"this man also was with him"

Context in Luke 22 would suggest that the servant girl knew Peter had been with Jesus because of simple facial recognition - she had seen him with Him. We don't know anything about the second person - why that person presumed Peter's relationship with Jesus. The third person associated Peter with Jesus because "he too is a Galilean" - because of ethnicity.

How do people identify us as believers? How do people know that we are with Him?

Yesterday I sat behind a man on an airplane who wore a t-shirt and a baseball cap that said something about his faith, but how I really knew he was a believer is that he read his Bible most of the journey.

This morning I met a woman at the pool at the hotel I'm staying at, and I knew she was a believer by our conversation. She said she knew I was a believer because there was something different about me.

The Bible says we are known by what comes out of us - by our fruit. I love the song "By Our Love" by King and Country, and it says it true: "They will know us by our love" - but the secret behind that is Jesus. Love will come out of us when Jesus is in us. Where we have been and who we have been with will flow out naturally and almost imperceptibly - we cannot choose our identity in the moment. We are who we are - and if we are God's, others will know.

Peter's denial of Jesus is a bit unsettling to us because of how relatable Peter is as a person. He is the one we understand and identify with, often - and so for this to be his natural response - "Woman, I do not know him" - we realize it will take courage and effort on our part to ensure that this is not our natural response when faced with the same question. Who we really are comes out naturally, and so we must constantly seek proximity to Jesus in order for that to be what comes out of us.

Before Peter's denial of Jesus, their last recorded interaction was a conversation about greatness in the Kingdom. The Bible doesn't tell us who asked the question, but Jesus is talking to Peter specifically at the end of that conversation (Luke 22:24-34). Peter liked the idea of being close to Jesus - being close to power is attractive to all of us. Unlike many of us, he even seemed to have some understanding that proximity to power would come with sacrifice, and per his own words, he was ok with that. But when it really came down to it and his proximity to Jesus threatened his safety or his reputation, Peter denied it.

Greatness doesn't come by simply being close to power; it comes by submitting ourselves to the One who is all-powerful. And so we must seek proximity to Jesus, yes - but for the purpose of submission to Him, in order that He might change us and shape us into people who reflect His glory with our entire being and with every interaction in our day. When we seek proximity for personal glory or benefit, the wrong things will come out of us when people say, "Aren't you one of His?"

We can seek proximity for the right reasons though. We must fix our eyes on Jesus and allow our eyes to act as reflectors, as tiny little mirrors - so that when people look into our eyes they see Jesus. Like the servant girl, if they are peering curiously at our faces, it is because they wonder about our association. When I discipline my children, one of them in particular tends to look away, so our eyes don't meet. I have to begin our interaction by asking him, "Let me see your eyes". Eye contact is what changes us, eye contact is how we know and are known. When we want to disguise someone's identity in a photo, all we have to cover is their eyes. Eyes are identity.

What people behold when our eyes meet tells them so much about us. And so our gaze must be fixed on Jesus, reflecting Him to other people. What is going in is automatically going out. We become what we behold.

Ephesians 2 reminds us - "Remember who you were at one time." It is this recalling that prevents us from casting glances that read as judgmental or jealous, as hurt or horrified. At one time, we have all been far off - our proximity has been distant:

"11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit."

The reconciliation offered here is very powerful, impossible without the blood of Christ. No matter how close we have been before - to Him or to each other - His blood closes the gaps, shortens the distance, and makes it possible for us to live in peace and community, both with Him and with each other.

Acts 4 finishes the story for us, bringing us full-circle and telling us all we need to know:

"And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, 2 greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. 3 And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. 4 But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand. 5 On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, 6 with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. 7 And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, 9 if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. 11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus."

The power is of Jesus - the cornerstone that we are all completely dependent and leaning on. That dwelling place for God that we are called to be in Ephesians 2 - Jesus is the cornerstone of that building. And Peter and John's strength came from the strength of that cornerstone - and that power within them is how people knew that they had been with Jesus.