Jesus has been arrested and taken to the high priest where a trial has started. The trial is not a seeking of the truth. The trial is to find false witnesses that will give a false testimony about Jesus so that the ruling Jewish council can have him executed. All of the disciples abandoned Jesus at his arrest and ran away. However, we are told that Peter has returned to follow Jesus at a distance as they go to the high priest for trial (Matthew 26:58,69). Last week we read what was going on inside during Jesus’ trial. Now the scene moves outside, where we see Peter sitting in the courtyard of the high priest and he is awaiting the results of the trial.
Peter (Matthew 26:69-75)
We must appreciate the dangerous situation that Peter has put himself in. He is sitting in the courtyard of where the trial is occurring. He is in the courtyard where the high priest and the Sanhedrin have gathered for the express purpose of killing Jesus. Peter is sitting there is the darkness in that courtyard. According to Luke’s account, there is a fire burning in the middle of the courtyard and people are sitting around the fire, warming themselves. Peter is sitting among them when suddenly a servant girl comes up to Peter. She says to him, “You also were with Jesus the Galilean.” You can imagine the fear moving over Peter’s body. Someone has just identified him. Please also keep in mind that the girl called Jesus a Galilean, which was a derogatory term when the people of Jerusalem used it. You see this when Nathanael is called to be a disciple. He wonders if anything good could come out of Nazareth (cf. John 1:46). We have the same thing in our country. Too often we visualize a country to be monolithic in thinking and culture. But our country even has clear regions of cultural differences and there are derogatory thoughts that are carried toward other regions. We even have clear differences in our own state. West Palm Beach and its surrounding area is nothing culturally like Pensacola, Destin, or Tallahassee. So the servant girl is placing Peter with the northerns, the Galileans, like Jesus.
Notice what Peter does. He does not agree and give a reason why he is there. Fear has taken over and Peter says, “I do not know what you are talking about” (Matthew 26:70). Then Peter stands up and walks away from the crowd encircled around the campfire. He is probably trying to avoid any future detection. But it will not work. Another servant girl saw Peter and she starts telling the people around the fire, “This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.” This time Peter denies his association more strongly. Peter now takes an oath before God that he does not know this man. But this does not settle the matter either. In verse 73 a few more people who were there go up to Peter and they are convinced about who Peter is. They tell Peter that they know that he is one of them because his accent betrays him (Matthew 26:73). We know what that is like when you talk to someone. You can immediately tell if they are from New York or New Jersey. The accent quickly gives them away. You can tell if a person is from the South. Their accent quickly gives them away. We immediately know, “You are not from here.” This is what they are telling Peter. You are not from here. You are from Galilee. You are one of them. Your accent gives it away.
Now look at what Peter does in verse 74. His denial is as intense as it could ever be. Peter takes an oath before God again and adds a curse on himself if he is lying about knowing Jesus. Peter is not cursing like we use to the term to speak of foul language. Peter cursing means he is calling for curses to come down on him if he is lying regarding his oath. Peter is emphatic. He does not know Jesus. But then the rooster crowed. Here we are moving toward the dawn of morning and the rooster goes off. Just a few hours earlier Jesus has told Peter that he would deny him three times. This is why he needed to be awake praying and not sleeping. Satan was demanding to sift Peter like wheat. Peter was confident that he would never deny the Lord and certainly not three times tonight. But then it happened, just as Jesus said. I want you to feel the weight that Peter feels as he realizes what he has done and how Jesus was right about what he said to him less than 12 hours ago. Please read the final words of this paragraph carefully. “And he went out and wept bitterly” (Matthew 26:75).
Imagine the sting and the hurt of failure at this moment. I want us to also think about how severe of a sin this is. I do not think that we give enough weight to what Peter has done. But Jesus and the apostles made it very clear that this is a terrible, horrifying sin to commit.
Therefore, everyone who will acknowledge me before others, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever denies me before others, I will also deny him before my Father in heaven. (Matthew 10:32-33 CSB)
Peter and the apostles had been given this instruction. Don’t deny me before others or I will deny you before my Father. But Peter just did this very thing three times. The apostles would later teach the hopelessness of denying the Lord (cf. 2 Timothy 2:12; 1 John 2:23; Revelation 2:13; 3:8). This is why Peter leaves crying with overwhelming grief and pain.
Judas (Matthew 27:1-10)
But now I would like us to see that Matthew turns our attention to another disciple of Jesus. The trial has determined to put Jesus to death. Now Jesus is being delivered over to Pilate, the Roman ruler of the province. As Peter fades from the scene, the camera now turns its attention to Judas. We are told in Matthew 27:3 that when Judas saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind. Something clicks in Judas’ mind at this moment. He is full of regret and changes his mind. He appears to what to try to undo what he has done. He goes to the chief priests and religious leaders bringing with him the 30 pieces of silver. Listen to what Judas says:
“I have sinned by betraying innocent blood” (Matthew 27:4). Please think about his repentant words. He says that he sinned. He does not push the blame elsewhere. Further, he calls Jesus innocent and that he has been betrayed. Judas owns what he did and owns what has happened. But it is too late. Notice that the Jewish leaders do not care. Essentially they tell Judas, “That is your problem, not ours.” Now please think about how these are the religious leaders. They are the priests of the people and here is a person coming to them in sorrow, confessing his sin. The priests tell Judas that it is his problem. They do not receive him or help him. They tell him to deal with it. So Judas throws the silver into the temple and goes off and hangs himself (Matthew 27:5). Judas is in such a dark place that his only solution that he sees is to go and kill himself.
The awfulness is not over. The religious leaders do not care about Judas who has left in this horrible spiritual state. They care that Judas left the blood money with them and they do not know what to do with it (Matthew 27:6). They suddenly care about the law. They do not care about the law when it came to arresting Jesus and having false witnesses give testimony. They do not care about Judas who is trying to fix what he did. But now they care about the law and how to use this wicked money. So they buy a field with the money as a burial place for foreigners. So it would be called the Field of Blood, fulfilling what Jeremiah (Jeremiah 18:1-11; 19:1-13; 32:1-44) and Zechariah (Zechariah 11:12-13) prophesied would happen.
Both Judas and Peter have failed Jesus is a catastrophic way. Both are consumed with bitter sorrow about what they have done. One goes out ready to quit and one goes out ready to die. What is Matthew showing us about these two disciples and what can we learn from them?
Catastrophic Failure Leaves You a Choice
When we fail spiritually, Satan immediately jumps in and tells us that we should just quit. We should give up. We are terrible disciples. We can never do this. We are a failure and we are unworthy of even walking through these doors. What Satan whispers to us in our darkness are more lies that we should leave, give up, quit, or worse. Catastrophic spiritual failure leaves us with a choice. You can be like Judas and quit or you can be like Peter and rebound.
One of the key lessons we have looked at the last two weeks on Sunday night is the goodness of guilt and shame. It is easy to allow our guilt and shame to swallow us up into despair. But God wants the guilt to move us to repentance. There is no place in the scriptures where we see a person swallowed up in the guilt of their sins and God is pleased by that and wants them to wallow in their guilt and shame. Instead, we read about our God wanting people to not wallow in their failures but move forward to God in repentance and confession. Remember that Jesus himself even said this to his disciples. Go back to Matthew 26:31-32 and look at what Jesus said.
Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.” (Matthew 26:31-32 ESV)
Jesus does not tell his disciples that they will all fail and fall away and when he is raised from the dead, he will go get some new disciples. Jesus said he would lead them again in Galilee. Jesus said this so that they would not be swallowed up by their sorrow. Jesus said this to give them hope. You are going to fail. You are going to fall away. But Jesus is going to meet you on the other side of your failure and lead you forward.
Now I really want to push this idea deep into our minds. Sometimes we are swallowed up in guilt and want to quit on God or do even worse because we cannot fix what we have done. We cannot undo our sin. We cannot repair our sins. There is no magic reset button. So we think we can’t go forward with Jesus because our sins cannot be undone. But I want us to think about Judas. Could his sin be reversed? No, even though he tried. I want us to think about Peter. Could his sin be undone? No, there was nothing he could do to fix the fact that he disowned Jesus three times.
So what do you think Jesus wanted his disciples to do? Do you think he wanted them to quit? Do you think he wanted them to give up? Do you think he wanted them to kill themselves? Or do you think he wanted them to get back up and move forward stronger than before, strengthened by their failures? Now I want you to put into your mind the sins that you have committed or are committing. I want you to put into your mind your guilt and shame for what you have done against Jesus. I want you to put into your mind all the times you have denied Jesus rather than confessed him. I want you to put into your mind all the times you have betrayed Jesus for money rather than making him your very life. Now I want you to ask yourself what you think Jesus wants you to do. Do you think Jesus wants you to quit? Do you think that Jesus wants you to give up? Do you think Jesus wants you to kill yourself? Or do you think Jesus wants you to get back up and move forward stronger than before, strengthened by your failures? The clear answer is that Jesus wants you to get back up and move forward stronger than before. Peter is going to use his failure to be stronger as a leader of the apostles in the early church. Peter will also become an elder in the church (cf. 1 Peter 5:1). Listen to how the apostle John wants you to have this hope to go forward with Jesus.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say, “We have not sinned,” we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ the righteous one. He himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world. (1 John 1:9-2:2 CSB)
God says that he is faithful and righteous to forgive you and cleanse you. You can trust that you can get up and come back to the Lord and find forgiveness and cleansing. John writes this trying help us run from sin and also to know that we have an advocate with the Father. He made atonement for you and for the whole world if you will repent and confess your sins to God. Then get up and move forward, stronger with Jesus as your advocate.