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Ever done anything weird like listening
to rooster sounds on the internet? Oh, it happens to be a hobby of yours? Like any ordinary
fowl, it makes various sounds. Since I don’t know rooster lingo, I listened to
several different sounds made by roosters on a particular website and with sounds for sale! There
are roosters bawking, calling, chucking, clucking, cock-a-doodle doing (so they claim), crowing,
crying, and making other strange sounds. Some recordings only last one second, and one website wanted $1.80 per sound regardless of length which is only in seconds. “Yeah, give me five mp3 rooster sounds to go,
please.” Can you imagine downloading those on an iPhone and waking up to a rooster's high shrill beside your bed for that warm fuzzy farm feeling in the morning with the smell of java in the air brewing in the coffee maker!
We are all familiar
with the cock-a-doodle-do sound of a rooster. Well, I listened to some cockle doodle do’s
multiple times trying my best to hear a cock-a-doodle-do; I didn’t. Whoever came up with cock-a-doodle-do must have been listening to a very talented and articulate rooster, or the hearer must have had a
creative imagination. Tried as I did, I couldn’t make out anything remotely sounding like a cock-a-doodle-do from this
one rooster recording though it was claimed that was what it was doing! Maybe it's me; so I’ll
cut the guy or gal some slack whoever came up with it originally because phonetically
writing out sounds is very difficult, at least for me.
Why am I writing about roosters? There
are three reasons. Recently, we inherited a rooster where we live.
He just showed up one day out of nowhere, walking around and crowing and chasing cats or squirrels. So, I started throwing out some bread when it
came into the backyard. Now, this rooster made a very loud sound that sounded to me like a high pitch “bawk-ought.” One day I heard that
sound coming through the walls and windows from the backyard. There was a cat
out in the yard looking at this rooster with an expression, “What is that!” This rooster, now known as Ralph, was walking all over the backyard
making the sound, “bawk-ought.” The cat had no appetite for tangling with Ralph on the spur of the moment.
Now Ralph has a set of lungs; let me tell you! Just yesterday he was doing that bawk-ought thing, and I didn’t see any cat, squirrel, opossum, or bird in sight. In peaceful situations I think Ralph is saying, “Feed, me!” and “Get out of here” when other animals invade his territory and upset the tranquility, but I hadn't detected any deviations in the bawk-ought sound! Ralph has no qualms about making sure everyone and everything knew he was there! Sound like anyone you know?
Now Ralph has a set of lungs; let me tell you! Just yesterday he was doing that bawk-ought thing, and I didn’t see any cat, squirrel, opossum, or bird in sight. In peaceful situations I think Ralph is saying, “Feed, me!” and “Get out of here” when other animals invade his territory and upset the tranquility, but I hadn't detected any deviations in the bawk-ought sound! Ralph has no qualms about making sure everyone and everything knew he was there! Sound like anyone you know?
Admittedly, it is an oddity and novelty of
having a rooster around; I have grown kind of fond of Ralph. Now when Ralph is
making his presence known through a series of bawk-ought, our Bengal cats leap for the window sills with keen
interest and KFC on their mind as bawk-ought
reverberates in their ears. I like Ralph so I guess I better purchase some
scratch feed for him and see how this relationship goes. His diet had been
definitely altered since being a rooster on the run. When it's time to roost, he jumps up on the deck railing and calls it an evening.
Another reason I am writing about Ralph is that he reminds me of the
situation with Peter and the rooster. After Judas left from observing the Lord’s
Supper in the Upper Room to betray Jesus (Jn 13:26, 27, 30), Jesus made an
announcement to the remaining eleven disciples,
“Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer” (Jn 13:33a).
This is the first time Jesus addressed his disciples as “little children.” This was a very tender and affectionate moment. Little did they know that the unthinkable, the cross, was only one day away! Now, comes the upsetting news,
“You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews [cf. Jn 8:21, contrast Jn 13:36], 'Where I am going, you cannot come, so now I say to you'” (Jn 13:33b, emphasis mine).
