Bible Study series: Matthew 26:69-75. Jesus’s prediction came true. But John’s Gospel records Peter’s restoration (Chapter 21).
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In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Matthew 26:69-75
69 Peter sat outside in the courtyard. And one servant girl came up to him, saying, “You were also with Jesus of Galilee!” 70 But Peter denied it in front of everyone, saying, “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” 71 After he went out to the gate, another servant girl saw him and said to those there, “This one was also with Jesus of Nazareth!” 72 And again he denied it with an oath: “I don’t know the man!” 73 A short time later those standing there came up and said to Peter, “You really are one of them, for your speech makes you conspicuous!” 74 Then he began to call down curses and swear oaths: “I don’t know the man!” And immediately the rooster crowed. 75 And Peter remembered the spoken word of Jesus who had said, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” And going outside, he began to weep bitterly. (Matt. 26:69-75)
Comments:
69-75:
It is time to wrap up this section of the Grand Climax (Matt. 26-28) with Peter’s story (so far). Does this scene make you sad or angry? It makes me sad. I really feel for him. Give him partial credit. He swung a sword to prove he was ready to die with the Lord. And he followed Jesus from a distance, to find out how it was going to end. Now take away the bulk of his credit. He really did deny the Lord three times before the rooster crowed.
It’s always good thing to see when average girls take authority, but she went in the wrong direction! All of their words were accurate, however.
Peter cursed and swore oaths. His fear got the better of him. When Peter swears an oath, he is putting himself under a curse (see Acts 21:12, 14, 21). Only Jesus can lift it off of him. And only the resurrected Jesus could rescue and restore him (John 21:15-19). Alternatively, he may have been calling down curses on his opponents. “I curse you for saying I know the man!” Swearing oaths means something like this: “I swear by God and the temple I don’t know the man!”
This is the saddest verse in Peter’s life of discipleship. He had been rebuked by Jesus before: “Get behind me, Satan!” (Matt. 16:23). But now he denied him three times. When Jesus gazed into his soul (Luke 22:61), the look must have been powerful. Peter left to go outside and “wept bitterly.” Lexicographers Liddell and Scott offer these definitions of bitterly: “pointed, sharp, keen” … of sound “sharp, piercing, shrill”; of persons “sorrowing.” Peter sobbed and cried it all out of his system.
For some reason I always picture him as husky and masculine, a rough-hewn character with a weak self-edit button from his mind to his mouth. Jesus had to smooth out even more rough edges in Peter’s soul. Peter’s two epistles show how far he came. They are mature and wonderful.
The entire scene has three escalating mini-scenes: the first servant girl accuses Peter; the second one accuses him before the bystanders; the third accusation comes from those standing nearby, as they gang up on him. Peter moves farther and farther away from Jesus. Next, Jesus and Peter are viewed as foreign (so to speak). They are both from Galilee. Jerusalem was the big city, while the country bumpkins from up north were looked down on. Peter had a Galilean accent, and so did Jesus. In modern American terms, they had a southern accent (and no, southern accents are not bad things!)
What about the differences in the sequence of Peter’s three denials? In my opinion, there are no contradictions in the synoptic Gospels covering Peter’s denial–just differences. Don’t allow the post-Enlightenment or the Postmodern critics to mislead you, when they claim that the Gospel writers were plagiarists or deceivers. The critics read these two-thousand-year-old documents in bad faith. Instead the Gospel writers told one united story about Peter’s three denials, regardless of the minutiae.
Turner: “If Peter, of all people, is susceptible to such a fall, no disciple is invulnerable. And yet if Peter, of all people, is restored after such an egregious lapse, no disciple is hopeless. Jesus’s followers should be horrified by Peter’s denials and thrilled by his restoration, Peter is the representative disciples, both then and now” (comment on 26:75).
GrowApp for Matt. 26:69-74
1. Study 1 Peter 2:20-24. Does it say you are also called to suffer sometimes in your life when persecution comes? If you are not presently undergoing unjust persecution, how can you support the suffering church around the globe?
2. Hitting rock bottom, Peter denied Jesus three times. Have you ever hit rock bottom? How did God restore you?
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9. Authoritative Testimony in Matthew’s Gospel
1. Church Fathers and Matthew’s Gospel
2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels
14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
SOURCES AND MORE
To see the bibliography, please click on this link and scroll down to the bottom. You will also find a “Summary and Conclusion” for discipleship.
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