For some while to come Peter was to go on thinking that he knew better than anyone, better even than Jesus himself.  Nowhere, however, was Peter’s instability more clearly demonstrated than during the closing hours of Our Lord’s earthly life.

Priding himself on his resourcefulness he was well satisfied that he would be more than a match for any trouble there might be in store.  Hence, when Our Lord foretold his desertion by the Twelve, Peter at once exclaimed, “Even though all become deserters, I will not” (NRSV, Mark 14:29).  When Our Lord thereupon warned Peter that before cockcrow he would have denied three times that he even knew his Master, the Apostle flatly contradicted him and by his example he also led the rest to protest their unfailing loyalty (Luke 22:34; Mark 14:31).

Suspecting trouble ahead, Peter had taken the precaution of arming himself with a sword before leaving for Gethsemane.  The weapon gave him an added sense of confidence and security, and he now felt that he could disregard not only Our Lord’s warning of his denial, but also his urgent and repeated requests in Gethsemane to keep awake and pray.  It is noteworthy that at this point in St Mark’s Gospel, Our Lord in rousing the sleeping Apostle addressed him as Simon for the first time since the selection of the Twelve.  He is now, not Peter the Rock, but Simon the man.  The arrival of Judas and the mob found him ill-prepared.  One quick cut with his sword at the first man to lay hands on his Master and he fled through the trees.