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Welcome to today’s Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation covering Matthew 26:30-33 wherein we are reminded that God has been working His plan of redemption from the beginning.
And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.” Peter answered him, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.”
Jesus made many statements that challenged the hearts of His disciples. He told them on multiple occasions of His approaching death, He called for their complete devotion to the exclusion of anything that would stand in the way of their discipleship, and here we see Him informing them that it was absolutely definite that they would abandon Him in His most troubling hour. I can understand Peter’s obstinacy, not just because of how it fits well with his fiery nature, but because it’s difficult for us to think through the idea that anything would simply have to happen regardless of how resolved against it we might be in the moment when it is prophesied. We should read this account and declare, “Behold, the mighty, immovable, sovereign will of God.” But, complex as it might be, we can also rest assured that when the time of Jesus’ arrest came and the disciples left His side, they very much wanted to run off. What it comes down to however is that God said such would happen and He saw that it took place. Talk about being moved to reverential fear and intense humility! These responses should be induced in all of us, but I would imagine actually hearing such a prophesy from the lips of Jesus struck them more deeply than we can fully grasp.
What is also noteworthy, something that Peter seems to miss as he balks at the idea that he would be anything but faithful to the death, is that Jesus again gives them the good and hopeful news of his resurrection from the dead and reunion with His scattered sheep. It’s as if He was telling them to remember the bigger picture that the current trial was only one part of. Though an absolutely essential element, the cross, they were to remember, was not the end of their soon to be torn relationship. In a very personal way for His disciples, Jesus would make the way for the redemption that they were in need of in light of the sins they would commit in the events leading up to the redeeming work that Jesus came to earth to accomplish.
We should be reminded from these things that God has us always in His mind and within His hands, that He is at every moment working out His mighty plan toward our enjoyment of the display of His magnificent glory, and that the crucified and risen Jesus is the bridge to that place of enjoyment. We can believe this because it is also written, the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, forever and ever (Daniel 7:18). May we cast ourselves before Him in humble faith, worshipful adoration, and excited anticipation today.
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