The Shepherd is Struck

Introduction

Betrayal (47-56)

Judah Betrays Jesus

Peter

Attempts a Rescue and is stopped.

Jessus reasons:

A proverb: “All who take the sword die by the sword”.

Possibility of Angelic Help

2 Kings 6:15-17

The need to fulfil the Scriptures

Peter flees with the rest of the disciples.

Jesus’ Faithful Witness (57-68)

A Scene with two main Characters: Jesus (arrested) and Peter (following close behind)

No charge of blasphamy for death can be found until two witnesses come forward (vs 61) and charge him with intent to dessacrate the temple, a charge seen as worthy of death by both Jews and Pagans. In reality this phrase was typological, where the Temple refers to Jesus’ body (as the place where God’s presence dwells) and the coming resurrection. An ironic reference to the events now unfolding.

An answer is demanded on oath and is given:

Reflects Jesus words to Judah (vs 25); the questioner’s words will be his own witness.

The answer is affirmative with some qualifications, since the High Priest’s idea of what the Messiah is differs from reality.

Jesus supliments his answer with two OT references:

Psalm 110:1

Daniel 7:13

Jesus, when questioned under oath about who he is, gives the truthful answer. He can do nothing else, and this leads to a charge of blasphamy since the Sanhedrin has already concluded that this is impossible.

The faithfulness and truthfulness of Christ should be clearly in view here. A final temptation to simply lie and end the torment to come. Surely it was this moment that Jesus was praying for the strength to endure in the garden.

Peter’s Failure (69-75)

However, we are not done with the other character in this part of the story, Peter following behind.

While Jesus is faithful and truthful, willing to suffer the consequences to come and the salvation to be acheived thereby, Peter’s fear turns him into a serial liar of the most fallen kind.

Peter is sitting outside the courtyard. While Jesus is being grilled by the highest religious leaders in the Jewish world, headed up by the High Priest himself, all seeking to find something that would be worth putting Jesus to death, Peter is questioned by a servant girl. While Jesus tells the truth to his own peril, Peter cannot stand the interrogation of the servant girl and denies knowing anything about Jesus the Galilean.

But Peter gets a second chance to make good on his word that he would rather die than to deny Jesus. Another servant girl sees him and speaks to those standing around in the courtyard. This time, in front of an audience, Peter becomes more fearful and more defensive, this time using an oath which of course is sworn falsely and ignores Jesus teaching on oaths. Breaking an oath, in Jesus eyes, is blasphamy since there is nothing you can swear by that isn’t in God’s hands, so not only is Peter out here lying, but breaking oaths and blaspheming as well.

But he goes further, when the bystanders insist on it, using his Galilean accent as evidence. This time, Peter swears more oaths, maladictory oaths which curses the one who swears it if they break it. So intense was his fear that it overcame any fear of God, love for Christ, or even self-respect. This is no compromise, this is total surrender to the temptation of fear that any link may be discovered between him and his master. This was also no accident, nor a simple slip of judgement since it happened three times. And even after the rooster crows, Peter does nothing to reverse the grave sins he had committed: he, like the rest of the disciples, ran and wept bitterly. Bitterly means painfully and with intensity. He weeps because Jesus’ words, which were so offensive to him only hours before when denial seemed so impossible, had come true. He weeps because he wasn’t as strong, not nearly, as he had thought. He weeps because his master is all alone and he is too afraid to stand with him, even before a servant girl. He weeps because he has done something so evil, so treaturous, against God himself. He weeps because he cannot imagine this story having a happy ending.

Matthew does not mention Peter again, but from John we know that Jesus was reconciled with Peter personally as well as with the rest of the twelve.

In any case, Peter does find redemption, unlike the traitor Judas. We can imagine that the prospect of suicide probably entered into Peter’s mind as well, but he did not act on it. A sliver of faith let him believe that there was some good to living still, and there certainly was. That said, it is hard to imagine being lower and more broken than Peter was that awful night.

Conclusion

Matthew 5:3–4 ESV

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

In a very difficult way, Peter had finally learned these truths. The Kingdom of God wasn’t for some storng, brave, righteous disciple; the disciple he thought he was. The Kingdom of God is for those humble enough in their weakness, mournful enough of their sin, to come before the Throne of Grace with nothing but tears on our cheeks, poverty in our hearts, and a hunger for a righteousness we cannot obtain apart from grace.

So we should not let our focus on Peter to point down at his weakness, this would be to foolishly miss the point. Instead, just as Christ succeeded where Peter failed, he succeeds where we fail. He then calls us to live up to that calling, to stay awake and pray ourselves, to fight the good fight of faith with the power of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.

But we, in our foolishness and weakness, do not heed the warning. We take up the cross lightly and without much thought. There is no fasting, no tears, no laboured prayer. And then it strikes. Temptation, fear, condemnation, doubt, addiction, and any other thing the devil throws at us. We crumple under the weight and flee into the darkness weeping. In that dark night, when we let the fear, the shame, the doubt, and the guilt confront us we realize something. We need grace. We really need grace, so desparately do we need grace that we will weep bitterly for it. In that moment we have a choice: to escape, like Judas would, or to confront our own spiritual poverty. To accept our own weakness and humbly begin to rely on God. To pursue him with a hunger and thirst for righteousness, to develop a heart which is purely set on knowing Christ and displaying his mercy and forgiveness. To make peace, and then, only then, to endure persecution without fear. For some people, this experience happens the day they are converted, others much later. For some it happens many times. But the brokenheartedness in light of our own weakness and sin is how we may develop and true, living, active, and fruitful faith.

I can pretty much guaruntee you have never committed so vile a sin as Peter that night, but Christ’s strength for you, mercy for you, and death for you are just as potent and applicable. Embrace the broken heart of a child of the Kingdom of God, and call upon the Name of the Lord. Christ’s first words to his disciples, including Peter, would be Peace. Seek him who gives such peace freely to the one who, hungry, poor, and mourning, comes to him with faith.