Matthew 26:69-27:10

In Matthew 26:69 through 27:10, we see Peter’s denial and Judas’s betrayal, and 2 very different approaches to what to do next when you have sinned.

Matthew 26:69-75 Peter denies Jesus 3 times

We see here that Peter did not run away and hide after Jesus was arrested.  On the contrary, he has come to the courtyard of the high priest, inside the high priest’s house.  What do you think is going through his mind before the first servant girl calls him out?

Look at each of the 3 times Peter is accused of being associated with Jesus and how he responds.  What do the people say, and how does he respond?

Notice how the vehemence of Peter’s denials escalates from “I don’t know what you are talking about to “I don’t know the man” to cursing.  Sometimes sin starts small.  How can we train ourselves to be honest in little things, so that we do not turn out to be dishonest in big things?

After the first woman questions Peter, he moves from the inner courtyard out to the porch.  Why do you think he didn’t just leave the place entirely at that point?

This is a sign that Peter’s devotion to Jesus was great, even though his fear turned out to be greater than his courage.

How do you think you would have responded to Jesus’s arrest?  Would you have been at the high priest’s house in the first place, or would you have been somewhere else?  How long would you have stayed there, before you decided it was too dangerous and you left?

If you had been challenged about being one of the people with Jesus, what would you have said?

Are there ways that we avoid making clear our association with Jesus today?  Are there certain places, or conversations, where you decide to keep your mouth shut?  Are there times when you, in effect, deny your connection to Jesus?

The Romans rotated their soldiers every 3 hours during the night.  The changing of the guards at 3:00 a.m. was called “cock-crow” and was marked by the sound of a trumpet.  It is possible that this is the meaning of what Peter hears in verse 74, not a literal rooster crowing.

When Peter hears the cock crow, how does he react?

When the deed has already been done – when you have said or done something and later you deeply regret it – what do you do next?

What would God want you to do, when you have failed to be true to your faith or to your relationship with him?

Matthew 27:1-2 The chief priests hand Jesus over to Pilate

After a night of agony, a mock trial, and abuse, what happens to Jesus in the morning (27:1-2)?

Some scholars believe it is only now that the Sanhedrin formally passes judgment on Jesus rather than having done so during the night.  Either way, they now have a plan for achieving their goal of having him killed.  They bring him to the Roman governor, who has the power to carry out a death sentence.

What do you think Jesus is thinking at this point?

Matthew 27:3-10 The death of Judas

How does Judas react to the action of the Sanhedrin?

Recall that one of the theories for why Judas betrayed Jesus is that he was trying to push Jesus to act decisively to usher in the kingdom.  In verse 3, Matthew tells us that when Judas saw that Jesus had been condemned, he repented, or regretted what he had done, and tried to return the 30 pieces of silver.  How does this support the idea that Judas did not think what he was doing would hurt Jesus?  What do you think Judas thought would happen when Jesus was arrested?

Are there times when we use immoral or questionable means to try to force things to go in a particular direction?  Why is that wrong, and why do we sometimes want to do it?

It is wrong to do something evil, even if it will allow us to achieve something good, because we are meant to be like God, and God does not do evil in order to achieve good.  This issue is sometimes described by saying that the end doesn’t justify the means: i.e., your goal (the end) is never so important that it justifies doing something immoral (the means) to achieve it.

When a person is willing to use immoral means to achieve a good goal, how is that a sign of lack of trust in God?

How can we train ourselves to use only godly ways of trying to achieve the goals we seek?

In verse 4, how does Judas describe what he has done?

How do the chief priests and elders respond to Judas?  What does their response mean?

In verse 4, the chief priests say to Judas, “See to it yourself” (Matthew 27:4, NRSV).   In our day, we might say, “That’s not my problem.”  Was it appropriate for the chief priests to try to absolve themselves of their role in Judas’s betrayal by saying, in effect, “Not my problem”?

Think about our own lives now.  When is it fair to excuse ourselves from involvement in another person’s concern by saying, “That’s not my problem” or “Don’t blame me,” and when do we have moral responsibilities despite our protests?

In verse 5, we learn that Judas is in such a great state of despair that he kills himself.  What do you think Jesus would have said to Judas, if he could have talked to Judas before Judas initiated his act of suicide?

How can we help people who are considering suicide, whether because of despair, depression or other mental health issues, loneliness, pain, abuse, or other underlying issues?  What can we say and how can we point them toward the help that is available to them?

If someone expresses suicidal feelings to you, take it seriously.  Don’t say, “Oh, they would never do that.”  Take time to listen, recognize the pain they are experiencing, and let them know that people care – that they are seen as valuable.  And help them get help.  In the United States, getting help can start with the simple act of calling 988.

