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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. (Amen.)
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
As you may know, in our five Midweek Lenten Vespers Services this year, we are hearing St. Matthew’s account of Jesus’s Passion, and we are reflecting on an arguable example of prophecy’s being fulfilled in each of the five “location” portions of the Passion that we hear over the five Services. Each example of prophecy and its fulfillment reiterates for us God’s will and work to save us sinners who are sorry for our sins and trust God to forgive us by grace for Jesus’s sake. Two weeks ago, we considered how, in the Upper Room, Jesus seemed to speak about His, in some sense, actively fulfilling Psalm 41 verse 9, about the one who ate His bread’s lifting his heel against Him; last week, we considered how, on the way to Gethsemane, Jesus spoke about His and His disciples in some sense passively fulfilling Zechariah 13 verse 7, about the Lord of Hosts’s striking the shepherd and thereby scattering the sheep of the flock; and this week, we consider how, at the Palace of the High Priest, Peter actively fulfills Matthew 26 verse 34, about his denying Jesus three times before the rooster crows.
Now, you might say to me, “Wait a minute, Pastor, that prophecy about Peter’s denials was not from the Old Testament,” and, of course, you are right about that, Jesus made that prophecy, as we heard in last week’s Reading. And, you might say to me, “And, St. Matthew’s account does not explicitly say that Jesus’s prophecy was ‘fulfilled’,” and, of course, you are right about that, too, although, by his telling us that Peter was reminded about the “saying” Jesus “said” and by repeating what was said, the Divinely‑inspired St. Matthew certainly seems to intend that we consider Jesus’s prophecy to have been fulfilled, just like he explicitly reported that the words spoken by and written by Old Testament prophets were fulfilled (confer, for example, Matthew 27:9). To be sure, we can consider both Jesus to have prophesied and His prophecy to have been fulfilled. For example, last week we mentioned Jesus’s “prophecy” that He would not lose any of the disciples other than Judas, which is explicitly said to have been fulfilled (John 18:8-9, with apparent reference to John 17:12 and there to Psalm 109:8). And, earlier Jesus had “prophesied” about other things that would function as signs for His disciples, such as a man’s carrying a water jar’s indicating where Jesus and His disciples would celebrate the Passover, which the disciples found just as He had told them (Mark 14:12-16 and Luke 22:7‑13), and Jesus had “prophesied” about His being crucified (for example, John 3:14; 12:32), which “prophecy” later is apparently specifically said to have been fulfilled (John 18:32).
Although Jesus was both the Prophet and the object of Peter’s denial, in the case of tonight’s Reading, the prophecy and fulfillment more‑directly involve Peter, the “first” of Jesus’s disciples turned apostles (Matthew 10:1-2), who, as we heard last week, had fled like the others, but who had followed at a distance and, apparently thanks to the help of John (John 18:15-16), was sitting with the guards in the courtyard of the high priest, in order to see the end, but Peter did not make it that far. One servant girl brings the first denial; another servant girl brings the second denial with an oath; and bystanders bring the third denial with cursing and swearing. The English Standard Version that was read took Peter’s cursing as directed towards “himself”, but Peter’s curses may have been directed at Jesus (Gibbs, ad loc Matthew 26:74, p.1483 n.7). Regardless, immediately the rooster crowed at least one time (compare Mark 14:30, 66-72), and Peter was reminded of the saying of Jesus, and, having gone out, he wept bitterly (confer and compare Luke 22:60b-62).
We hear of Peter’s denial, and we shake our heads, but we should humble ourselves over our own denials and our other sins (confer Gibbs, ad loc Matthew 26:33-35, p.1425). As Peter did, we have heard our Lord say that we should deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Jesus, for those who try to save their lives will lose them but those who lose their lives for His sake will find them (Matthew 16:24-25). And, we have heard our Lord say that whoever confesses Him before people He will confess before His Father in heaven, but whoever denies Him before people He also will deny before His Father in heaven (Matthew 10:32-33; confer 2 Timothy 2:12). Our faithfully confessing Jesus and the fullness of His teaching (confer Schlier, TDNT 1:470) may have consequences for us and the congregation that we do not want to endure, but consider the alternative of eternal damnation! We should not fear people who at most can kill only the body, but we should fear God Who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Matthew 28:28). Of course, we deserve that eternal damnation on account of both our sinful nature and all of our actual sin, whether sin against the Second Commandment by cursing or swearing in God’s Name, or sin against the Eighth Commandment by giving false testimony, or sin against any of the other Commandments, as we all do. We may confess with our words that we know God, but we may deny Him by our works (Titus 1:16).
