Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of Me this night, for it is written, ‘I will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered.’ But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee.” But Peter answered and said to Him, “Even though all may fall away because of You, I will never fall away.” Jesus said to him, “Truly I say to you that this very night, before the cock crows, you shall deny Me three times.” Peter said to Him, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You.” All the disciples said the same thing too. (26:31-35)

As much as Christians might like to think of themselves as being spiritually strong, those who are mature know from experience as well as from Scripture that in themselves they are weak. They would like to think they could never deny the Lord, contradict His Word, or be ashamed to be called by His name. But they know that every believer succumbs to those things from time to time. They find themselves in an environment of unrighteousness but do nothing to correct it. They have an opportunity to speak for Christ but say nothing. They need to be bold for the cause of Christ but instead are timid.

When I was young I often thought of what I might do if the Lord sent me to a place of difficult service where I faced the choice of being obedient to Him or risking death. I had read many stories of Christians who were martyred rather than renounce their Lord and I wanted to believe I would have such devotion. But I always had doubts, because I knew that in situations far less threatening than martyrdom I had failed to be as faithful as I should have been.

We look back to the apostles as model believers, as men of supreme faith who unflinchingly endured every hardship and persecution for their Lord. But it was not until after Pentecost that they did indeed become such men. On the last night of Jesus’ earthly life, contrary to their self-confident assertions of loyalty and bravery, they demonstrated anything but faith and heroism. They discovered, along with everyone who reads the record of Scripture, that, in themselves, they were fearful, cowardly, and impotent.

As Jesus came to the Mount of Olives with the eleven remaining disciples after the Last Supper, He knew He soon would be betrayed and arrested, as He had told the disciples at least three times. He also knew that His disciples would desert Him and flee for their lives, which fact He now revealed to them for the first time; and they had as much difficulty believing the second prediction as the first. They still could hardly comprehend that it was possible for the Messiah to be put to death, much less that such a dreadful event would be the supreme act of God’s redemptive plan. Nor could they believe that, regardless of what might happen to Jesus, they themselves could be anything less than steadfastly loyal.

The self-affirmations they expressed on this occasion were based on false feelings of personal strength and commitment. They thought their love and devotion to Christ were greater than they were and that their ability to handle temptation and intimidation was greater than it was.

Of all the things Jesus could have said to them, of all the things about which He could have warned them, He chose to tell them on this occasion of their imminent and certain desertion of their Master. Their failure to live up to their high estimation of themselves would prove to be a profound and unforgettable lesson, a lesson that, along with the reality of the resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit to indwell them, would change the course of their lives.

The incident recorded in 26:31-35 is integral to Matthew’s presentation of Jesus’ preparation for the cross. As He prepared to die for the sins of the world, Jesus needed to teach the disciples the need of continually dying to themselves (cf. 1 Cor. 15:3, 31; 2 Cor. 5:15) and of never trusting in themselves (cf. 2 Cor. 1:9).

Besides the certainty of Jesus’ resurrection and the empowering of the Holy Spirit within them, perhaps the most important thing the disciples needed was an honest awareness of their own weakness. They desperately needed the poverty of spirit (see Matt. 5:3) without which no person can come to Christ and without which no believer can be effectively used by Christ. The first step to spiritual strength is the sincere, humble acknowledgment of one’s own spiritual weakness (cf. 2 Cor. 12:9-10).

That is a lesson every child of God needs to learn and relearn. Because it is not difficult to stand firm in doctrine and moral standards when we are among fellow Christians, we are tempted to think we would never desert our Lord by compromising those truths and standards. But when we are out in the unbelieving world and are separated from the strength of Christian fellowship, we discover how unfounded such self-confidence is. Paul even had to remind the faithful Timothy that “God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline” (2 Tim. 1:7), because Timothy had evidenced some proneness to be ashamed of his Lord (v. 8).

