“The Lord turned and looked at Peter” (Luke 22:61).

We begin the year focusing on Christ as our cornerstone — the stable, weight-bearing reality that holds the shape of our lives (Eph. 2:19-22; 1 Pet. 2:4-7). One man who tells us about that cornerstone is a man Jesus himself had to put back together. It reminds us of Kintsugi — the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold. Instead of hiding the cracks, the restorer fills them, binding the shattered pieces together with care. The finished vessel looks different than the original; it becomes something new, marked by its history and made more beautiful because it’s been broken and carefully remade. That counterintuitive beauty gives us a way to see what Jesus is doing in Peter’s life — and what he still does in ours.

Scene 1: The Upper Room

On the betrayal night, Peter was loud, loyal, and confident. Jesus warns him, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat” (Luke 22:31), Peter responds with certainty: “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death” (Luke 22:33). He means it! He’s ready to fight (John 18:10), so he insists that even if others fall away, he won’t (Mark 14:29)! Peter thinks sincerity equals strength. He surely can’t imagine fear making him a stranger to his own words. And the first “crack” in the pottery appears here, almost invisible because it looks like confidence. Pride often enters disguised as certainty. Where are you most sure you would never fall?

The finished vessel looks different than the original; it becomes something new, marked by its history and made more beautiful because it’s been broken and carefully remade.

Scene 2: The Courtyard Fire

Have you ever watched words come out of your mouth and thought, “Who is that?” Peter’s worst moment happens publicly, under pressure, while he’s already tired and confused. Luke gives us the details: Peter warms himself next to a fire flickering in a palace courtyard, not far from where they detain Jesus (Luke 22:55-56). The accusations come slowly, one after another. Then the denials escalate … until Peter begins to curse! His Galilean accent has betrayed him; he can’t hide. Then the rooster crows (Luke 22:60). And right then, that’s when Jesus turns and looks at Peter (Luke 22:61). In that moment, every brave sentence Peter spoke turns to ash. “He went out and wept bitterly” (Luke 22:62). Fear, denial, and now shame: Peter’s broken.

Scene 3: The Shadows

Imagine knowing Jesus is suffering, and your last interaction with him was betrayal. The Gospels don’t tell us where Peter stood during the crucifixion. John lists those near the cross, and Peter is conspicuously absent (John 19:25-27). Yet Peter later calls himself a “witness of the sufferings of Christ” (1 Pet. 5:1), suggesting he may have been watching from the shadows. Wherever he was, he was not heroic. He was haunted.

Is there part of your story you’re trying to keep out of the Lord’s sight?

Guilt says, “I did wrong.” Shame says, “I am what I did.” The gospel removes guilt and heals our shame. Peter’s tears come from a man who “came to himself” (Luke 15:17) and sees himself. No doubt, that night’s events loop in his mind. But even as shame tells us to run from the Lord, he comes in grace running toward us (Luke 15:20), calling us to be honest and come to him. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves … If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us” (1 John 1:8-9). Is there part of your story you’re trying to keep out of the Lord’s sight?

Scene 4: The Empty Tomb

When Mary Magdalene reports the empty tomb, Peter sprints there (Luke 24:12; John 20:3-10), which shows just how much he cares, even as he carries around the memory of his denial. When he enters the tomb, he sees the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth folded separately. Just like Moses set aside his face covering when he came near God, now the risen Jesus shows us God’s glory unveiled (cf. 2 Cor. 3:12-18). Soon afterwards, the Lord appears to Peter personally (though we don’t know the details, see Luke 24:34; 1 Cor. 15:5). Peter is an eyewitness to the world’s newfound hope, but Jesus has more work to do in him, to restore him.

A broken vessel serves no one, but in the hands of the Master, disciples become useful and beautiful.

Scene 5: The Beach Fire

John 21 opens with another fire. Another charcoal fire! The same word is used only once elsewhere in the New Testament, and guess where: At Peter’s denial (John 18:18; 21:9). Jesus has recreated the atmosphere, even the smell of Peter’s failure, not to shame him but to heal him. Peter has gone back to fishing, back to muscle memory, back to what he knows. Jesus serves breakfast before he confronts, fostering fellowship as he prepares to recommission Peter.

Then comes the threefold question: “Do you love me?” (John 21:15-17). Each question mirrors a denial (three denials, three reaffirmations of Peter’s love!). Jesus doesn’t pretend it never happened, nor does he crush Peter with it. He moves him toward his purpose: “Feed my sheep.” Peter is “grieved” by the third question (John 21:17) — it probably feels like poking at his wound. But at this second fire, he finds mercy to heal, as he eats with the living Lord.

When Jesus restores us, we find more than peace and joy; we find our mission.

It’s fascinating to notice how Jesus has reenacted, not just the denial, but also Peter’s original calling (Luke 5:4-11), with its miraculous catch of fish and beachside call to “Follow me.” But this time Peter doesn’t ask the Lord to depart (John 21:19), and Jesus makes his “fisher of men” into a shepherd!

When Jesus restores us, we find more than peace and joy; we find our mission. A broken vessel serves no one, but in the hands of the Master, disciples become useful and beautiful. Like Kintsugi pottery, the broken pieces remain, now held together with something precious, as we become his “workmanship, created for good works he prepared beforehand” (Eph. 2:8-10). By his grace, our cracks become the places his glory shines through most.