And Peter answering said to him, If all shall be offended in thee, *I* will never be offended.
Peter has just heard Jesus say that the Shepherd would be struck and the sheep scattered. Instead of taking the warning to heart, he sets himself apart from the rest and promises he will never fail — yet within hours he denied he ever knew Jesus.
Peter's answer brings something to the surface that he had no idea he carried.
In these few words Peter lets out the real root of the whole matter. That root was self-confidence — sadly, no uncommon root among us. We do not question Peter's sincerity at all. We are sure he meant every word he said, and that he had no idea what he was about to do. He was ignorant of himself, and ignorance and self-confidence usually go together. Knowing yourself destroys self-confidence. The better you know yourself, the less you can trust yourself.
To promise he will stand, Peter must first assume the others will not.
More than self-confidence lay behind his words. It was his pride that made him look down on the love of his fellow disciples. He implied that their desertion of their Master was quite possible, but that his own love for his Master was so much deeper and truer than theirs that such base conduct was impossible for him.
Set the boast beside what the Lord says will happen.
They would all fall away. But the one who leads the way in expressing his self-confidence would have the greatest fall. We break down in the very thing about which we boast. Peter boasts that he will never fall away. The Lord says, "This night … you will deny Me three times."
(Older translations render "fall away" as "be offended.")
Notice who Peter is contradicting.
Peter objects to the Lord's words. He even dares to set himself above all the others who might deny the Lord. How little he knew of his own heart! … Had he not before declared Him to be the Son of the living God? Now he is as good as saying that the Son of God is not telling the truth! So self-confidence always goes with lack of confidence in God. The Lord speaks calmly and firmly; Peter speaks with heat. Yet we must not forget that the others said the same, though Peter was no doubt the loudest.
Peter meant what he said. That was not enough to keep him.
These were boastful words, and no doubt he felt them when he said them, for Peter was clearly no hypocrite. But his self-confidence threw him off his guard and took him away from Christ. "Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall" had no place in his mind. The Lord had told him to pray that he would be kept out of temptation, but he did not pray. He slept when he should have been gathering strength. So at the moment of temptation, when he should have humbly yet boldly confessed his Lord, he fell an easy prey to the enemy's schemes.
Christ's prayer for Peter takes a surprising shape.
Even as the Lord speaks His warning, we see the signs of Peter's danger. He says, "I am ready to go with You to prison and to death." This condition not only exposes a person to a fall; the fall itself may be the only remedy for it. We have to learn that only when we are weak are we strong, and that Christ's strength is made perfect in weakness. In a case like this, the Lord Himself cannot pray that Peter may not fall. He prays that Peter may be "converted" by it — turned from that dangerous self-confidence to the awareness that he cannot trust himself, even for a moment.
Later Christ asked Peter whether he loved Him more than these others did.
The Lord takes him, so to speak, by the hand, and leads him back to the place where his fall began — confidence in his own strength and in his love for Christ… All had forsaken Him, but Peter alone had denied Him. So he can no longer rely on his love measured against theirs. Humbled in this way, he appeals not to his feelings but to the Saviour's knowledge. He knew. "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." He does not add, "more than these."
- Root — Self-confidence is the real root of the fall. Ignorance of self and confidence in self travel together.
- Rivalry — "Though they all" set Peter above his friends. His pride assumed they could desert while he never would.
- Reversal — Self-confidence always goes with lack of confidence in God. Peter had confessed Jesus as the Son of God, and now told Him He was wrong.
- Result — Sure that he could stand, Peter did not pray and slept instead of gathering strength. He fell an easy prey when temptation came.
- Rescue — Christ did not pray that Peter would escape the fall, but that the fall would turn him. Later He led Peter back to this very sentence, until he stopped saying "more than these."
Jesus said to him, Verily I say to thee, that during this night, before [the] cock shall crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.
Peter has just heard that all the disciples would fall away, and he has answered that he, at least, never would. The Lord's reply names the night, the hour and the number. Who knows a man's heart better: the man himself, or his Lord?
