Peter, Judas, You and Me

Passage:Luke 22:1-34

The question in our Bible study guide read, “What are the similarities and differences between Peter and Judas?”  At first we thought, Similarities?  The two are nothing alike!  But as we talked we came to realize that Peter and Judas are more alike than different.  Both disciples abandon Jesus when circumstances are at their worst.  Both deny any affiliation with the man who has been their faithful teacher and friend for three years.  Both give up hope that Jesus is the Messiah about whom they’d been so certain.  The only real difference between Judas’ and Peter’s betrayals is that Judas is more honest about his.  Judas sees the end coming and hedges his bets.  Peter is so self-deluded that he believes himself to be a committed follower right up until the moment he’s not. 

The real question should be, “Why is Peter redeemed while Judas is lost?”  There isn’t a clear Sunday school right answer.  The restorative grace of Jesus is unpredictable.  What we do know is this: when it became clear that Jesus was not the kind of Messiah who would storm the capital and claim political and economic ascendancy for his people, Judas found an alternative.  He’d always had a thing for money.  So he replaced Jesus with cold, hard cash.  He would go it alone.  Peter made no such side-bets.  He did deny Jesus.  But he had nothing with which to fill the void Jesus left.  When Jesus arose, Judas was already dead.  He discovered his money couldn’t save him; he had nowhere else to turn.  He wasted no time in ending it all. 

Peter, though despairing and empty, was ready when Jesus came looking for him.  Nothing else had taken up residence in Peter’s heart, so it was there waiting for Jesus to move back in.  

Every human being lives on the fulcrum between hope and despair.  The evidence for both is always in flux.  Faith in Jesus Christ provides a basis for hope that isn’t quite as shifty as the Dow Jones Industrial Average.  But it rarely feels as cold and hard as whatever temporary comfort we can lay our hands on.  The challenge of the life of faith is not to live without doubt.  But during those moments of doubt to resist the urge to reach for some substitute.  To push through the doubt and despair trusting that they are, as Paul puts it, “light and momentary troubles”.  None of us is immune to the denials of Peter or Judas.  But our redemption comes as we endure the dark night and hold out for the dawn of resurrection.  Even if your heart feels empty with despair, don’t fill it with an inadequate substitute.  Your Savior lives. 

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)