Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him. “You also were with Jesus of Galilee,” she said. But he denied it before them all. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. Then he went out to the gateway, where another servant girl saw him and said to the people there, “This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.” He denied it again, with an oath: “I don’t know the man!” After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, “Surely you are one of them; your accent gives you away.” Then he began to call down curses, and he swore to them, “I don’t know the man!” Immediately a rooster crowed. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: “Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly. (Matthew 26:69-75, NIV)
In one of the darker moments of Christ's Passion, the Apostle Peter has just betrayed Jesus three times and a rooster crows. In the same way these barnyard fowls herald the coming of a new day, the bird in the biblical narrative signals a dawning of conscience for the Apostle Peter, who understands the gravity of what he has done, in fulfillment of the words of Christ at the Last Supper. Peter is forgiven by the Risen Christ, and goes on to become the leader of the Christian movement, showing how no one is beyond the reach of divine redemption. German Artist Otto Dix created this expressionist image for a suite of lithographs illustrating The Gospel of Matthew in 1960 for Berlin Publisher Kaethe Vogt, who was commissioning images for Bible texts from famous contemporary artists.(John Kohan)