What’s the biggest mistake you’ve ever made? The dumbest thing you’ve ever done? Your most humiliating failure?
Well, how would you like to have that remembered and recounted by millions of people year after year, for hundreds of years? Pretty awful, right?
Well, that’s what happens to the Apostle Peter every year around Easter when Christians all over the planet are reminded of his denial of Christ during the Lord’s arrest and trial.
Every year, we read about Peter brazenly vowing to never abandon Jesus, and then rather promptly denying even knowing Him. And not just once, but three times.
Embarrassing doesn’t even begin to describe that display of gutlessness.
I’m in a Bible study where we recently contrasted Peter’s response to his colossal failure with that of another character in this story: Judas, the disciple who ratted out Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. What an interesting and enlightening contrast it is.
Judas and Peter were both feeling somewhat disillusioned at the moment of their epic failures—Judas because Jesus wasn’t the conquering earthly king he was expecting; and Peter because the persecution of Jesus by the Jewish leaders perhaps got more intense, personal, and scary than he expected.
Both men, we’re told, were remorseful when the weight of their betrayal sunk in. But that’s where their stories took hugely divergent turns. What each man did after failing Jesus determined both his future and his legacy, just as it does our own.
Judas chose suicide and became the poster boy for snitches and betrayers. Peter chose repentance, accepted the grace of God, and went on to become a pillar and hero of the faith. And while we all remember Peter’s failure, we also know that story didn’t define him. He fell hard, but he got back up, which is what a righteous man does (Proverbs 24:16).
We aren’t given a lot of background information about Judas, but we are told in Scripture he made a habit of stealing money (John 12:6). That clearly indicates to me that Judas wasn’t truly “getting” what Jesus taught and modeled.
Peter, on the other hand, surely did seem to “get” the Gospel, even if he made a few mistakes along the way. In fact, at one point in the ministry of Jesus, when many less loyal followers were falling away, Jesus asked His 12 disciples if they, too, were going to leave. Peter was the one who replied, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.” (John 6:67-68)
Peter got it. That fisherman was hooked by the truth. He knew he couldn’t unsee what he’d seen Jesus do, couldn’t unhear what he’d heard Jesus say, couldn’t disbelieve what he’d come to believe about the Son of God.
Yes, for a panicky moment Peter turned chicken—embarrassingly chicken—but his remorse over that failure produced godly repentance, and just a short time later, he boldly proclaimed the message of Christ in front of the very religious leaders who’d crucified Jesus (Acts 4).
And some years later, Peter, once so afraid of being convicted with Jesus, was allegedly eventually crucified upside down for his faith, not considering himself worthy to be crucified in the manner of his Lord.
Had Judas repented, had he gotten up after his horrific fall and done God’s will, as Peter did, what a different story his might have been.
How about us? Who among us doesn’t occasionally fail God and deny Him with our words, attitudes or actions? We all do.
Will ours be a Judas story or a Peter story? It’s all about what happens after the remorse.
For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. – 2 Corinthians 7:10