Just asking (25): what’s in those eyes?

Augustin Hirschvogel, Christ before Caiaphas, and Peter Denying Christ, 1548 (National Gallery of Art, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons)

At that moment the Lord turned and looked at Peter (Lk 22:61, NLT).

It’s never left me.
This question.

What’s in those eyes?

Such a detail, yet recorded by someone who wasn’t an eyewitness.
Unless of course, Luke had direct access to the person whose eyes had met that other pair of eyes.

It would be difficult to imagine a rough-on-the-edges guy like Peter would even admit he was wrong.

No, he proclaimed that he would die before denying his teacher (Lk 22:33).
No, not even when pressed three times, he could just concede that he was speechless (Jn 21:17).

But here after meeting Jesus’ eyes, Peter went out and wept!
And not just wept, but bitterly.
It must have impacted him so strongly that he had to leave otherwise people would all see him cried!

What kind of eyes that broke Peter down?

Was it a cynical “See I told you so!”
Or, a disdainful “You don’t have what it takes to!”
Or, a disappointed “I’m so disappointed in you after what I have done for you these years!”
Or, an angry “I’m so mad at you.”

Or was it another kind of look?
The kind that moved Jesus, whilst being interrogated and ridiculed, took the time to turn around and looked at Peter.
The kind that’s so full of something that melted Peter?

At that moment the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Suddenly, the Lord’s words flashed through Peter’s mind: “Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me.” And Peter left the courtyard, weeping bitterly (Lk 22:61-62, NLT).

Do you wish to meet the pair of eyes?
Just asking.