30 And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. 31 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.’ 32 But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.” 33 Peter answered him, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.” 34 Jesus said to him, “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” 35 Peter said to him, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!” And all the disciples said the same.
Ryan Holiday is an interesting person. He is a young man who considers himself a Stoic. Stoicism is the ancient philosophical belief in and pursuit of four great virtues: wisdom, courage, temperance or moderation, and justice. Holiday writes very interesting books, one of which is Ego is the Enemy. In it, he writes:
“Whom the gods wish to destroy,” Cyril Connolly famously said, “they first call promising.” Twenty-five hundred years before that, the elegiac poet Theognis wrote to his friend, “The first thing, Kurnos, which gods bestow on one they would annihilate, is pride.” Yet we pick up this mantle on purpose!
Pride blunts the very instrument we need to own in order to succeed: our mind. Our ability to learn, to adapt, to be flexible, to build relationships, all of this is dulled by pride.[1]
There is wisdom here. To a certain extent, what Holiday has written here and quoted here helps us understand a bit about Simon Peter. Peter, of course, would deny Jesus three times before the cock crowed. But I believe that our text gives us some insights into the mindset and attitudes that went before Peter’s calamitous fall (and eventual, thank God, restoration!).
A lack of belief went before Peter’s fall.
Interestingly, beneath Peter’s strong declarations that he would not fall we can find a lack of belief. Let us watch how this plays out. We begin first with a very interesting worship point followed by an important theological point.
30 And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Matthew observes that Jesus and the disciples “sung a hymn.” This is worthy of note. Frank Staff writes:
The hymn sung at the close of the Supper was probably the last half of the Passover Hallel (praise, as in Hallelujah, “praise God”) consisting of Psalms 115–118.[2]
Let us simply note that Jesus sang. What did His singing voice sound like? We do not know. But we know this: The greatest man who ever lived—the God-man Jesus—sang to the glory of God with the disciples! It is interesting to note how many men in church do not sing because they do not consider it manly or something a strong man would do. But Jesus sang! We should do so as well. Then, the theological point:
31 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.’
Jesus, in prophesying the falling away and scattering of the disciples, quotes Zechariah 13.
7 “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me,” declares the Lord of hosts. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; I will turn my hand against the little ones.
It is interesting to note that Jesus quotes “Strike the shepherd” as “I will strike the shepherd.” Douglas Hare writes:
In the Hebrew and Greek versions of Zechariah the opening verb is imperative (“Strike the shepherd”), but here in Matthew (as in Mark 14:27) the action is attributed to God: “I will strike the shepherd.” The deepest mystery of the passion story is that God uses the evil actions of Jesus’ enemies and his faithful disciples to accomplish the purposes of salvation history.[3]
In the sense that God “gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16), that the Son came down to lay down His life, and that God did not let the cup pass from the Lord Jesus (Matthew 26:39), God can be said to have Himself struck the Son on the cross. The Son bears the wrath of God in our stead.
In our text, Jesus’ focus, however, is on the scattering of the disciples once the striking has occurred, that is, once the events of the passion unfold. And it is in this context, after Jesus next prophecies His resurrection, that Peter makes his bold declaration.
32 But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.” 33 Peter answered him, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.”
In what sense does this declaration reveal a lack of belief on Peter’s part? Let us put verse 31 and verse 33 alongside each other.
31 Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of me this night…”
33 Peter answered him, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.”
This appears to be a statement of great faith, of great belief, of great resolve. And yet a very obvious fact remains: In saying “I will never fall away” was Peter not flatly contradicting the words of Jesus when He said, “You will all fall away”?
In this way, disbelief masquerades as great faith.
Admittedly, this would be a very difficult prophecy to hear and to accept, but Peter was quite clearly telling Jesus that He was wrong. If nothing else, this reveals that Peter had not quite reached the point of total submission to the Lordship of Christ, to the omniscience of Christ.
Pride went before Peter’s fall.
In the same verse, we find an astonishing statement of pride. Watch closely:
33 Peter answered him, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.”
Did you see it?
- “They [will] fall away.”
- “I will never fall away.”
They are weak.
I am strong.
They will prove faithless.
I will prove faithless.
There is the mass of them over there.
There is the singular me over here.
Douglas Hare writes of “Peter’s bravado” and of that fact that his “brave promise” is “based on…ego, not on a power beyond his own.”[4] And certainly this is true.
It is ironic, is it not, that in Matthew 20 we are told that Peter, along with the 9 other disciples, were angry at James and John for attempting to distinguish themselves from the other disciples.
20 Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something. 21 And he said to her, “What do you want?”She said to him, “Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.” 22 Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.” 23 He said to them, “You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.” 24 And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers.
Peter would be included in “the ten” who were “indignant at the two brothers” in verse 24. Peter cared nothing for the insinuation behind James’ and John’s mother’s request. He knew that it suggested that they were somehow better. And yet, here, Peter distinguishes himself in a similar manner. “I alone will be faithful!” he is saying.
“Pride grows in the human heart like lard on a pig,” wrote Solzhenitsyn.[5] Indeed. And pride blinds us to the true state of our own hearts. Truly, pride went before Peter’s fall.
Extreme declarations went before Peter’s fall.
And the pride of Peter came wearing the garb of extreme declarations. Notice his language.
33 Peter answered him, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.”
35 Peter said to him, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!” And all the disciples said the same.
This is dripping with superlative force.
- “I will never fall away.”
- “Even if I must die with you…”
- “I will not deny you!”
It is possible to protest too much. It is also possible to affirm too much. Peter does the latter.
What Peter lacked was not language but humility and an awareness of the power of human sinfulness.
Calvin Miller once wrote:
A solitary soldier believed himself a regiment
And so he died, as he saw it,
A whole army felled with a single ball.
Fools are made secure by egotism
But the wise, knowing all their weaknesses
Gather into troops
To walk through Dante’s mind.[6]
This is so very well said!
The tragedy of Peter’s bravado teaches us something about Peter’s infamous three denials. It teaches us this: The soil that brings forth our great collapses is first tilled by ego and foolishness. The great collapses do not occur in a vacuum. The stage has been set for them, and we are the ones who set it.
Beware that pride that leads us to forget that we too might fall.
Beware that since of self-exaltation that makes us think we have stronger faith than others.
Beware the bravado of the superlative.
Be humble. Cling to Jesus. Believe. Follow. That is enough.
[1] Holiday, Ryan. Ego Is the Enemy (p. 74). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
[2] Frank Stagg, “Matthew.” General Articles, Matthew-Mark. The Broadman Bible Commentary. Vol. 8 (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1969), p.234.
[3] Hare, Douglas R.A. Matthew. Interpretation. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Know Press, 2009), p.299–300.
[4] Hare, Douglas R.A. Matthew, p.300.
[5] Solzhenitsyn, Alexander. The Gulag Archipelago. Vol. I. (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1973), p.163.
[6] Miller, Calvin. The Divine Symphony ((Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House Publishers, 2000)), p.90.