Westcott House is once again commissioning Stations of the Cross for churches and chapels across the city. This year, I have been allocated station 4: Peter denies Jesus.
“And he went out and wept bitterly”
- Charcoal on paper
- Digitally manipulated print
Peter’s betrayal of Christ is deeply personal, yet he weeps on behalf of all our failures.
In the original charcoal image, we are invited into the raw immediacy of Peter’s experience by the charcoal fire.
In the digital print – created using a scanned image and some of the basic image manipulation features in Microsoft Word – we are invited to recognise the ease with which Peter’s sin can be duplicated, and the ordinary, daily ways in which we improvise upon his betrayal.
Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. A servant-girl came to him and said, “You also were with Jesus the Galilean.” But he denied it before all of them, saying, “I do not know what you are talking about.” When he went out to the porch, another servant-girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, “This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.” Again he denied it with an oath, “I do not know the man.” After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, “Certainly you are also one of them, for your accent betrays you.” Then he began to curse, and he swore an oath, “I do not know the man!” At that moment the cock crowed. Then Peter remembered what Jesus had said: “Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.
Matthew 26.69-75
reverendally.org 