There is no place in the life of a believer for shame of Christ or for defection and desertion. Shame of Christ is characteristic of unbelievers (see Mark 8:38) and should never be found in Christians. Because of his continual reliance on the Lord, Paul could truthfully affirm to Timothy, “I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day” (2 Tim. 1:12). To the Roman church he declared with equal confidence, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16).

As the disciples soon learned that last night with their Lord, without His help faithfulness to Him is impossible. No believer is equipped in his own understanding or power to engage in spiritual warfare with the flesh, the world, and Satan. That important truth is beautifully expressed by nineteenth-century hymn writer John E. Bode in the hymn, “O Jesus, I Have Promised.” In one stanza the affirmation “I shall not fear the battle” is qualified by “if Thou art by my side,” and the affirmation “Nor wander from the pathway” is qualified by “if Thou wilt be my guide.”

In predicting their desertion the Lord also taught the disciples another lesson about His divine omniscience. Precisely as He declared, all of them fled in fear when He was arrested a short while later that same evening (Matt. 26:56).

Although the disciples are essential participants in this account and are instructive examples for us, Matthew’s central focus, as always, is on Christ as King. It seems the gospel writer’s intent is to preserve the dignity and glory of the King of kings even in the midst of defection, betrayal, and supreme malevolence.

Skeptics are inclined to ask such questions as: “What kind of leader is this whose followers all leave Him in the time of His greatest need? What kind of leader is it who has so little control over those under Him that He cannot keep them from running away when the battle get shot? Have not many men heroically stood their ground for lesser causes and in face of greater danger? How could one who made such great claims as Jesus have been such a poor judge and builder of men?”

But Matthew reveals how, in the purpose of God, the disciples’ failure actually enhances and intensifies the grandeur of the Lord’s achievement. By way of contrast, their impotence served to magnify His power, their unfaithfulness served to magnify His faithfulness, and their dishonor served to magnify His majesty.

In the Upper Room Jesus had given the first two elements of His own preparation for His sacrificial death: experiencing the final Passover (vv. 17-25) and establishing the Lord’s Supper (vv. 26-30). After his account of Jesus’ leaving Jerusalem and going to the Mount of Olives (v. 30) with the eleven disciples who remained (see John 13:26-30), Matthew presents this third element: helping the impotent disciples (vv. 31-35).

Christ shut down the Old Covenant of the Jewish economy with His celebration of the last Passover meal and ushered in the New Covenant in His own blood with the institution of the Lord’s Supper. Then He taught this profound lesson to the men who, despite their imminent display of frailty, would become the principal human instruments in establishing His church.

From John’s gospel we learn that after the Lord’s Supper Jesus gave the eleven an extensive message that traditionally has been called the Upper Room discourse. In chapters 14-17 John records Jesus’ teaching about believers’ being with Him in heaven and serving Him on earth; the coming of the Holy Spirit; the meaning of true peace, faithfulness, joy, love, and fruitfulness; the opposition believers can expect in the world; and His second coming. He concluded by offering a beautiful and profound intercessory prayer on their behalf and in their presence.

But the synoptic writers (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) do not include that teaching. Instead they each move directly from the end of the Lord’s Supper to the scene on the Mount of Olives (see Matt. 26:30; Mark 14:26; Luke 22:39).

As Jesus and the disciples left the upper room and proceeded to the eastern gate, they doubtlessly had to negotiate their way through teeming crowds of pilgrims who were preparing to celebrate Passover on the following day, according to the prevailing custom in Judah. For reasons explained in the previous chapter, the Judeans and Sadducees observed Passover a day later than the Galileans and Pharisees. Many of those preparing to celebrate on Friday probably had not yet secured rooms in which to eat the Passover meal and were making other last-minute preparations.

