True Identity

True Identity

Luke 22:54-59, NLT

So they arrested him and led him to the high priest’s home. And Peter followed at a distance. 55The guards lit a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat around it, and Peter joined them there. 56A servant girl noticed him in the firelight and began staring at him. Finally she said, “This man was one of Jesus’ followers!” 57But Peter denied it. “Woman,” he said, “I don’t even know him!” 58After a while someone else looked at him and said, “You must be one of them!” “No, man, I’m not!” Peter retorted. 59About an hour later someone else insisted, “This must be one of them, because he is a Galilean, too.”

Setting the Scene

That the trial should occur at the residence of the high priest was unprecedented. Normally the Sanhedrin would meet in a large hall in the Temple area, which would have been available because during the Passover, the Temple opened at midnight rather than at dawn. They may have chosen the more private setting to avoid causing a riot.

This “courtyard” was probably in a central area of the buildings that made up the high priest’s residence. There “the guards lit a fire” around which the servants and soldiers were warming themselves against the early morning chill. After entering the compound, Peter joined the group at the fire.

“A servant girl,” the woman who had opened the courtyard gate, saw Peter’s face a little more clearly in the flickering light and thought she recognized him as someone close to Jesus.

Later, others at the fire wondered if Peter was a Jesus-follower because he seemed to be from Galilee (Matthew 26:73). His accent would have been closer to Syrian speech than to that of the Judean servants in the Jerusalem courtyard. The group concluded that Peter must have been with the Galilean on trial inside the palace.

Although in the pressure of the moment Peter tried to deny it, people could tell that he had been with Jesus. The evidence was superficial and circumstantial, but the servant girl and the others were correct in identifying Peter as a disciple.

Getting Personal

How do your relatives, close friends, and coworkers know you are a Christian? What “evidence” do they have?

What can you do to follow Christ more closely?

Christians can be identified in many ways. Church attendance reveals something about a person. And believers often have an “accent”; that is, they use certain words and expressions. But those are superficial signs that can be faked, rationalized, or denied. The most telling evidence that someone follows close to Jesus is how that person lives. The closer we are to Jesus—the more time we spend with him—the more we will be like him.

Talking to God

Tell the Lord of your desire to be closely identified with him, to be known as one who belongs to him and is committed to his cause. Ask him to draw you close and to give you the courage to live for him.