Good Friday Devotional —
John 13:36–38
Simon Peter says to Jesus, “Lord… where are You going?” And Jesus answers him,
“Where I am going, you cannot follow Me now. But you will follow Me afterward.”
Peter, full of passion, full of sincerity says, “Lord, why can I not follow You now? I will lay down my life for You.” The Lord responds, “Will you? Before the rooster crows you will deny Me three times.”
There’s something so honest about this moment. Peter isn’t pretending. He loves Jesus. He means what he says. “I will lay down my life for You.” What Peter doesn’t yet understand; is himself, not really.
That is what Good Friday begins to uncover. Not just the suffering of Christ, but the limitation of our human strength. Peter thinks the story is: “I will die for Jesus.” But the Gospel story is this: “Jesus will die for me.”
Until that order is right everything else will collapse under pressure. Because on this night, Peter will not stand. He will not fight. He will not follow. He will deny the Lord and Jesus knows it.
But notice this Jesus doesn’t shame him. He reveals him. “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me.” Not to push him away, but to prepare him. Because you can’t be restored from a version of yourself that you refuse to see. Good Friday strips everything down.
The cross removes the illusion that we are stronger than we are. It confronts the idea that our love alone is enough, that we are enough. Peter loves Jesus but love, without a knowing of God’s mercy, cannot carry the weight of the cross. This is the beauty of the cross that we simply cannot miss.
“You cannot follow Me now, but you will follow Me afterward.” Do you hear the mercy in that? Failure is not the end of Peter’s story. It’s the beginning of a deeper one.
Because after the cross, after the resurrection, after the Spirit is given; Peter will become the man he thought he already was, that is what Good Friday does for us.
You are not as strong as you think. But you are more loved than you ever imagined. You may fail, but He will not. You may deny Him, but He will never deny you. He went to the cross for you. So today we don’t stand in our strength. We stand in His. Not in our love for Him, but His love for us. We can trust, that even when we cannot yet follow, He will carry us until the day we can.
Lord Jesus, on this holy day, we see both Your cross and our weakness. We confess that we are more like Peter than we care to admit, quick to promise, slow to persevere. Yet You do not turn away. You went to the cross for us. Carry us where we cannot yet go, until the day we truly follow. Amen.