Part 1 Friday Afternoon - Peter

The Nail
Part One Friday Afternoon
Chapter One Peter...

I know what you’re thinking. It would be what any normal person would think in the circumstances: you let him down; you did your own thing; you went your own way.

But just stop for a minute and think what you would have done.

Oh, it is easy to judge from your safe distance; but when you’re in the thick of it, when it’s happening around you, it’s much more difficult. You find you’re thinking about yourself. It all becomes very plain. How do I save my own skin here?

But what you probably don’t understand is this: it is what he wanted. This is what he was seeking out. And I really believed that he might be – no, that he was – the Messiah. But not like this. (I mean he had every opportunity to show people but he said nothing, did nothing.) And then last night by the fire he just looked at me. And I don’t know how to read that look. So much else has happened. So much in so short a time: washing our feet and telling us to love each other; breaking bread and telling us it was his body, pouring wine and saying it was his blood; saying that one of us would deny him, and then, when Judas left – surely he must have known why? – again, nothing; he just let him go...

Taken from The Nail by Stephen Cottrell