“Peter *said to Him, “Never shall You wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no place with Me.” Simon Peter *said to Him, “Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head!”………… Peter *said to Him, “Lord, why can I not follow You right now? I will lay down my life for You.” Jesus *replied, “Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny Me three times.” John 13:8-9, 37-38 NASB2020 https://bible.com/bible/2692/jhn.13.8-38.NASB2020

Peter is the every man, the man who is all of us, at least all of us who love the Lord Jesus and wish to glorify Him upon earth as He is in heaven. Peter wants to honor Jesus, he rightly recognizes that Jesus is King and Lord. Peter does not want Jesus treating him like a servant would, it is to demeaning, so he tells Jesus he will never allow Him to do so. Yet Jesus does treat Peter as a servant his master, so that Peter will understand how to treat those whom he will later serve as a leader of the church. So Peter wants more of Jesus, all he can get, wash all of me he cries. From none at all to all in all goes Peter in his demands of Jesus but Jesus brings Peter ‘down’ to what is necessary not what is excessive. For Peter whose passion is great, committing to follow unto death, is really going to deny Jesus before a servant girl, a nobody in social status. Peter runs the gauntlet in emotion as do we. We love Jesus, we rejoice in Jesus, we commit to serving Him and obeying Him always and forever only to fail miserably in the next hour! This is our human condition. It proves our need for Jesus as our Savior. We can do nothing apart from Him and we can not do enough apart from Him to try and earn favor with Him. Jesus loves us, unconditionally and sacrificially. His sacrifice for us appropriates to us the forgiveness of our sins and His eternal acceptance of us despite our fickle hearts and deeds. God is so loving and so gracious in Jesus the Savior. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We need only love Him, doing our best to serve Him, confessing our failures and rejoicing in His forgiveness. This is how Peter lived and it is how we too should live.