I knew what was coming, but I still had to hear it from the best source any writer would ever have until the end of time.

“Jesus warned us that he would only be with us a little while, and where he was going we could not come. Then he said, ‘A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you, and by this shall all men know that you are my disciples.’ Then Peter asked our Lord where he was going, and Jesus repeated that where he was going we could not follow him now but later we could. Peter could not accept that He asked why he could not follow Jesus now and insisted, ‘I will even lay down my life for your sake!’ I shall never forget our Lord’s response. Neither will Peter. Jesus challenged him, saying, ‘Will you lay down your life for my sake? Verily, I say unto you that the cock shall not crow, this night, until you have denied me three times.’ Peter confided in me later that Jesus repeated those words to him, after the supper, on our walk out of the city.”

“And that prophecy came true, did it not?”

“It did. When Jesus was arrested in the garden, Peter and I were also seized but we were released after being beaten with clubs and kicked until we could barely walk. I wanted to flee over the mount to Bethany but Peter would have none of that. He said that we could not desert our Lord in his time of need, so we followed the arrest party until they finally arrived at the home of the high priest, after first going to the home of his father-in-law. We waited in the courtyard, hoping to learn what they were planning to do with Jesus and wondering why members of our high court, the Sanhedrin, were arriving in the middle of the night. Three times, when we drew near the fires, those in the employ of Caiaphas accused Peter of knowing Jesus and having been with him, and three times he denied it. His third denial had no more than issued from his lips when both of us heard the first cock of the day. Peter moaned as if he had been impaled by a sword and fell at my feet. At first I thought God had struck him dead for his denials, but when I saw his chest rising and falling I tried to lift him to his feet and remove him from the courtyard for fear we might be seized by the guard again. I tried and tried to move him but I could not, so I ran to the house of Joseph. With the help of his giant friend and servant we managed to bring Peter here and lay him in Mark’s bed, which is the only other room on this floor. By then I was exhausted, but after the widow Mary and the other women, including our Lord’s mother, had been told that Jesus was under arrest, none of them were in any condition to tend to Peter so I did so myself.”