There is no New Testament figure that looms larger, other than Jesus, than Simon Peter. Simon Peter is a fascinating study in courage and cowardice; success and failure; agony and ecstasy. Peter could seemingly go from one to other as quickly as a pendulum swings on a grandfather clock.

Everybody knows he started out as a fisherman. He lived with his wife in Capernaum, where they shared a house with his mother-in-law and his brother Andrew. He and Andrew had their own boat and were in the fishing business with a couple of partners named James and John, Zebedee’s sons.

Apparently Peter had a widely known reputation of some kind, for the first time Jesus laid eyes on him he said, "So you are Simon, the son of John" (John 1:42), and then Jesus said from that moment on he’d call him Cephas, which is Aramaic for Peter, which is Greek for "rock" - Simon Peter, the rock.

One day Jesus asked the disciples who people were saying he was. The disciples discussed it for while. There were some people saying he was John the Baptist come back from the dead, and others were saying he was one of the ancient prophets returning like, Elijah or Jeremiah. Evidently there were all sorts of half-baked theories about who Jesus was, but then Jesus got real personal and asked, "But who do you say that I am?" Dead silence - as thick as the morning fog for nobody wanted to stick his neck out, that is until the silence washed up against "the rock" and Peter broke open and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

Three cheers for Peter for It took a lot of guts to say it, and Jesus knew it because if it were true it could blow the lid off everything. If it wasn’t true Peter could get himself stoned to death as a blasphemer for just saying it. But Peter said it anyway, and Jesus affirmed him by making up the only beatitude he ever made up for a single person saying, "Blessed are you Simon, son of John, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my father in heaven. I tell you, you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church." (Matthew 16;17-18)

But the pendulum swung and Peter fell off his pedestal fast, for it was but moments later that Jesus was explaining to the disciples that he was going to Jerusalem to suffer the tortures of the damned and finally be killed. Peter would hear none of it, and he literally blocked Jesus path. Jesus sternly admonished him saying, "Get behind me Satan, you’re not on the side of God but of man." - Mark 8:33

Then there was time that Jesus came walking toward them in their boat on the choppy water, and Peter got out of the boat and tried it for himself. Momentarily he did OK, but then as all rocks do, he sank, and Jesus became his lifeguard and fished him out. (Matthew 14:22-33)

When Jesus stooped to wash the disciples’ feet, on this very night, of course it was Peter who protested, insisting that Jesus would never wash his feet. Once again, Jesus had to explain himself as rocks can be just a little dense. But when Jesus explained that unless Peter let him do this foot washing thing, that they were all servants of each other, Peter couldn’t be a part of the group. The pendulum swung again, and Peter reversed 180 degrees, "Well then Lord, do not only wash my feet, but my hands and my head and my…", and who knows how far he would have gone had Jesus not stopped him in time. (John 13)

And then of course there is this tragic incident for tonight. (Luke 22:54-62) Jesus had been taken into custody, and Peter was following, but keeping his distance. A servant-girl noticed him and said, "This man here was also one of them." Peter denied it saying, "Woman, I do not know him."

Someone else saw him and said, "You are one of them!" "No I am not," insisted Peter.

An hour later another kept insisting, "Surely this man was also with him." Once again Peter vehemently denied it saying, "I do not know what you are talking about."

And then the cock crowed. Peter turned and made eye contact with Jesus, who also had turned and looked at Peter the instant the cock crowed. For a few moments that must have seemed like an eternity, their eyes were locked together. And then Peter remembered Jesus' words that before the cock crows he would deny him three times. And at that moment the great rock crumbled like sandstone into little pieces, and Peter ran off to a desolate place, broke down and wept. Tears streamed down his face like rain running off a rock.

"The Lord turned and looked at Peter." The look. What kind of look was it, do you suppose?

Had you been Jesus what kind of look would you have given Peter? Your best friend had just denied even knowing you at your most desperate hour. For three years you and your friend had walked side by side through thick and thin. You had loved him, cared for him and stuck by him through all of his fickle pendulum-like swings between brilliance and stupidity, agony and ecstasy, commitment and fickleness.

"The Lord turned and looked at Peter." What kind of look was it? If it would have been me, it would have been a look of anger and scorn. I would have felt deeply wounded and dehumanized, profoundly minimized and marginalized - stabbed in the back and betrayed by my best friend. My look would have been one those "if looks could kill" kind of looks.

But I don't believe that's the look that Jesus had for Peter. That's the look I would have had, and sometimes I do have when I feel betrayed or hurt by another.

"The Lord turned and looked at Peter." When you look at the passion of Jesus as a whole, throughout the entire process he never got angry; he never lashed out; he never made threats; he never cursed his accusers and executioners; he never did any of the things that I know that I do for far lesser injuries.

The thing about this incident with Peter is that Peter not only lied and denied, but he got caught in his lie at the moment he did it, by the very one he was lying about.

"The Lord turned and looked at Peter." I believe it was a look of unfathomable love. Of course Jesus was wounded, injured, minimized and marginalized by Peter's denial, but Jesus didn't allow his injured feelings to rule him, not only with Peter, but throughout an entire week of being the object of unfairness and injustice.

"The Lord turned and looked at Peter." I believe it was the same look he gave to the crowd and to his executioners from the cross when he extended forgiveness to them, "Father forgive them."

Jesus simply did not allow his injured feelings to rule him. But we do, don't we? We can have a really hard time getting past our injured feelings. When we have been wronged by someone we can struggle to get past it. Sometimes we hang on to the stuff for days, for weeks, for months, for years, even for a lifetime.

"The Lord turned and looked at Peter." What kind of look was it? It was a look of love that would not allow his injured feelings to rule him.

It was also a look that would not allow his injured feelings to blind him. The look of Christ is always a look that looks deeper than merely the offense; that looks past the offense. When we are wronged that's what we do. We look at the other's offense against us and we dwell on the offense, and we fail to see the person behind the offense.

But it is not so for Jesus. The look he gave Peter and the look he gave to the crowds and his very executioners looked deeper than merely the offense. The look of Christ sees into our souls, and he sees us for the fearful, fragile, insecure children that we are that would cause us to do such horrendous things to him and to each other.

"The Lord turned and looked at Peter." What kind of look was it? It was a look that would not allow his injured feelings to blind him to the frightened little boy inside of Peter that lived deeper than his offense of denial.

Finally it was a look of forgiveness and invitation. From the cross Jesus forgave all of those who had had any part of inflicting injury upon him. But with his forgiveness also comes an invitation. John reports in his gospel that not long after the resurrection Jesus met the disciples on a beach and cooked them breakfast. It was there that Jesus encountered Peter again in one of the most intense and intimate scenes in the New Testament. Three times Jesus asked Peter, "Do you love me?" and three times Peter said, "Yes, Lord you know that I do!" And three times Jesus invited Peter to then "feed his sheep." (in other words to "be his person"; "to be his disciple" (John 21)

With God's forgiveness always comes a renewed invitation to come home to our relationship with God and to begin anew; with a new mission; a new purpose; a new focus; a new center.

"The Lord turned and looked at Peter." The Lord turns and looks at you(me). What kind of look is it? What kind of look is it when you and I cave in to fear, selfishness, indifference, and sin and deny Jesus the primary role of Lord in our lives?

How can you be sure that's the kind of look it is? You can know for sure right here at this table, tonight, as you receive "the body broken for you"; "the blood shed for you."

It is the assurance of "The Look."