Matthew 26:57-75
Let’s continue to pray for Jim and Marty.
“Notice what you notice.” Then those who had seized Jesus led Him to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders had gathered. And Peter was following Him at a distance, as far as the courtyard of the high priest, and going inside he sat with the guards to see the end. (vv. 57-58) I somehow knew that Jesus was taken before the Sanhedrin, but I had always imagined that location to be somewhere in the temple area. But some notes that I read, consistent with the quote above, suggested that this “trial” took place at the home of Caiaphas, where the scribes and the elders had gathered. The clincher to me was the “courtyard” and later the mention of servants. As far as I know there were no courtyards in the temple area – I have always imagined that it was all paved over. And there may have been people serving in the temple area, but they would not have been “servants”. So what’s the significance of Jesus being taken to Caiaphas’ home? The Jewish leaders (“the scribes and the elders”) were doing all this “under cover”, in the dark of the night (see “rooster crowing” later), out of sight of the crowds who largely supported Jesus. Meeting together in the temple would have been too well publicized and they did not want that! Again, a cowardly act! Not unlike the Baltimore Colts moving to Indianapolis in the middle of the night – ask Carol…
Peter… Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear… (v. 74), together with And he went out and wept bitterly. (v. 75c) In two consecutive verses we see the intensity that was Peter. To go from shouting curses in the crowd to weeping alone… Many of us can probably relate to “weeping alone”, but I doubt that we have been so openly vocal in our denial of our Savior. Rather, we are prone to sin “quietly”, then weep alone later. We, together with the Jewish leaders, are also cowards. The main difference, however, is that we can confess our cowardly activities and be forgiven. It’s not likely that many of the Jewish leaders sought that readily-available forgiveness from Jesus. So sad…
Slava Bohu!