As Jesus and the disciples descended into the valley east of the city and crossed the brook Kidron, it was still flowing full from the late winter rains and was running bright red from the blood of the thousands of lambs slain that afternoon. The group headed up the western slope of the Mount of Olives toward the Garden of Gethsemane, a familiar place they had visited many times before. Gethsemane means “olive press,” and that garden was one among numerous others on the Mount of Olives. Because there was little room for garden plots inside Jerusalem, many of its inhabitants cultivated small gardens just outside the city. It may have been that the Garden of Gethsemane belonged to one of Jesus’ friends, who made it available to Him as a place of meditation and retreat. There would have been little hope for that in the crowded, noisy city.

Before they reached the garden, Jesus stopped and warned the disciples of their forthcoming desertion. The teaching of the Upper Room discourse had consisted largely of positive promises, but now it was time for a negative message, a warning that the self-assured disciples could not bring themselves to believe. We witness a vivid demonstration both of Jesus’ omniscience and of the disciples’ ignorance.

JESUS’ OMNISCIENCE

Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of Me this night, for it is written, ‘I will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered.’ But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee.” (26:31-32)

As they were nearing the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus said to the disciples, “You will all fall away because of Me this night.” Skandaliz (fall away) is the term from which scandal is derived and has the literal meaning of setting a trap, snare, or stumbling block. In Jesus’ day the word most often was used metaphorically, as it always is in the New Testament. Jesus predicted that the disciples would soon confront an obstacle that would make them stumble and fall away from their loyalty to Him.

He knew that all the disciples would desert Him and that they would be shocked and offended at His prediction of their abandonment. He knew they would fall away because of their fear of being associated with Him (Me) and that they would flee that very night, just as they did (v. 56).

While Jesus faced the cross with courage and valor that were distinctly divine, the disciples would be fleeing with typically human fear and cowardice. Even as He faced sin, death, and Satan for them, they would risk nothing for Him.

It was as if Jesus were seated at the control booth of a television studio monitoring prerecorded events on a large bank of screens before Him and determining which would be aired at a given time. Every event of that night, just as every event of His entire life, was under God’s direct divine authority. No act was accidental and no word was incidental. He not only knew exactly what He Himself would do but what the disciples, the religious and political leaders, the soldiers, and the multitudes would do. He could see every movement as if it had already transpired and hear every word as if it had already been spoken.

In Matthew’s portrayal Jesus loses nothing of His majesty and dignity even as, in the eyes of the world, He faced imminent defeat and ignominy. His own sovereign plan was unfolding, and the supposed victim was in reality the foreordained Victor.

Jesus’ comment for it is written referred to Zechariah 13:7, which predicted the desertion He had just mentioned. He then quoted part of that verse: “I will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered.” In quoting the Old Testament prophecy Jesus assured the disciples that their abandonment of Him, just as Judas’s betrayal, was part of the eternal plan of God.

Without Jesus’ explanation, the Zechariah passage would have been impossible for the disciples to have understood correctly. Zechariah’s prediction was veiled, and its meaning could not have been discerned apart from the Lord’s own interpretation. Zechariah was speaking about idolatrous false prophets whom the Lord would remove from among His people, but some of whom would renounce their deceitful practices (13:2-6). But in verse 7 the attention turns abruptly to a man the Lord calls “My Shepherd, . . . the man, My Associate.” “The man, My Associate” could be rendered “the mighty man of My union” or “the mighty man equal to Me,” clearly indicating that this person also was deity. It is against this divine Shepherd-Associate that God commanded the sword to be struck: “Strike the Shepherd that the sheep may be scattered.”

In the broadest sense, the sheep that would be scattered represented Israel. Because Israel as a nation rejected and crucified her Messiah, Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed. From that time (A.D. 70) the people of Israel were scattered throughout the world—where they have largely remained scattered for nearly 2,000 years. Even today, only a minority of them live in the state of Israel.

But the sheep of whom Jesus spoke that night on the Mount of Olives were the disciples, the first group, as it were, representative of and picturing all those who would be scattered when He, the shepherd, was struck.