The “going” refers to the crosswork, forty days of ministry after the resurrection, and ascension from the Mount of Olives, heaven ultimately.
“Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer” (Jn 13:33a).
This is the first time Jesus addressed his disciples as “little children.” This was a very tender and affectionate moment. Little did they know that the unthinkable, the cross, was only one day away! Now, comes the upsetting news,
“You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews [cf. Jn 8:21, contrast Jn 13:36], 'Where I am going, you cannot come, so now I say to you'” (Jn 13:33b, emphasis mine).
The “going” refers to the crosswork, forty days of ministry after the resurrection, and ascension from the Mount of Olives, heaven ultimately.
In spite of the heart of darkness soon
to be poured out upon Him, Jesus gives His inner circle a new command of love
(Jn 13:34-35), but it flew right over Peter’s head for his mind was on
that word “going,” not love. Notice what Peter asked Jesus as He finished his
commandment of love,
“Lord, where are You going” (Jn 13:36a, emphasis mine)?
Jesus answered Peter,
“Where I am going you cannot follow Me
now, but you shall follow Me afterward” (Jn 13:36b; cf. Jn 21:18-19).
Peter, so self-assured of his faith, asked the big “W,”
“Lord, why can I not follow You now” (Jn 13:37a, emphasis mine)?”
Peter was clueless about the “follow Me afterward” part, but it was a legitimate question. But we know, and so did Jesus, that Peter was not spiritually ready to die for His faith because he would deny his Lord in the crucible, only hours away; all eleven would desert Jesus in His “going.” Before Jesus answered, Peter had declared without any qualifications and with spiritual hubris,
“I will lay down my life for Your sake” (Jn 13:37b).
Isn’t it easy to spit out spiritual words when there is no persecution around the corner, or our life is not in any danger because of being a believer in Jesus Christ?
Peter, so self-assured of his faith, asked the big “W,”
“Lord, why can I not follow You now” (Jn 13:37a, emphasis mine)?”
Peter was clueless about the “follow Me afterward” part, but it was a legitimate question. But we know, and so did Jesus, that Peter was not spiritually ready to die for His faith because he would deny his Lord in the crucible, only hours away; all eleven would desert Jesus in His “going.” Before Jesus answered, Peter had declared without any qualifications and with spiritual hubris,
“I will lay down my life for Your sake” (Jn 13:37b).
Isn’t it easy to spit out spiritual words when there is no persecution around the corner, or our life is not in any danger because of being a believer in Jesus Christ?
What Jesus said next had to have broken Jesus’ heart
to say concerning the reality of Peter's faith at this juncture (You think you are ready, but you are not.),
“Will you lay down your life for My
sake? Most assuredly, I say to you, the rooster shall not crow till you have
denied Me three times” (Jn 13:38).
Mark recorded the rooster crowing twice (Mk 14:30, 72),
Jesus said to him, “Assuredly,
I say to you that today, even this night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times” (Mk
14:30, emphasis mine) and “A second time the rooster crowed....” (Mk 14:72, emphasis mine).
Luke suggested that Peter and Jesus would hear the rooster crowing (cf. Lk 22:60, 61).
Luke suggested that Peter and Jesus would hear the rooster crowing (cf. Lk 22:60, 61).
Before getting to the response to this
statement of Jesus to Peter, the crowing of the rooster serves as a time
indicator (Mk 13:35) on when Peter denied the Lord the third time (Jn 18:27). The
night watch was divided into four three-hour intervals, running from 6 P.M. to
6 A.M.: evening (6-9), midnight (9-12),
rooster-crowing (12-3), and morning (3-6).
Peter’s third denial of Jesus probably came around 3 A.M. The rooster crowed during his third denial (Lk 22:60, 61).
Now, getting back to the Lord questioning
Peter laying down his life for Him, notice how Matthew and Mark record their response,
“Peter said to Him, ‘Even if I have to
die with You, I will not deny You!’ And
so said all the disciples’” (Mt
26:35, emphasis mine).
