Today is the Thursday before Good Friday, an appropriate day
to think about the events of the night of the Lord’s arrest, when Jesus made a
number of startling predictions, all of which came true, and all of which
demonstrate the depth of the Lord’s commitment to save sinners. We can read about these things in
Matthew 26.
In 26:21, the Lord foretold that one of the twelve, Judas,
would betray Him, would hand Him over to the authorities to be crucified. He was right. In 26:31, He predicted to the remaining eleven, “You will all fall away because of me this
night…” That is, Jesus
predicted that He would be abandoned by those whom He had chosen and
discipled. He was right.
Perhaps the most gut-wrenching and memorable prediction is
introduced in 26:33, when Peter responded, "Though
they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away."
“Lord, I’m different.
I’ll stand by you no matter what.”
Those of us who know what is coming – that Peter will deny the Lord – engage
in some Monday Morning Quarterback pity – “poor Peter. Poor foolish Peter.” We think that we would be different…which
makes us just like Peter.
Peter thought he would be different than the other disciples
who might abandon Jesus. When we
think we would be different than Peter, we are just like Him. Isn’t that what we think when we read
this story? “If I was one of the
disciples, I’d stick beside Jesus.
If I was Peter, I would never deny Him. I’d stay right there and follow Him all the way to the
cross.”
It seldom occurs to us that we abandon Him in various ways
now. We deny Him in various
ways now. We abandon Him for the
sake of idols, the world’s pleasure.
We forsake time with Him.
We ignore His Word and fellowship with Him and His church. We deny Him by the way that we live our
lives. Did you know that that was
Paul’s major concern for the professing believers at Crete when he wrote his
letter to Titus? There were people
there who claimed to know Christ, but who denied Him by their works (Titus1:16).
We abandon Him.
We deny Him. Jesus knows us
better than we know ourselves. He
demonstrates this to Peter:
Jesus said to him,
"Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will
deny me three times." Peter said to him, "Even if I must die with
you, I will not deny you!" And
all the disciples said the same. (26:34-35)
“And all the disciples
said the same.” Why do you
think Matthew included this detail?
Likely, there are many reasons, but perhaps one is that disciples tend
to have a higher opinion of their own faithfulness than they should. All of them swore they wouldn’t abandon
Jesus. And how many of them were
right?
Another reason to mention this is that these details remind
us that Jesus knew precisely what was going to happen. He knew precisely how He would be
treated even by those closest to Him…yet it did not deter Him in the
least. Jesus is the only hero in
the story. Everyone else
fails. This casts a long gospel
shadow.
Do you love Jesus?
I’m sure we all do in some way and in some measure, but we all
undoubtedly fail Him in many ways.
The beautiful thing about this scene is that the disciples’ love for
Jesus or lack thereof had absolutely no bearing on whether or not He would
proceed with the Father’s plan. He
was going to die for these men without regard for how they had loved Him or
failed Him. The disciples’
betrayal, abandonment, and denial introduced no hint of hesitation on the part
of the Savior.
It was for these very sins that they needed a Savior. By their poor treatment of Him, their
disregard for Him, their dismissal of Him they demonstrated the depth of their
desperate need for Him. And this Savior is the only Savior who would
save such band of unfaithful sinners.
Jesus doesn’t love us because we first loved Him. We love because He first loved us. He loved us when we had nothing to
offer Him, when we wanted to offer
Him nothing. What a Savior.
Comments