The Holy Spirit’s working through the humble means of a rooster’s crowing—whether at the day’s first light or a special crowing—reminded Peter of Jesus’s Word and produced his bitter tears. Likewise the Holy Spirit’s working through God’s Word and humble means of water, touch, and bread and wine leads to our sorrow over our sin and to, what Peter apparently still lacked at this point (Gibbs, ad loc Matthew 26:74b-75, p.1489), namely, trust that God forgives our sin for Jesus’s sake. As we sang in tonight’s Psalm (Psalm 38:1-22; antiphon: v.15), we confess our iniquity and are sorry for our sin; we ask the Lord not to forsake us, we ask our God not to be far from us, we ask the Lord our Salvation to make haste to help us, and He does help us!
While Peter was outside in the courtyard denying Jesus, Jesus was inside the high priest’s house confessing essentially Who He was, what He was doing, and how He was doing it (confer 1 Timothy 6:13). Jesus said the high priest himself had said that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, but the high priest considered Jesus to have blasphemed, and the council judged that Jesus deserved death. All three Synoptic Gospel accounts report Jesus’s, apparently blindfolded (Mark 14:65), being mocked as a prophet who should identify who struck Him, and Jesus is not reported as answering, apparently so defenseless was He in their minds that He must not be the Messiah (Roehrs-Franzmann, ad loc Matthew 26:67-68, p.40). Little did they imagine that the man Jesus’s not using the Divine attributes or powers that were His by way of His personal union of His two natures was in order that He could die on the cross for the sins of the world—for their mocking, for Peter’s denials, for your and my denials and for all of our other sins, as well. Although their false witnesses apparently intentionally got it wrong, Jesus had said truly that they would destroy the temple of His body, and He would raise it up in three days, and they did so destroy it, and He did so raise it up (John 2:18-22). Afterwards, Jesus is said to have three times reinstated Peter (John 21:15-19). When we are sorry for our sins and trust that God forgives us for Jesus’s sake, then God forgives us, our sinful nature and all our actual sin—our sins of denial, thoughtlessly swearing, false testimony or whatever our actual sin might be. God forgives us through His Word and Sacraments.
We do not deny but confess (confer John 1:20) both our sin and Who Jesus is, what He did for us on the cross, and how He gives us the benefits of what He did for us on the cross in Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, and the Holy Supper. In Holy Baptism, we each individually renounce the devil, all his works, and all his ways, and we each individually confess faith in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. After confessing the sins that we know and feel in our hearts, in Holy Absolution we are forgiven in the same Name of that Triune God. And, as often as we in the Holy supper eat the bread that is Christ’s Body and drink the wine that is Christ Blood, we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes, faithfully confessing Jesus and the fullness of His teaching. In all of these ways, God forgives us and transforms us.
God strengthens our faith when we see Peter forgiven after His denial, encouraging us to believe that grace abounds to us more than sin. Such strengthening of our faith is one of the honors that we give to the saints, along with thanksgiving to God for showing such examples of His mercy, revealing His will to save us, and giving teachers and other gifts to His Church, and, we imitate Peter’s faith and other virtues according to our callings in life (Apology of the Augsburg Confession XXI:4-6). We do not let consequences for us and the congregation that we do not want to endure keep us from faithfully confessing Jesus and the fullness of His teaching. With Jesus’s other prophecy fulfilled, we know and trust that His prophecy about our ultimately being delivered from our afflictions to eternal life in His time and way also will be fulfilled.
Tonight, we have considered St. Matthew’s account of Jesus’s Passion’s fulfilling specifically the prophecy of Matthew 26 verse 34. Two other examples of prophecy fulfilled will come in turn the next two weeks. As Jesus generalized elsewhere, what is written in the Scriptures that must be fulfilled is both that He should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His Name to all nations (Luke 24:44-47). So repentance and forgiveness has been proclaimed to us; may God use us likewise to proclaim to others.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Amen.)
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +