Hearing The Rooster Before It Crows

I wonder if Peter thought “well, that’s one. I need to watch it! I’ll try to do better.” No, apparently, it didn’t even register with him that he had one strike against him. Peter turned to leave, when a second servant girl yells “he’s one of them.” “I don’t know the man”, Peter responds. Peter is in trouble. He is in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is under enemy fire, but yet he stays. Peter hangs around. Sometime later, Jesus’ interview is over and they are moving him to another location. As they do so, a more hostile voice exclaims “Didn’t I see you in the olive grove?” Now, John tells us in his gospel, John 18: 10,that it was Peter that drew the sword and cut off the ear of the high Priest’s servant. Peter was not some bystander in the darkness during Jesus arrest. He made this bold act and yet when accused of being in the olive grove, he says, “Uh-huh, it wasn’t me. “ Peter began to curse, “I don’t know him, leave me alone”. As the “foul” words came out of Peter’s mouth, another “fowl” sound could be heard—the sound of a rooster crowing. And Luke tells us that when it crowed, Jesus turned to look at Peter, as if to say “Peter I warned you this would happen and you didn’t believe me.” Peter wept bitterly. Peter heard the rooster crow and I am sure that it was a sound that he would always remember. In Galilee in those days, people had roosters. All of his life, Peter had heard the sound of roosters crowing. It was a familiar sound to him-as familiar as an alarm clock buzzer to us. Peter had heard this sound thousands of times. But it was this one rooster, this one time, that would be the crow he would always remember. Poor Peter. I am sure this sound haunted him the rest of his life.

The time to hear the rooster is before it crows. I wish I had a warning every morning that would tell me “Today you need to……….or need not to…” “Today, beware of this……..or that.” “Avoid this today……” “Today this is going to happen. so be prepared to do the right thing.” “Today you will be tempted to do this. Watch out for the rooster crow.”

If only we had such warnings. I wonder if Peter thought each time he heard a rooster crow, “Why did I do that? . Jesus tried to warn me, yet I did it anyway.” Have you ever thought that way? Why did I do this or why did I do that?I wish I’d thought that through first. I wish had done things differently. Oh, if only I had not said that, but the words just popped out of my mouth.

We don’t have any such warnings-- or do we? The way to avoid sin or that temptation is to flee, run away as fast as you can! What if Peter had avoided that place of temptation that day? What if he had recognized his weaknesses?. If Peter had avoided the places where he might fall, he would have limited those opportunities to falter.

We need to develop own roosters or reminders. Peter couldn’t carry a rooster around with him every where he went. There is another tv commercial I love. It is a McDonald’s ad. A man keeps oversleeping and is repeatedly late for work. So he buys a rooster to get him up in the mornings. The ad shows him sitting up on the bed and saying “Now I’m up really early.” But that’s not a bad thing. because he discovered McDonald’s breakfasts. The ad shows him in the car, going to McDonalds for breakfast, with the rooster sitting in the car beside him. He brings the rooster with him. Bring your roosters with you. Develop your own reminders to be alert to making the right choices- a cross on your neck or in pocket, a plaque on your desk. Perhaps even a rooster sitting on your kitchen cabinet. Let these items remind you to be the alert—to be on guard.