The Rooster’s Crow
By Grant Gaines
Nearly every morning you wake up to the chirping of an alarm clock. The cold and ear-piercing sound startles you from your peaceful rest. And is it just me, or does the alarm always go off right during the best part of your dream?
As much as we hate waking up to the sound of that rude instrument, not everyone in the world wakes up to the alarm’s unwelcomed introduction. The majority of people in the world deal with an “alarm clock” that doesn’t require batteries, but grain. It doesn’t require you to set the time you want to wake up, it simply waits on the sun’s first glimpse to spring into action. And don’t even think about thumping this “alarm clock” on the head because this “alarm clock” has no “snooze” button. That’s because the majority of people in the world wake up to the crowing of a rooster.
The cock-a-doodle-doo of this third world alarm clock at the dawning of the day is what many people hear day in and day out. I’m sure the rooster’s crow has become so second nature to most people that the sound goes in one ear and out the other. But not for one particular person. The screech of a rooster doesn’t awaken this person from his dreams, it plunges him into a nightmare. The person I’m talking about is Peter.
Peter’s story looked very similar to that of his peers as he woke up every morning to the cock-a-doodle-doo of a rooster to begin his daily routine of fishing. Day after day he counted on the rooster to rouse him from his sleep so he could make a living—Peter relied on the rooster. And if he ever gave it an honest moment’s reflection, I bet Peter would tell you that he was actually thankful for the rooster waking him up.
Of course Peter met Jesus one day and changed his vocation from a fisherman to a “fisher of men” (Matthew 4:19). But the rooster remained a constant fixture in his life. The crowing of the bird signaled the beginning of a journey—it was time to follow Christ.
But this all changed in Luke 22. As the chapter winds down we see Peter’s Leader, Master, and beloved Friend—Jesus—standing trial for crimes He had not committed. Peter couldn’t help but to stand as close to the procession as possible, after all, Jesus was the very reason why the rooster’s crow was no longer an alarm clock but a trumpet that signaled another day to follow the King.
But as the trial went on, people began to notice Peter and realized that he was one of Jesus’s disciples. Not wanting to be thrown into the unjust trial because he was guilty by association, Peter denied Jesus…three times. And it was after this third denial that, “…the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: ‘Before the rooster crows today, you will disown Me three times.’ And he went out and wept bitterly” (Luke 22:60-62, NIV).
I can’t fathom the crowing of a rooster having the same insignificance to Peter as it did before his denial. Can you imagine how Peter felt as he woke up every morning by being reminded of his greatest failure? Did he wake up early so he could plug his ears to avoid hearing anything? Whatever Peter did, you can be sure that Satan was right there whispering in Peter’s ear.
Mark Batterson writes, “Scripture says that Satan, ‘prowls around like a roaring lion’ (1 Peter 5:8, NIV). I also think he crows like a rooster.”[1] Satan will do everything he can to remind you of your past failures so that you will become, “…ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:8, NIV). His tactics have always been the same—he wants to paralyze you with fear, shame, and regret to neutralize your effectiveness as a Christian.
For Peter, the crowing of a rooster was Satan’s weapon of choice to inject fear, shame, and regret into his heart. What weapon is Satan using to conjure up those emotions in your life? Is it a song, a picture, or a person? Whatever stimulus Satan is using to attack you with, it is important that you don’t fall into his schemes. Satan wants to remind you of your past failures; Christ wants to remind you of His present forgiveness. Satan wants to imprison you with fear; Christ wants to empower you with the Holy Spirit. Satan wants to keep you down; Christ wants to raise you up.
And that is exactly what Jesus did in John 21—He reinstated Peter…three times. And do you know when Jesus reinstated Peter? “Early in the morning…” (John 21:4, NIV). No longer was the rooster a sign of sin, but a symbol of salvation. As the rooster was crowing, the Redeemer was commissioning.
Jesus could do the same thing for you, you know. He longs to transform the “crow of the rooster” in your life from a reminder of condemnation to a catalyst for commission just as He did in Peter’s life. This leaves you with a choice to make: you can either listen to the lies of Lucifer or listen to the truth from the Truth. Both will be whispering in your ear and it will be up to you to decide which to follow.
Who are you listening to today?
Comments? Questions? Suggestions?
©Grant Gaines 2013