In verse 6, we find that the chief priests are very concerned about the moral issue of what to do with the money that Judas gave back to them.  They want to do the ethical thing with it.  It's funny how we can be so focused on doing the right thing or avoiding sin in one area of our lives that we totally miss the fact that we may be participating in something evil in another area of our lives.  What does that irony say to you?

How do the chief priests solve this problem?  What do they do with the money?

Acts 1:18-19 passes on to us a different story about what happened to Judas and the 30 pieces of silver.  Both stories agree that the money was used to purchase a field that then became known as the “Field of Blood,” but the details differ.

In verse 9, Matthew refers to Jeremiah.  This is one of the rare places where some scholars think Matthew might not have been as careful as usual with his Old Testament references.  Jeremiah does not talk about 30 pieces of silver.  Zechariah has a passage where 30 pieces of silver are thrown into the Temple (Zech. 11:12-13).  The rest of what Matthew describes can be connected loosely to various events in Jeremiah.  Jeremiah 18:2-3 talks about a potter.  Jeremiah 32:6-9 talks about the purchasing of a field.  And in Jeremiah 19:1-15, Jeremiah goes out to the valley of the son of Hinnom, southwest of Jerusalem, where in his time Jews were offering child sacrifices to false gods, breaks a potter’s jug, and declares that Jerusalem and its surrounding towns will be like that jug: their enemies will slaughter them and so many people will be buried in that valley of Hinnom that they will run out of space for more burials.  (That place is the location of the garbage dump that was known as “Gehenna” in Jesus’s time, which Jesus used as a term for hell.)  The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible ties it together in this way: “Ancient tradition locates Judas’ burial site (Field of Blood) in the same valley of Hinnom, precisely where Jeremiah smashed the pot and foretold its destiny as a future graveyard (Jer. 19:11).  Matthew may think of the smashed vessel, originally a sign of Judea’s demise, as also a prophetic sign of Judas’ destruction” (Matt. 27:8-10 fn, p. 58).

Matthew might have been working from memory rather than having the Old Testament texts in front of him, which might explain how he conflated these various Old Testaments passages.  God inspired the authors who wrote the Scriptures, but he worked through real human beings who were real authors, not dictation machines, and God clearly didn’t consider it necessary to force Matthew to be precise here.  It doesn’t affect our salvation or the overall gospel message.

In Peter’s weeping and Judas’s despair we see very different approaches to how to deal with our own serious sin.  Compare and contrast Peter and Judas’s betrayal and how they acted when they realized they had done wrong.  How are they similar and how are they different?

Both did wrong, and both eventually recognized it.  Peter stayed committed to the community of disciples and is still with them two days later.  Judas decided he had no options and gave up.  He lost all hope.

This is not the first time Peter has gotten something wrong: remember “Get behind me, Satan” (Matt. 16:23).  What is different about Peter’s relationship with Jesus, compared to Judas’s relationship with Jesus?

What can we learn from Peter’s example that might be useful in our own lives?

Take a step back and consider this:

Peter, for all his flaws, got some important things right.  He realized that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God.  He poured his life into serving Jesus and letting Jesus be his Lord.  And he realized that Jesus loved him so much that Jesus would never give up on him, even if he had denied Jesus.

Some Christians find it easier to embrace the first two points – that Jesus is God and that we are called to serve him – without fully embracing the third point: that Jesus’s fundamental attitude toward us is love.  Particularly if we were raised in households where love was conditional, or brought up in churches where God was presented more as a wrathful judge than as a loving Father, it can be hard to understand that third point: that God loves us unconditionally, even when we do wrong, and that we can stick with him even when we have failed.

This understanding of Jesus’s love does not give us license to sin.  Peter would be the first to say that the fact that Jesus forgave him did not mean it was OK to sin; rather, Jesus’s unalterable love made him want all the more to avoid sin.  But it can make a huge difference in our lives if we understand that Jesus loves us even when we sin and doesn’t withdraw his love from us when we have a catastrophic failure of faith.

We are taught that God is always watching us.  Do you picture God’s “watching” as being more like a police officer always on the lookout to see if you break the law, or more like a parent seeing and delighting in every new step a young child takes?

Take a moment to picture God delighting in you, and loving you so much that he keeps loving you even when you falter and sin.  Bask in that love.  What do you want to say to this God who loves you so much?

Now take it a step further.  If this is how God loves us even when we sin, and we are called to be like God, then this is the attitude we are called to have toward others when they sin.  We are called to love even those who mistreat us or betray us.

How can you immerse yourself in the love of God so deeply that you can love others as Jesus still loved Peter and Judas after they sinned against him?  What is one step you can take to extend that unconditional love of God toward people in the world around you today?