Early this morning, Tisha and I read through Matthew 26 as a part of our daily bible reading and devotional time. When we were done, we discussed the events surrounding the betrayal, denial and desertion of Jesus, all of which were predicted by him prior to His prayer at Gethsemane. Jesus’ frustration with Peter, James, and John not being able to stay awake and pray with him, apparently, was so that they wouldn’t “enter into temptation” (v. 35). Temptation from what? Or temptation to do what? Could some of his prayer, and the agony that accompanied it, have been for the disciples, that they, especially Peter, not succumb to what he’s already predicted? Interesting enough, the last thing he says before Judas and his contingent arrived was, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners” (Matthew 26:45).
The pains of Jesus in the garden had to have been numerous, but I wonder how much of “the cup” that Jesus prayed for God to remove was oriented around bypassing the betrayal, denial, and desertion by those he loved? I’m not suggesting that the agony with which he prayed wasn’t, in any way, about the death process he would experience. But I am saying that the context that Matthew paints seems to be aligned around his three predictions of betrayal by Judas (vv. 14-16), denial by Peter (vv. 30-35), and desertion by the others (v. 31). In fact, that is precisely Jesus’ concern in Matthew 26:45.
It had to have been tough for someone who loved so much to have experienced such betrayal. Think about Peter’s firm affirmation that there is no way in the world that he would deny Jesus (v. 35). It’s a grave warning to all of us: We should be very careful with our confidence.
We know their actions caused significant trauma. Judas took his own life. John actually reflects upon the effects Peter’s denial had upon him (John 21:15-23). Read it for yourself. It’s not as apparent in the English, but in the Greek we see that Peter couldn’t so much bring himself to say that he loved Jesus with agape love. Jesus asked him, the first two times, if he loved him with agape, but all Peter can muster is that he loved him with phileo love. Ouch. Peter, apparently, was devastated to the core. I’m inclined to think that Jesus, seeing it coming, was as pained by what Peter would do as Peter was after he did it.
I know there is a lot that is going on that the text simply doesn’t reveal. But this has stuck with me since this morning. At the moment, I am thinking about my friends. I am thinking about the pain I might have caused some of them. I am letting go, though, of the pain other friends might have caused me. Thank you God for opening my eyes to all this!
