The other disciples joined in Peter’s boast (Mark 14:31; Mat 26:35) and then Jesus answers.  Morris observes that “Peter’s readiness to die for Jesus is not quite what he thinks it is. His use of the sword in the garden shows that he was ready in certain circumstances to face death boldly. There was truth as well as error in his words. But he was not ready to stand for Christ when all seemed lost. That demanded a different brand of courage and devotion.”

Mark 14:31  But Peter insisted emphatically, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the others said the same.

Matthew 26:35  But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the other disciples said the same.

Jesus solemnly says, “truly, truly” to show the gravity of what followed. The prediction shocked Peter and we do not hear from him again until Peter uses his sword in the garden (18:10) though the others were speaking quite freely. The fulfilment of Christ’s prophecy is in (18:27).

John 18:10  Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.)

John 18:27  Again Peter denied it, and at that moment a cock began to crow.

What emotions do you think Jesus felt as He said this to Peter? Do you think He has ever felt those same emotions as He spoke to you?

Peter is like Thomas was in (11:16), he is not afraid of danger, but he responds because his pride is hurt. He sees himself as the perfect disciple who would never desert Jesus. We can understand how Peter would so strongly protest this, but it is often that the sins that seem the furthest from us are in truth the nearest.

John 11:16  Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

Edersheim sees the character of Peter as being the closest among the remaining disciples to that of Judas. There is undoubtedly a comparison between the two here. If so, this shows what Judas could have become, and also what danger Peter was in that night; “and, indeed, the husks of him were cast out of the sieve in his denial of the Christ.” (Edersheim) (Luke 22:31) Both Judas and Peter sinned that night, but there is a great difference between the two. What is it?

Luke 22:31  “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat.

Peter thinks he is ready to die for Christ, but the exact opposite is true in two cases. First, Peter is not so ready to lay down his life when things don’t go as he plans, and second, it is Jesus who is going to lay down His life for Peter, not the other way around!

However, the disciple of Christ is indeed called to lay down his life for his Master. Part of following Jesus is dying to ourselves. In fact, dying is essential to following Him (Luke 9:23, 1 Cor 15:31, Rom 12:1).

Luke 9:23  Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

1 Corinthians 15:31  I die every day—I mean that, brothers—just as surely as I glory over you in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 12:1  Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.

We, too, are called to follow Jesus, but it doesn’t mean that we try to be good; it means that we be like Jesus. This is an impossible task if we do it out of our own strength, but we are not supposed to. Part of dying to self is dying to dependency upon our own abilities. Jesus gives us the strength, power, and direction to follow Him. Peter could not follow Jesus at that time because Christ had not yet died for him and thus could not empower him to do so.

Peter asks a very intriguing question, “Why can’t I follow you?” Part of Peter’s problem was that he didn’t know what following Jesus really meant and he had to be taught. He wasn’t yet aware of everything involved in following Jesus. He did eventually learn and years later he wrote  “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.” (1Peter 2:21).

Peter’s statement comes from a rush of emotion. Feeling is often a substitute for doing like the example in (James 2:16). When Peter got his chance, he failed. Maclaren observes that feelings make a great servant, but a poor master. Emotions are a part of our flesh and should never be what motivates us to act. Our words and deeds should come from the direction of our spirit, which is indwelt by God’s Holy Spirit, and then the emotions may follow. We can use our emotions to fire us up, but we should never let our emotions use us.

James 2:16  If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?

Also involved in Peter making such rash statements was a large amount of self-confidence. Again, we cannot rely upon our own abilities to accomplish God’s work or we are certain to fail. It is only by God’s strength that we can do what He has called us to do. We must be totally dependent upon Him. (2 Cor 12:10, Gal 2:20). What Peter should have said was, “I will lay down my life for You, if You help me to do so” (Php 4:13).

2 Corinthians 12:10  That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Galatians 2:20  I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Philippians 4:13  I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

Notice how the first Christian martyr, Stephen, followed his Lord. Compare (Luke 23:46) with (Acts 7:59) and (Luke 23:34) with (Acts 7:60). Stephen was empowered by the risen Christ to follow Him in the very manner that Peter couldn’t, but would at the end of his life.

Luke 23:46  Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.

compare with

Acts 7:59  While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

and

Luke 23:34  Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

compare with

Acts 7:60  Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.

It is reassuring to note that all God would allow Satan to do was to “sift” Peter, and the devil could not even do that without the permission of God. The Lord would use that sifting to get rid of some of the natural elements within Peter. Notice how great the difference is in the rest of his life!

Peter is puzzled just as the Pharisees were twice before (7:35; 8:21).