“But he spoke more vehemently, ‘If I
have to die with You, I will not deny You!’And
they all said likewise’” (Mk 14:31, emphasis mine).
By at least 3 A.M., this was what
was happening with Peter, he had denied the Lord thrice; the rooster crowed twice, and Peter wept. Luke recorded that Peter wept “bitterly” (Lk 22:62). Don't miss this; when the rooster crowed the second time, Jesus turned and looked at Peter (Lk 22:61)! They must have locked eyes; the eyes said it all. No wonder Peter wept. It was a sight not to behold, but his denials took him there.
The last reason for sharing my rooster encounters with you is that it makes me
think of my own spiritual readiness to follow Jesus into the fray every time I happen to see or hear Ralph making his noisy bawk-ought or his clucking, bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk. I don’t know what
type of sound that rooster made twice in Peter's ordeal, but Peter’s guilt was eating him alive by his blatant denial of knowing Jesus (“I do not know the Man!” Mt 26:72).
None of the disciples at the Lord’s Supper were willing to put their faith on the line when it came right down to it, but that all changed after the physical resurrection and ascension. They were never quite the same. Legend has it that Peter was crucified upside down per his request. All of the eleven disciples died as a martyr for the cause of Christ, except for John who was persecuted and exiled to the isle of Patmos.
None of the disciples at the Lord’s Supper were willing to put their faith on the line when it came right down to it, but that all changed after the physical resurrection and ascension. They were never quite the same. Legend has it that Peter was crucified upside down per his request. All of the eleven disciples died as a martyr for the cause of Christ, except for John who was persecuted and exiled to the isle of Patmos.
Ralph causes me to rethink the quality of my personal faith in Christ. Would I deny my Lord and Savior in the
pinch? Would I give my life for Him? Am I living a life that exposes me to such
things? Am I faithful or just being religious? The song, “I have decided to follow Jesus” has to be more than words
but a walk, a way of life no matter what. In our culture, the verbs deny or die are alien issues. We don't like to think in those terms, but maybe we need to start and think about the crowing of the rooster with the way things are shaping up in the world.
Though Christ's return is imminent, we cannot bank on that for strength; it may not happen in our lifetime, no matter what the soothsayers are saying. But we know that “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord” (2 Cor 5:8); now that is something we can take to the bank as a born again believer! I would like to think that I would be faithful to Jesus whatever befalls, but if I am being completely honest, I don’t know or will ever know until the time comes when my faith is really challenged. Relying on God's strength (Php 4:13), we all can avoid denying Him and experience dying for Him if it comes to that. Hopefully, it will not; I'm fond of living, thank you very much.
Ralph coming into my life was a good thing (Rom 8:28). Being a Biblicist I do not look to nature for my spiritual directions nor ignore God's hand in nature. Ralph's cacophonous crowing reminds me that truly following Christ will cost us something. It admonishes me to examine my faith and make all the necessary adjustments to be like Christ no matter what. We all need to be spiritually ready and affirm our faith publicly for challenging days are coming, barring the rapture. “Cock-a-doodle-do!” <><
Though Christ's return is imminent, we cannot bank on that for strength; it may not happen in our lifetime, no matter what the soothsayers are saying. But we know that “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord” (2 Cor 5:8); now that is something we can take to the bank as a born again believer! I would like to think that I would be faithful to Jesus whatever befalls, but if I am being completely honest, I don’t know or will ever know until the time comes when my faith is really challenged. Relying on God's strength (Php 4:13), we all can avoid denying Him and experience dying for Him if it comes to that. Hopefully, it will not; I'm fond of living, thank you very much.
Ralph coming into my life was a good thing (Rom 8:28). Being a Biblicist I do not look to nature for my spiritual directions nor ignore God's hand in nature. Ralph's cacophonous crowing reminds me that truly following Christ will cost us something. It admonishes me to examine my faith and make all the necessary adjustments to be like Christ no matter what. We all need to be spiritually ready and affirm our faith publicly for challenging days are coming, barring the rapture. “Cock-a-doodle-do!” <><
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