But Jesus immediately encouraged the disciples with the assuring words “But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee.” Jesus faced death with supreme courage because He knew He had supreme power over death. But the disciples were still afraid of death, and even of imprisonment or humiliation. Jesus knew He would be raised from the dead by the power of His Father, just as He had predicted to the Twelve many times before (see Matt. 16:21; 17:9, 23; 20:18-19; cf. Rom. 6:4). Even more certain than the faith by which Abraham believed God could raise Isaac from the dead (Heb. 11:17-19) was the divine omniscience of Jesus. By that knowledge our Lord knew His heavenly Father would raise His only begotten Son from the dead on the third day.

The hard-headed and weak in faith disciples should have remembered and believed those predictions of their Lord. They should have remembered those whom Jesus Himself raised from the dead, especially Lazarus, at whose raising He declared, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies” (John 11:25). But fear had eclipsed their memory and subdued their belief.

In His infinite patience Jesus told them again that He would be raised and that He would then go before them to Galilee and meet them there. That, of course, is exactly what He did. Outside the garden tomb, the angel told the two Marys, “Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going before you into Galilee, there you will see Him” (Matt. 28:7). When the resurrected Lord appeared to the two women a few moments later, He repeated the promise and the instruction (v. 10). Sometime later “the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. And when they saw Him, they worshiped Him” (vv. 16-17). Matthew’s inspired record of the disciples’ tragic weakness clearly affirms the omniscience of the Lord Jesus.

THE DISCIPLES’ IGNORANCE

But Peter answered and said to Him, “Even though all may fall away because of You, I will never fall away.” Jesus said to him, “Truly I say to you that this very night, before the cock crows, you shall deny Me three times.” Peter said to Him, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You.” All the disciples said the same thing too. (26:33-35)

Peter either missed or disregarded what Jesus had just said about His being raised and appearing to them. He was so concerned about defending his loyal character that, in typical boldness, he blurted out, “Even though all may fall away because of You, I will never fall away.” Proud, self-confident Peter, convinced of the strength of his love for Jesus, presumptuously proclaimed himself to be the truest of the true.

Like a self-willed child, Peter seemed to hear only what he wanted to hear and believe only what he wanted to believe. During the Last Supper, only an hour or so earlier, Jesus had given the disciples a similar warning. Speaking specifically to Peter, He said, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat” (Luke 22:31). Though directed right at Peter, the “you” in this verse is plural (humas), indicating that the warning extended to the other disciples as well. They would all be so severely tested by Satan that it would seem as if they were being shaken violently like a tray of wheat in the harvester’s hand. “But I have prayed for you [singular],” Jesus went on to say, “that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers” (v. 32).

But Peter was oblivious to the Lord’s words. Instead of acknowledging his need and expressing gratitude for the Lord’s protection, Peter boasted, “Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!” (v. 33). Unimpressed with that claim, Jesus responded, “I say to you, Peter, the cock will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me” (v. 34). With those compassionate but stinging words, Jesus singled out Peter as one who not only would desert Him but would even deny Him.

The Lord now repeated the prediction: “Truly I say to you that this very night, before a cock crows, you shall deny Me three times.” Peter did not believe his Master this time any more than he had a few hours earlier. With amazing brashness and pride, he obviously thought that, wise as Jesus was, He was mistaken about the dependability and courage of his foremost disciple.

The Jews divided the night into four parts: evening, from six to nine; midnight, nine to twelve; cock crow, twelve to three; and morning, three to six. The third period gained its name from the fact that roosters began to crow about the end of that period and continued to crow periodically until after daybreak.

By the time Jesus and the disciples reached the Mount of Olives it was probably near midnight. Jesus was therefore predicting that, within a very few hours, Peter would deny the Lord three times—before three in the morning, when a cock would normally begin to crow. As Peter should have known, that is precisely what happened. No sooner had his third denial, augmented with a curse, come out of his mouth than “immediately a cock crowed” (v. 74).

