Coal-fire in the Courtyard

I came upon a Church yesterday, “St. Peter in Gallicantu”. It’s built on the place where they believe the house of the high priest Caiaphas to have been. Here it was that Jesus was kept in the dungeon the night before He died- He would have been lowered by ropes through a hole into a deep pit (33 steps down I counted). It’s clean and well-lit now, but would have been dark and thick with fetid stench in the time of Christ. Outside there are slanting and partly covered stairs in the hillside where Jesus would have walked as he was being led by the Temple Guard to Caiaphas’ House. There is a smooth-stoned pavement at the top built where they believe the courtyard to have been. This is where Peter would have sat warming himself by the coal-fire when he denied knowing Christ three times (please read Luke 22:54-62 so the rest of this makes sense). Sitting there, I read from a book in my backpack which speaks of the look that Jesus gave Peter after he denied Him and the rooster crowed:

He knows them well, the Savior’s looks. And yet never, never had he seen on the Savior’s face the expression he sees there at this moment, the eyes marked with sadness but without any severity. A look of reproach, without a doubt, but which becomes suppliant at the same time and seems to repeat to him ‘Simon, I have prayed for thee!’ This look only rests on him for an instant, Jesus was violently dragged away by the soldiers, but Peter sees him all the time.
-G. Chevrot

When the rooster crowed Peter fled from the courtyard; he knew if he stayed he might deny Christ again. I realized that Peter later returned to this place- several times he himself was held in those dungeons for preaching Christ. (Acts 4:1-4 and 5:12-32). Peter was allowed to suffer for Christ in the same place he had denied Him! I imagine Peter being led through the courtyard by the soldiers, and seeing the spot where the coal-fire had once burned, saying to himself, “Not this time!” I reflect on what my own ‘coal-fires’ are; the places I seek false comfort and tend to deny the Lord. What courtyards do I need to run from?
What are your coal-fires Pilgrim?

Mike