From The Denial By Peter To The Condemnation Of Jesus.

FROM THE DENIAL BY PETER TO THE CONDEMNATION OF JESUS.

Luke 22:54-71; Luke 23:1-12.

LUKE 22:54-62. After Jesus’ arrest, the temple police took our Lord to the high priest’s house, “and Peter followed afar off” (Luke 22:54). It was here that Peter denied Jesus, three times, as Jesus had warned him would happen (cf. Luke 22:34).

There were several factors which caught Peter off guard. First, there was SELF-CONFIDENCE (cf. Luke 22:33). Second, SLEEPING IN A TIME OF PRAYER (cf. Luke 22:45). Third, KEEPING AT A DISTANCE FROM JESUS (Luke 22:54). Fourth, UNSYMPATHETIC COMPANY (Luke 22:55).

This all culminated in the cowardly sin of denying Jesus, not just once, but three times. The third time, while Peter was yet speaking, the cock crowed - and “the Lord turned and looked upon Peter” and “Peter went out and wept bitterly” (Luke 22:61-62). These things are written, no doubt, to remind us to remain steadfast in the faith.

Now I do not imagine for one minute that Jesus’ look was one of condemnation, and certainly not some kind of sanctimonious ‘I told you so’ attitude. We can be sure that, despite all that our Lord was going through Himself, He was still in complete control of the situation, even yet pouring out His love and compassion to bring salvation to a lost world. Jesus had PRAYED for His servant, that his faith would not ultimately fail, and had also indicated that he would yet be ‘converted’ (cf. Luke 22:32).

LUKE 22:63-71. What occurred at the high priest’s house that night and early morning was a travesty of justice. Jesus was mocked, smitten, blindfolded, and struck in the face. “Prophesy,” they said, “Who smote thee?” (Luke 22:64).

‘Christ also suffered for us,’ remembers Peter. ‘Who when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judges righteously’ (1 Peter 2:21-23). ‘By whose stripes ye were healed,’ he reminds us (1 Peter 2:24; cf. Isaiah 53:5).

As soon as it was day, the council convened and demanded, “Are you the Christ?” Jesus would not dignify that question with an answer, but rather prophesied: “Hereafter shall the Son of man sit on the right hand of the mighty God” (Luke 22:66-69; cf. Daniel 7:13-14).

Then they asked, “Art thou then the Son of God?” His answer was unmistakable: “I AM” (Luke 22:70).

After all THEIR blasphemies against Him (cf. Luke 22:65), THEY decided: “What need we any further witness? For we ourselves have heard it out of His own mouth” (Luke 22:71). This is the travesty of a religion which imagines it is serving God by opposing Christ.

LUKE 23:1-12. The Jewish authorities had no power to put Jesus to death. The sceptre had at last departed from Judah (Genesis 49:10) and, far from raising a mob to seize it back as they accused Him (Luke 23:5), Jesus willingly allowed Himself to be handed over into the hands of the Gentiles (cf. Luke 18:32-33). The accusations made against Jesus were ludicrous, and to say that He was “forbidding to give tribute to Caesar” (Luke 23:2) was the very opposite of the truth (see Luke 20:25)!

Pilate asked, “Are you the king of the Jews?” To which Jesus answered, in effect, “It is as you say.” Then Pilate declared, “I find no fault in this man” (Luke 23:3-4). At this point you would expect a just judge would have released Jesus, but Pilate noticed that Jesus was a Galilean, and sent Him to King Herod Antipas, the murderer of John the Baptist.

Now Herod had for a long time desired to see Jesus (cf. Luke 9:7-9), and hoped to see Him perform a miracle (Luke 23:8). Jesus had been warned that Herod wanted to kill Him (cf. Luke 13:31), but just like Pilate, Herod found “nothing worthy of death” in Jesus (cf. Luke 23:15). After mocking Jesus, and arraying Him in a gorgeous robe, Herod and his men sent Jesus back to Pilate.

Having formerly been at enmity with each other, Pilate and Herod now made common cause against Jesus, and became friends (Luke 23:12). Both declared Jesus innocent - in Pilate’s case, repeatedly - and both condemned an innocent man to die! Thus we see that our Passover lamb is ‘without blemish and without spot’ (1 Peter 1:19); and, in doing so, they were unwittingly fulfilling God’s plan of redemption (cf. Acts 2:23).

So who was responsible for the death of Jesus? First, there was the love of God. Then, the malice of Satan. Then there was the avarice of Judas Iscariot; the blindness of the religious leaders; the mocking of His captors; the denial of Peter; the injustice of Pilate; the ridicule of Herod. It was Adam’s sin, and the sins of us all; it was my sin, and your sin that nailed Jesus to that Cross and kept Him there. This was the only possible way of our salvation (cf. Luke 22:42).