Matthew Chapter 26, Part 2

In Matthew Chapter 26, Part 1, I indicated I had another verse that I wished to ponder before I moved on.  But the more I pondered that verse, the more I found this chapter thick with verses that challenge me.  So I think there must be a couple more posts before I complete this chain of thought.

As the passion unfolds, its very difficult to take your eyes off Jesus.  Everything that happens to Him and through Him is captivating.  But as I considered this scene further, I found myself drawn increasingly to Peter.

Typically, we think of Jesus’ sacrifice in global terms.  “He died on the cross for the salvation of all.”  What strikes me now is that Peter directly represents that “all.”  While Jesus moves toward the garden, Peter is committing the very sins that Jesus will ultimately suffer for.

Verse 33 reads like this:

Peter replied, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.”

Early in this endeavor I tried to indicate how important it is in a life of prayer to place yourself in the scene you are contemplating.  Do that now for a moment as Peter.

You know that Jesus is Christ.  You believe it completely, without question.  He is not just rabbi,  your teacher, but your Lord.  Jesus is sitting across the table from you.  He looks at you and says “Tonight, you will fall away from me.”

And you respond, “No Lord, you are wrong.  I will not.”

Let me repeat that for emphasis.  Jesus says “This is how it will be.”  And you respond, “No Lord, it will not be like that.  You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Do you find that as astonishing as I do?  Do you think that if Jesus was physically present to you, and told you something about yourself that you did not like, that you would accept His word?  Or would you look Him in the eye and dispute what He said to you?

And in a strange twist, is it possible that no matter which way you answer those questions, you might be guilty of Peter’s arrogance?

Because Peter’s response is the direct result of sinful human arrogance.  We all possess it.  We all manifest it.  We all believe we are better than we are, too good to make this mistake, or that error.  We lack strength precisely because we believe we are stronger than we are.  This leads to overconfidence, and then failure, and we do things we wished in retrospect that we had not done.

We end up weeping bitterly, like Peter, because we were not humble enough to identify our own limitations at the beginning.

What if Peter had responded more like this:

“Lord, I wish this were not so, but if you say this is what will be, then this is what will be.  Please tell me Lord, is there anything I can do in my weakness to avoid this fate?  Can you strengthen me Lord, so that I will not fail you?”

What if, when you sit down across the Gospels from Jesus,  you could be that humble?

Could you then craft a response to whatever Jesus is asking that you could follow through on?