Scandal Coming
We turn now to the heartbreaking record of the lowest place
in Peter’s association with Jesus. We
have already remarked on Jesus’ prediction that all His disciples would “fall
away.” We pointed out that the original
word is literally “to be offended” or “to stumble.” It is where our English word “scandal” comes
from. Jesus warned them that they would
all be “scandalized” or “tripped up” by their association with Him at His soon
coming condemnation. But Peter (and
indeed all the disciples) vehemently protested this denigrating of their
loyalty—especially coming on the heels of His declaration that one of them was
a traitor and would betray Him.
Condemnation for Denial
Remember, that in Matthew 10, Jesus had instructed the
twelve before sending them out to teach and preach throughout Israel. He had
warned them not to fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. He added that “whoever denies me before men,
I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven.”
In the Courtyard
But now we turn to our text in Matthew 26:69-75. In this
narrative, we are once again looking at Peter.
Matthew has cleverly shifted our focus back and forth between Jesus and
the disciples as a group, as well as individual snapshots of Judas and Peter
and their various interactions with Jesus on one pole and the Jewish leaders on
the other. Matthew shows that although
the motivations of Peter and Judas were quite opposite, still Peter appears in
a rather dismal light.
In our text, Peter is now sitting “outside in the
courtyard.” A common feature of Israelite
homes for a thousand years had been that of a ground floor room used for
storage and for a stable with up to four rooms above and alongside with direct
access to this central room. At the time
of Jesus, the central room was often replaced by an open central courtyard where
guests were received and surrounded by the rooms of a two-story house. This was apparently the kind of home that the
high priest had. Peter was in this
courtyard but outside the house where the cold night air required a charcoal
fire to keep warm among the soldiers and others who had participated in the
seizure of Jesus.
Discovery
Despite his attempt on the life of Caiaphas’ security chief,
Malchus, in the darkness Peter had managed to maintain some anonymity and so he
boldly followed the mob right up to the high priest’s courtyard where John
tells us that he spoke to the servant girl to let Peter in. As Peter warmed himself by the fire, the
servant girl who had scanned his features when she let him in suddenly realized
that she remembered where she had seen the big fisherman before. She had seen him with Jesus who was this very
moment upstairs in the house being arraigned.
Her position in the house of the corrupt high priest was likely tied to
some family loyalty so she promptly spoke up and denounced him. “You also were with Jesus the Galilean.” Apparently, she was referring to him as well
as the other disciples—not realizing that John also had a connection.
Denial
“But (Peter) denied it before them all, saying, ‘I do not
know what you mean.’” His first denial
is a bit of a subterfuge—as if he did not directly deny Jesus—but rather he was
denying the accusation! But of course,
this was a denial of any connection with Jesus even though it might be parsed
to merely mean that her accusation was surprising to him and he didn’t
understand how she could make such a statement.
The fact remains, he understood only too well. Perhaps he justified to himself that he might
use this bit of verbal gymnastics to stay with Jesus and not “fall away.” But Peter certainly knew better and so he got
up from the fire and tried to hide in the darkness of the covered gatehouse. This first sin was NOT that he tried to
protect himself (here he is right in the midst of the anti-Jesus faction!) but
that he placed his own security ABOVE his loyalty to Jesus—in other words, it
was idolatry as well as lying. (It is also barely possible that he was trying
to continue his surveillance through subterfuge and find a way to “rescue”
Jesus but his statement is still a falsehood.)
But another sharp-eyed servant girl was there (and by
harmonizing the various gospel accounts we know she joined with the first one
now) and she (or they) accused him before the bystanders further. “This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.” And again, Peter denied it—but now with an
oath. He was swearing in order to add
some punch to his denial. But Jesus had
preached against swearing for the purpose of making people believe you. And in this case, calling God as his witness
did not make Peter’s denial suddenly true.
Peter declared, quite falsely, “I do not know the man.”
The Rooster Crows
Finally, an hour later according to John, the bystanders, perhaps
hearing Peter nervously talking a bit, realized that his northern Galilee
accent probably tied him to Jesus. This
was too much for Peter who wanted to stay here with Jesus at all costs. “He began to invoke a curse on himself and to
swear, ‘I do not know the man.’” His
declaration seemed to mollify the bystanders.
But, at that moment, Jesus was being led down the stairs to the
courtyard where they would beat Him (according to Luke) and just then, He
looked at Peter, and then the rooster crowed.
Jesus’ look caused Peter to suddenly realize that in his
determination to not “fall away” and abandon Jesus, he had yet denied Him—three
times—just as Jesus predicted—AND Jesus knew.
This bitter realization–not the accusations from the servant girls and
the bystanders—caused Peter to also abandon Jesus and run out of the courtyard where
he wept “bitterly.” The fact that Jesus’
knew what he had done was too much for him.
A few hypocrites would thereby condemn Peter for “denying
Jesus before men.” But is this an
unforgivable sin? Yes, Judas also denied
(the original word also means “to refuse”) Jesus. Is there a difference in these cases? (We will examine that more deeply next time.) For now, let us examine what went wrong.
What Went Wrong?
The record of all the disciples—of the twelve—was not what
you should expect of people who have been “discipled” by Jesus Himself. Being a “disciple” is a commendable thing but
it is not going to make you “bulletproof” in your battle with “the world, the
flesh, and the devil.” What had Peter
(and all the rest of the disciples) failed to do?
Remember that three times Jesus had prodded His top three
lieutenants—Peter, James, and John—to do what this very night? They needed divine aid that they enter not
into temptation. But their flesh cried
out instead for sleep in their hour of spiritual need. This is why Luther’s great hymn contains the
line “the arm of flesh will fail you.”
Lack of Spiritual Preparation
They needed to actually pray. The kind of prayer needed was not a mere recitation
of the Lord’s prayer—although it contains the appropriate sentiment “Lead us
not into temptation but deliver us from evil.”
A recitation of words will never
save us. But asking the God of the
universe for help can move mountains. They
need a prayer that acknowledged their need and requested help from God that
they might overcome in a spiritual battle.
This is why Jesus at the moment of His arrest said to Peter, “Put away
your sword.” You need spiritual
weapons. You are not battling with flesh
and blood—although that is how it looked to Peter. So off he went into an unfamiliar spiritual
battle completely unprepared and now you know the “rest of the story.”
Discerning Spiritual Issues
What crisis are you battling? What are your weapons? The truly important crises are spiritual in
nature even though they may appear to be physical. Thus, our actions may be wrongly focused on
and against other people that we perceive to be the “enemy” but they are really
just other victims. Even our prayers can
be focused too much on the physical issues when the real battle is
spiritual. We must not ignore the
physical but we need discernment and wisdom that comes from God to recognize
the spiritual issues behind the physical.
Peter had good motivations initially but he faltered and
began to fight what he thought were enemies only to realize that he had been
fighting the wrong battle. He tried to
kill Malchus, he sparred with servant girls and bystanders only to be defeated
by misidentifying the enemy and using the wrong weapons in his well-intentioned
desire to be true to Jesus.
Sufficiency and Necessity
Good motivation is not enough. Personal determination is not enough. Physical strength and mental acuity is not
enough. Being “discipled” and Bible
study is not enough. Yes, they are all necessary but not sufficient. We also need the wisdom and strength of the
Lord which God gives to those who ask (James 1:5).
© 2018 Eric Thimell
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