Mark Photos - 14:26-31 - Alone

Mark 14:26-31 - Peter’s Denial Foretold When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. And Jesus said to them, “You will all become deserters; for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.” Peter said to him, “Even though all become deserters, I will not.” Jesus said to him, “Truly I tell you, this day, this very night, before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times.” But he said vehemently, “Even though I must die with you, I will not deny you.” And all of them said the same.

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This solitary stick caught my eye as the sun was just beginning to rise over the SC shore this summer. I don't know why exactly but maybe it was the alone-ness of it, the feeling it was left behind by some child playing with it the day before...I loved this picture since I took it, not because I thought it was a happy picture but because it (at least to me) conveyed a deep emotion in the solitude of the stick in the first lights of the new day. But primary emotion I felt in this picture was lonely. I wonder if that was something of what Peter felt as Jesus made this prediction. Sure, there was the outer bluster from Peter about "I'll never deny you." But what about underneath all that? What was Peter feeling - was he angry that Jesus would suggest such a thing? Scared that it might be possible? Ashamed that he was called out? Alone because he knew he was the only one named? And just think of how he would have felt when the prediction does come to pass. I am sure he felt far more lonely then...but we aren't there yet. Right now, it's just one man being singled out and wondering what he felt underneath it all.