But Peter’s pride did not allow him to think such a thing was conceivable. His pride on this occasion was manifested in at least three ways. In the first place He contradicted the Lord, as he had done at other times. Shortly after Peter confessed that Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the living God,” he “took Him aside and began to rebuke Him” for predicting His suffering and death, “saying, ‘God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to you’” (Matt. 16:16, 22).

Second, Peter’s pride was manifested in his considering himself better than all the other disciples, claiming that, although they might desert Jesus, he would never do so. Third, he trusted in his own strength, foolishly declaring, “I will never fall away” and a few moments later adding, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You.” Sharing Peter’s misguided self-confidence, though perhaps to less extreme degrees, “All the disciples said the same thing too.”

The disciples were still ignorant about many things. They were ignorant of their own weakness and of Satan’s strength. They were ignorant of the great power that fear would soon have over them. And they would not accept Jesus’ interpretation of the Old Testament prophecy He had just quoted regarding the shepherd’s being struck and the sheep being scattered. In other words they were wilfully ignorant, because they persisted in trusting their own understanding above the Lord’s.

Like the disciples, believers only parade their ignorance when they claim to be wise, courageous, and self-sufficient. And often, as with the disciples, the Lord allows them to learn the hard way that they are really foolish, cowardly, and weak.

In humble, sinless grace Jesus was willing to go to the cross and shed His blood for the proud, foolish, and sinful disciples. Although He knew they soon would be ashamed of Him and even desert and deny Him, He was not ashamed of them. In spite of their pride, weakness, desertion, and denials, He would draw them again to Himself in perfect love. In a gracious act of divine mercy He would forgive and restore them.

Thankfully, our Lord is devoted to restoring disciples who have fallen and been unfaithful. In his first epistle John reminds his readers of that comforting truth. “If we confess our sins,” he wrote, “He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Paul echoes that wonderful grace of recovery when he instructs spiritual believers to act as Christ’s agents to restore in love fellow believers who have fallen into sin (see Gal. 6:1).

After Pentecost the eleven men who had deserted their Lord in fear and shame were hardly recognizable. When they were imprisoned by the high priest for preaching and healing and then were miraculously released by an angel, “they entered into the temple about daybreak, and began to teach” again. And when they were rearrested, flogged, and ordered by the entire Sanhedrin “to speak no more in the name of Jesus,” they were “rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name. And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ” (see Acts 5:12-42).

The presence of the now-indwelling Holy Spirit within them doubtless was the source of power in the apostles’ new-found courage and dedication. But even the power of the indwelling Spirit of Christ is no guarantee of faithfulness. Long after he had been indwelt by the Spirit, Peter discovered again how spiritually unreliable and impotent he was when he acted in the flesh rather than in the Spirit. Having been intimidated by the Judaizers, he refused for a while to have fellowship with Gentile believers and was severely rebuked face to face and publicly by Paul for his hypocrisy (Gal. 2:11-14).

It therefore seems certain that another factor besides the indwelling Spirit contributed to the apostles’ later faithfulness—namely, the lesson they learned so bitterly at the end of the Lord’s ministry about their own ignorance and foolish self-sufficiency and about Christ’s divine omniscience and gracious sufficiency They remembered His patient love and mercy in pulling them back to Himself, despite their cowardly and despicable defection. They had experienced His mercy so intimately and so profoundly that they were determined never to forsake Him again. But they knew that, in themselves, they were as weak as ever and that their only prospect for faithfulness was total obedience to and dependence on Him.

Could they have known it, the restored disciples would joyously have sung the beloved hymn “How Firm a Foundation,” two of the stanzas of which are:

Fear not, I am with thee; O be not dismayed,

For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;

I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,

Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.

The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,

I will not, I will not desert to its foes;

That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,

I’ll never, no, never, no, never forsake!