The Afterward of Betrayal

Week 15, Day 3 Reading: Matthew 26:69-27:10

Matthew 26:74-75   … He swore to them, “I don’t know that man!” Immediately a rooster crowed. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: “Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.

Peter denied Christ three times on that evening before He was crucified, but it wasn’t until the  rooster’s crow that he fully realized what he had done. Like Adam and Eve before him, Peter wept bitterly at his choice to turn against the One who loved him.

He wasn’t alone. The next morning, Judas came face-to-face with his betrayal of Jesus, too. Immediately he returned the priests’ payment—30 pieces of silver that would always be stained with the blood of the betrayed. Judas fled the “scene of the crime,” became his own judge, jury and executioner, and allowed a moment of sin to determine his destiny.

…And Peter? In John 21, he sees the risen Christ on the shore and he doesn’t run away! He jumps out of his boat and swims toward the shore. He declares his love for Jesus and promises to feed His sheep. By God’s grace, and in the power that came through Jesus’ victory over sin, Peter keeps those promises until the day he is martyred for the sake of the Gospel.

Like Peter and Judas, we betray Christ each day when we give in to disobedience, self-sufficiency, and fear—it’s what happens next that really matters. Will we concentrate on our failures or will we confess, repent, and focus our eyes on Jesus? Will we live like the Gospel is real, or try to carry our own sin? Two betrayers, two very different epitaphs – which one will you be?

Written by guest blogger, Holly Wismer 

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pj