⁶¹The Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had told him, “Before a rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.” ⁶²And he went out and wept bitterly.

Artists throughout history have imagined Jesus’ appearance on canvas in many different ways; it is only natural that we would be curious about what we would see if we could look at Him.

Would we see the remaining nail prints in His hands and the wound in His side as Thomas did (John 20:25-17)? Would there be remnants of the horrible torture He suffered on our behalf, as the prophet Isaiah described?

Just as many were astonished at you, my people, so His appearance was marred more than any man and His form more than the sons of men. (Isa. 52:14)

For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. (Isa. 53:2)

When we look at Jesus, will we see what the disciples saw on the Mount of Transfiguration, when “He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light” (Matt. 17:2)? One of those present at that time, the apostle John, later tantalizes us with the prospect of seeing Jesus when He returns for us:

Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. (1 John 3:2)

But, instead of contemplating what we would see if we could look at Jesus, let us consider what He sees when He looks at us. What did Jesus see when He looked at Peter when the self-assured disciple had just finished denying Jesus three times? The Look penetrated Peter’s proclamations of loyalty and the professions of solidarity with Jesus. The Look catalyzed the prophetic warning, “Before a rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.” Less than twenty-four hours instantly turned into an eternity. Not only was Peter losing Jesus, but he lost himself to Jesus. The Look!

But could it be the Look was not one of judgment? It certainly was not one of surprise, for Jesus knew Peter would deny Him, and the Lord even told him so. Nor was it condemnation or even shame. Maybe it was the same look that Jesus had when asked where Lazarus had been buried four days earlier. We read that when Jesus asked to see the tomb, “[t]hey said to Him, ‘Lord, come and see.’” Our Lord’s response? “He wept” (John 11:34-35).

When Jesus locked eyes with Peter, the Look must have drilled deeply into Peter’s soul. He must have remembered something else Jesus warned him about less than twenty-four hours earlier: “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not enter into temptation” (Luke 22:46). Jesus saw him falling into temptation like Lazarus fell to death’s grip.

Could the Look possibly be a nonverbal communication that spoke to Peter, “I see what you are going through, my beloved Peter; you can’t see it now, but I’ve got this”? In the arresting self-realization of his failure, Peter couldn’t understand the love of the Look then, but he would later (John 22:14-17).

When God sees our failure, He doesn’t look at us in anger, shame-blaming, or judgment. He looks at us in love, for despite our failures and sin, He continues to love us. That is why the apostle Paul wonderfully proclaimed:

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 8:38–39)

Not even our sin can separate us from the love of God in Christ, for we are His beloved, forever adopted into His eternal love (see Eph. 3:14-20).

Lord, I look forward to locking eyes with You and understanding more fully how You see me in complete and eternal love.