John 7:35  The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks?

John 8:21  Once more Jesus said to them, “I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.”

The love we show for each other is to be the distinguishing characteristic of Christians (1 John 3:23, 4:7-8, 4:11-12, 4:19-21).

1 John 3:23  And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.

1 John 4:7-8  Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 John 4:11-12  Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No-one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

1 John 4:19-21  We love because he first loved us.  If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.  And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Tertullian tells us that the heathen said of the Christians, “See, they say, how they love one another.” However, by the time of Chrysostom, he complained that Christians didn’t show much love when he wrote, “even now there is nothing else that causes the heathen to stumble, except that there is no love. . . Their own doctrines they have long condemned, and in like manner they admire ours, but they are hindered by our mode of life.” (qt’d in Morris)

How well do Christians live this new command of Christ today? How do we improve? It starts in our hearts by loving Jesus more and more each day.

“A new command” is not really a new command (Lev 19:18) in one sense, but in another it is. He is not speaking here of love for all men, but for those within the brotherhood; the new thing here is the love that Christians have for each other because of their great love for Christ (1 John 2:7-10). The command to love is not new, but the motive to do so is. A comparison between 1 Cor 13 and the specific instructions to love in the Penteteuch will illustrate the difference.  Note the present tense  “keep on loving.”  The measure of our love for another is set by Christ’s love for us.

Leviticus 19:18  “‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the LORD.

1 John 2:7-10  Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard.  Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.  Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.  Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13  If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.  Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.   It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.   Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.   It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part,   but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.  When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.   Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.   And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

“children” (NIV) =  teknion =  diminutive of teknon (which means a child) which expresses affection; little children. “In the light of his near separation  Jesus looked upon his apostles as about to be made orphan children.” (McGarvey) Jesus knows that what He is telling them is difficult and the times to come will be hard, but He wants them to be certain of His affection and concern for them.

Interestingly, this phrase must have made a great impact on John, for he himself used it 7 times in his epistles.

Jesus had already told the Jews something similar (7:33-34, 8:21), but here He leaves out part of what He had said to the Jews those two times. In all three instances He said that they would look for Him, but He told the unbelieving Jews that they would not find Him and that they would die in their sins. Here He tells His disciples that they will look for Him but He leaves out the other two things. Do you think there is any significance to this? Why?

John 7:33-34  Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I go to the one who sent me.  You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.”

John 8:21  Once more Jesus said to them, “I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.”

Morris observes that Jesus is expressing three certainties. The first is that God is glorified in Him, which means in the passion of Christ. The second is that God will glorify the Son in Himself, which seems to mean that the resurrection will follow the crucifixion and will be the “seal of approval” of the Father on the work of the Son. And the third is that God is going to do this without delay.

When the traitor left, the company was purged of its evil element and the betrayal itself was now underway. The saving act on Calvary has been launched!

“Now” points to present circumstances. Since the betrayal is underway, the glorification of Christ has commenced. This is the last time the term “Son of Man” is used in this gospel. That, coupled with the use of the aorist tense in “glorified” (which means that the glorification is as a completed whole) is as if the act of salvation has aleady been completed by its very beginning. There was no chance that Jesus was going to quit, and nothing can prevent the completion of this glorification.

Notice that the glorification of Christ comes as a result of what man would think is the very opposite of glory. Origen uses the phrase “humble glory” to express this idea of glory coming through death on a cross. Note also that God the Father is also glorified through the cross. As Morris notes, “The cross shows us the heart of God as well as that of Christ.”

“as soon as” = Even though the other disciples were ignorant of it, Judas knew exactly what Jesus meant and left in a hurry to do his evil.

“night” = note (Luke 22:53). This is much more than just an indication of the time of day (John 11:10). “It is always night when a man goes from Christ to follow his own purposes. It is always night when a man listens to the call of evil rather than the summons of good. It is always night when hate puts out the light of love. It is always night when a man turns his back on Jesus.” (Barclay) By cutting himself off from the light of the world, Judas has shut himself up to the darkness of night.

Luke 22:53  Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your hour—when darkness reigns.”

John 11:10  It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light.”

Even though it is night for Judas, it is the dawning of brilliant light for the rest of mankind. God’s Will cannot be defeated. Even the actions of this traitor will be turned by Him into the most wonderful event in all of history. If God can do that with the betrayal of a close friend and disciple, what will He do with the supposedly “bad” things that are going on in your life?

Romans 8:28-32  And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.  For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.  And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.  What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

The disciples didn’t have a clue as to what was going on and, as Morris notes, “in this matter they stand in sharp contrast with their Master.” One may only hope that this is not often the case today.