Peter’s Denial

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This is one of my paintings.
I have a series of them
painted in acrylic,
on 12″ x 12″
canvas boards
.
To follow a similar format
as previous entries, I probably
should have named this article
“Olson’s Luke 22:61-62”
but it just didn’t
seem right
.

This is
“Peter’s Denial”,
and here are the
bible verses that
it’s based on
:

Peter sat down
among them. Then
a servant girl, seeing
him as he sat in the
light and looking
closely at him,
said,
“This
man also
was with him.”

But he
denied it, saying,
“Woman, I do not
know him.”

.
And
a little later
someone else
saw him and
said,
“You also are
one of them.”
But Peter said,
“Man, I am not.”

.
And after
an interval of
about an hour still
another insisted,
saying,
“Certainly
this man also
was with him,
for he too is
a Galilean.”

.
But
Peter said,
“Man, I do not
know what you
are talking about.”

.
And
immediately,
while he was still
speaking, the
rooster
crowed
.
And
the Lord
turned and
looked at
Peter
.
And Peter
remembered
the saying of
the Lord
,
how he
had said to him,
“Before the rooster
crows today, you
will deny me
three times.”

…
And he
went out
and wept
bitterly
.

Luke 22:55-62

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Upon returning from
forty days in the desert
(after being baptized in the
Jordan River by John)
Jesus attracted
followers
.
It was common in
those days, for Jewish
rabbis to have disciples.
Is that what the twelve
apostles were to Jesus?
Were they chosen to
be witnesses?
To learn?
To be
priests?
Were they
ordinary people
?

Were they
like me
???

I imagine
how I would feel
after three years of love
and experience with the
most amazing person,
and thinking that the
Kingdom of God
was arriving
into the
world
…
and then
suddenly
,
He is
captured and
tortured to death
.

Even worse,
I turn my back
on him
.

This might be
the closest thing
to a self-portrait
that I have
painted
.