The Lord does not speak in general terms. He fixes a point on the clock. The whole night was already open before Him.
The Lord speaks to him still more definitely (v. 34). It was a certain time of the night. "This very night, before the rooster crows" marked off a time between midnight and the morning; that is what the Lord referred to. He knew everything that would take place that night.
The same warning appears in Mark, with one extra detail.
In Mark (Mark 14:26-52), the account follows Matthew's closely. Mark gives the detail of the rooster crowing twice, which Matthew mentions only in general terms.
Peter had just claimed he would stand even if everyone else stumbled. The Lord's answer lands on exactly the ground Peter had chosen to defend.
The Lord has given the word of warning, followed by a word of encouragement. Sadly, like Peter, we too often ignore His warnings. Our self-confidence also makes us miss the blessing of His words of encouragement. Not knowing our own weakness, we think we are safe even though others may fail. So Peter says that although all the rest fall away, he will not. They would all fall away. But the one who takes the lead in expressing his self-confidence would have the greatest fall. We break down in the very thing we boast about.
Peter did not simply overestimate himself. He set his own assessment against a plain statement from his Master.
But at this time the Lord solemnly told Peter that he would deny Him three times before the rooster crowed. Yet Peter brashly denied at that very moment what the Lord said. Had he not before declared Him to be the Son of the living God? Now he virtually says that the Son of God is not telling the truth! So self-confidence always goes together with a lack of confidence in God.
Peter was not pretending. The problem was that no man can read the depths of his own heart until the pressure comes.
We can never know what is in our hearts until circumstances arise to draw it out. Peter did not imagine that he could deny his Lord. Then he found himself in circumstances that acted on his particular weakness, and he showed that the weakness was there.
This weakness is not only Peter's.
In ourselves we are weaker than a bruised reed, and this should make self-distrust our character. Where there is self-distrust, there should be the greatest confidence in the Lord.
A warning like this calls for prayer. Peter met it with argument, and then with sleep.
In truth Peter had fallen before he ever got into the high priest's palace. Self-confidence was his ruin… His self-confidence threw him off his guard and took him away from Christ. "Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall" had no place in his mind. The Lord had told him to pray that he would be kept out of temptation, and he did not pray. He slept when he should have been gathering strength. So at the moment of temptation he fell an easy prey to the enemy's schemes, when he should have humbly yet boldly confessed his Lord.
The sign the Lord names here returns at the end of the story. It marks more than the failure.
Three times he repeats his denial. But at the darkest hour the crowing of the rooster announces that morning is coming. Peter's tears are the first signs of a new day for himself.
- Known — The Lord fixed the hour between midnight and dawn. "He knew everything that would take place that night." He knew Peter better than Peter knew himself.
- Warned — The word came before the failure, not after it. It was a warning meant to drive Peter to prayer, and he answered it with argument instead.
- Boasting — Peter said he would stand where all others fell. But "we break down in the very thing we boast about." Self-confidence and confidence in God cannot share one heart.
- Blind — "We can never know what is in our hearts until circumstances arise to draw it out." Peter was sincere and still wrong about himself. In ourselves we are "weaker than a bruised reed," so self-distrust and confidence in the Lord belong together.
- Morning — The rooster's crow proved the failure, and it also signalled recovery. At the darkest hour it announces the day. Peter's tears begin it.
Peter says to him, If I should needs die with thee, I will in no wise deny thee. Likewise said all the disciples also.
Jesus has just told Peter that he will deny Him three times before the night is out, and Peter answers by promising to die first. The rest of the disciples say the same, so why did a sincere promise fail within hours?
The commentators never doubt that Peter meant it. They see a man who did not yet know himself.
In these few words Peter lets out the real root of the whole matter. That root was self-confidence — alas! alas! no uncommon root among us. We do not question Peter's sincerity at all. We are sure he meant every word, and just as sure he had no idea what he was about to do. He did not know himself, and ignorance and self-confidence usually go together. Self-knowledge destroys self-confidence. The better you know yourself, the less you can trust yourself.
