Then he began to curse and swear, “I do not know this Man of whom you speak!”

A second time the rooster crowed. Then Peter called to mind the word that Jesus had said to him, “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.” And when he thought about it, he wept.

(Mark 14:27-31, 66-72)

Peter is presented as the head of the apostles, and in iconography is often placed next to Paul, as Paul and Peter both represent unique missions in the church of Christ. Peter is often presented on the right side of iconography, whereas Paul occupies the space of the left. Jonathan Pageau has some excellent work concerning the symbolism of right and left hand, particularly in the context of how it relates to Peter and Paul. To keep things brief, Peter represents the right hand which symbolises gathering in, rather than going or casting out. Peter’s mission in the church was to the Jews and Paul’s was to the gentiles. Peter’s task was to gather the lost sheep of Israel in the name of Christ, whereas Paul was going out into the world of the gentiles. It should be noted, that while the left hand is usually associated with most of the sins we are familiar with, the left hand is by no means sinful or evil in and of itself. In fact it is the sin of the right hand (pride) which is far more dangerous. We see this symbolism of the right hand at play in Mark 14 in the character of St. Peter. Peter represents the right hand as the hand of authority, fervour and unrelenting stubbornness. Where we see things go wrong is in the potential of the right hand towards the sin of pride. While the right hand does an excellent job at structuring, forming and gathering, there is a temptation in this authority towards trying to account for all things – not leaving any room for the ec-stasis of the left hand to manifest itself. Jesus declares that all will stumble at the night of his crucifixion, and Peter in his all-accounting, right handed vigour says “no way Jesus!” This right handed denial of the lefthanded possibility to act without your strict hierarchy of values is what ultimately spells Peter’s downfall. He shuts out even the possibility of denying Christ, and because of this, when the temptation to deny Christ is really presented to him he doesn’t know what to do. The presence of a rooster in this story is of utmost importance to understanding what’s really at play in Peter’s denial.

In the ancient mind the rooster represents the messenger who calls forth the sun. The rooster is the light bringer who does not have light in and of himself. Interestingly enough this is also the symbolism used about lucifer. Lucifer, who is identified with satan, is described as the lightbringer who was created to call forth the light of God. Just as in the symbolism of the rooster, however, there exists in this position of lightbringer the potential towards pride. Lucifer fell because he prioritised his existence as the one who calls forth the light of God above the light of God to which he owes his existence and purpose. In the symbolism of the rooster we see him presented as delusional and prideful, because he believes that the sun’s rising is secondary to his declaration of its coming. This connection between the pride which arose from Lucifer’s position as head of the angels and the pride which arose form Peter’s position as head of the apostles is the meaning behind Jesus’ “get behind me, satan,” to Peter in Matthew 16 shortly after giving him the keys to his kingdom. By no means should anyone take what I am saying as a criticism against the most Holy St. Peter, rather this is simply an explication of the potential dangers that lie within the position of the right hand, which the bible presents through the lens of the character of Peter. The pride of satan is very distinct from the pride which Peter momentarily presented in his character in one very important way. St. Peter does not remain in this pride for very long. The very night of Peter’s moment of pride, he is humbled and repents. The power of the “keys of the kingdom” given by Christ to Peter are the keys of death and hell in Revelation 1:18. The keys given to Peter are the keys which bind the impotent serpent. While both Peter and satan fell in pride, it is by Peter’s humility that he becomes the one through whom the ongoing pride of the devil is bound; and those once captive to the kingdom of hell are loosed and bound to their telos (haha, Telosbound reference) — the kingdom of heaven.

In the denial of Peter we see the pattern of Proverbs 16:18 (pride comes before a fall) presented to us. This is the pattern described by Jonathan Pageau as the sins of the right hand leading to the sins of the left hand. It is in Peter’s thinking that he has accounted for all things in his personal faith in Jesus that the breakdown of this faith springs forth. We see in his denial a progressive breakdown of his all-accounting right-handedness. In his first denial we see him say “I neither know nor understand what you are saying,” which is uncharacteristic of the right hand, which gathers, understands and accounts for all things. This progresses to his third denial where he begins “cursing and swearing,” obvious expressions of the sins potential to the left hand. Obviously this isn't the end of the story, and upon hearing the rooster crow Peter is reminded of the prediction of this very event by Christ. Peter weeps as he sees in the prideful assumption of the rooster that the sun's light depends on his call a reflection of himself. St. Peter gazes into the mirror of creation and sees himself stumbling before the cross of His Lord whom he loves so dearly. Peter weeps over his betrayal of his beloved, and it is in this repentance that the door is opened for the far more dangerous sin of pride, which has now been destroyed in his heart, to exit. 

In John 21, Jesus has resurrected from the grave, and upon seeing the face of his Lord another time Peter immediately jumps out of his boat and swims to shore to embrace his beloved saviour. The tears which Peter wept upon his betrayal are wiped away and transformed into a well-spring of life, streaming forth from the humility of his soul before the God over all creation. An interesting detail in this narrative is the note that Peter, before jumping into the water, puts on his outer garment. In a sense we can both see the putting on of an outer garment and the jumping into water as indicative of the once prideful all-accounting right hand which sought to destroy all it could not account for being reconciled to its position in the hierarchy of all things in Christ. Peter is giving himself in absolute faith to the Lord in this leap out of the stability of the boat into the chaotic seas, carrying with him the garments of the world to be transformed by his Lord, instead of destroyed by his pride. Just as Peter denied Christ three times, so also does Christ pose before him a question, three times. Three times Jesus asks Peter “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?” and each time Peter answers “yes Lord, you know I love you!” Just as in Peter’s trifold denial there was a progression towards chaos, so in the Lord’s responses to Peter we see a progression from “feed my lambs,” to “tend my sheep,” to “feed my sheep”. Peter is reinstated as the one whom Christ is leaving as responsible for raising His lambs into mature sheep. This reconciliation of Peter to his beloved Christ concludes with the showing of Christ to Peter that Peter’s faith will lead him to the cross, just as he asked for prior to the crucifixion. Peter’s zeal to follow Christ to the cross was not evil, but before this could be accomplished, Peter needed to learn that he could not do this on his own accord. Christ alone had to be crucified for the atonement of all mankind, and it is from this sacrificial pouring-out of divine love into humanity that the martyrdom of Peter for Christ’s sake could follow. So, it is only after the humbling, the repentance and the reconciliation of Peter that, in his humility he could now follow Christ to the cross as he so desired. 

And so, we see this humility follow Peter to the end of the days, when facing the very struggle he sought for, he remains humble before the cross of Christ. Peter asks his crucifiers that he be crucified upside down, because he was not worthy of suffering the same fate as his Lord. St. Peter shines as an example to us all of the transformation of the soul towards an absolute humility before Christ, following Him with unrelenting zeal even into the all-consuming (yet through the sacrifice of Christ, simultaneously impotent) heart of the earth. If the head of all apostles found himself in a position of needing correction by the Lord, let us never assume that we are at any given point in our experience of time perfect. Let us remain humble before the cross of our beloved saviour and follow Him with zeal, seeking correction where it is needed.

Pray for us, St. Peter