Sincerity, others add, does not keep a believer standing.
No doubt Peter was sincere, but we have to learn that sincerity is not enough to keep us true to the Lord. We need to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Only then can we overcome the weakness of the flesh, escape the schemes of the devil and be set free from the fear of man. When an apostle is out of touch with Christ, one simple question from a young girl is all the devil needs to bring him down.
Peter sets his own view of himself against the Lord's plain word.
Peter objects strongly to the Lord's words. He even dares to claim he would do better than all the others who might deny the Lord. How little he knew of his own heart! … Had he not before declared Him to be the Son of the living God? Now he virtually says that the Son of God is not telling the truth! So self-confidence always goes together with lack of confidence in God.
Peter did not believe the warning, so it gave him no protection.
Flesh in the saint is no better than in any other man. Peter did not know this any more than most do now. He did not believe our Lord's warning. If he had, he would not have entered into temptation. He would have watched and prayed, and faith would have kept him. So he had to learn by bitter experience what the flesh is. The word was not mixed with faith in his soul when the Lord gave him that solemn warning. He was confident in himself. It was not the crude confidence of an unbeliever, of course. But it was still confidence built on his own estimate of what his love for Jesus would let him do or bear.
The verse ends with every disciple joining in. The lesson reaches wider than one man.
Peter was not the only one who made such an empty pledge of faithfulness, for it is added, "and they all said the same." They did not know their weakness. They did not know what it is to have the power of death pressing on them. … But to be dead with Him was not yet the known portion of the disciples; so not one of them was able to stand. Afterwards it was their privilege, but they had not gone that way before. Jesus must go first.
The Lord answers the boast with nothing at all.
Peter's boasting, which all the disciples join in, brings no further word from the Lord. Clearly there are times when what believers say is so plainly of the flesh that it is useless and needless to reply. There is a time to be silent and a time to speak.
The commentators point to the words Peter never spoke.
See what follows the Lord's warning. The Lord has just said, "Satan has asked to have you." At once Peter answers, "Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death." Think of that! These words give you the secret of Peter's fall. If Peter had been right, he would not have said, "I am ready." He would have prayed, "Lord, keep me; Lord, help me; Lord, do not let me fall under Satan's power." But he was self-confident. Self-confidence, I believe, is the cause of all our failure, while self-distrust is the secret of getting on with the Lord.
Within the hour the man who offered to die could not stay awake, and the contrast with his Master is the point.
If you compare what Peter is doing with what the Lord is doing, you learn the secret of Peter's weakness and the Lord's strength. What was the effect of trial on the weakness of Peter's flesh? He had said, "I will go with you to prison and to death"; but the Lord has to say to him, "Could you not watch with me one hour?" They were sleeping for sorrow. Here there was neither prison nor death! … The Lord does not sleep and try to forget His sorrow. He goes and prays to the Father.
Christ had already prayed for Peter before the fall.
Note this. "I have prayed for you, that" — what? Was it that he might not fail? No, but that, having failed, his faith might not give way. Had Christ not prayed for His poor, feeble servant, he would have gone from bad to worse, and from worse to worst. But the intercession of Christ obtained for Peter the grace of true repentance, self-judgement and bitter sorrow for his sin. In the end it brought complete restoration of his heart and conscience.
- Boast — Peter meant every word. His fault was not lying but not knowing himself, and ignorance and self-confidence travel together.
- Blindness — Answering Christ's warning with a pledge says the Son of God is wrong. Self-confidence always comes with little confidence in God.
- Breadth — All the disciples said the same, and the Lord gave no reply. This is what everyone is without the strength of grace.
- Break — Prayer, not promises, keeps a believer standing. "Lord, keep me" is the sentence Peter never said.
- Backing — Christ prayed that Peter's faith would hold, not that he would escape the fall. So the fall ended in repentance and restoration, not ruin.