SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/4/2024 9:56 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “Peter’s Collapse”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
26:69-75a
Message of the verses: “69 All this time
Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard, and a maidservant came up to him
and said, "Weren’t you too with Jesus, the man from Galilee?" 70 But
he denied it before them all, saying, "I don’t know what you’re talking
about." 71 Then when he had gone out into the porch, another maid caught
sight of him and said to those who were there, "This man was with Jesus of
Nazareth." 72 And again he denied it with an oath — "I don’t
know the man!" 73 A few minutes later those who were standing about came
up to Peter and said to him, "You certainly are one of them, it’s obvious
from your accent." 74 At that he began to curse and swear — "I
tell you I don’t know the man!" Immediately the cock crew, 75 and the
words of Jesus came back into Peter’s mind — "Before the cock crows
you will disown me three times.’”
It may seem like a problem as at the first reading,
the gospels seem to give contradictory accounts of the first phases of our Lord’s
trial. Let us look at John 18:13 “and
led Him to Annas first; for he was father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high
priest that year.” John is reporting
here that Jesus was first taken to the house of Annas, the former high priest,
whereas Matthew speaks of His being taken to the house of Caiaphas, who was the
son-in-law of Annas, the ruling high priest at the time as seen in Matthew
26:57 “57 The men who had seized Jesus took him off to Caiaphas the High Priest
in whose house the scribes and elders were assembled.”
This seeming discrepancy can be easily explained as
MacArthur writes “In the ancient world it was common for several generations of
a family to live under the same roof. It
is therefore likely that the palatial mansion of the high priest had been
enlarged over the years to accommodate Annas’s five sons, who had successively
served as high priests, and now Caiaphas and his family. Large homes of that day backed to the street,
with living areas facing a private, inner courtyard. With such a layout, Annas and Caiaphas would
have had separate ‘houses,’ or wings, of the manor while sharing a common
courtyard. Consequently, the courtyard
of Annas, of which John speaks (18:15-16), and the courtyard of Caiaphas, which
Matthew mentions (26:57-58), were the same place. When Jesus was transferred from Annas’s house
to Caiaphas’s, He was imply taken through the common courtyard or perhaps
through a connecting passageway.”
Peter
was following Jesus, but got to the gate and could not go any further. However we read in John 18:16 “but Peter was
standing at the door outside. So the other disciple, who was known to the high
priest, went out and spoke to the doorkeeper, and brought Peter in.” I have to believe that it was John who spoke
to the doorkeeper as John never mentions his name in the gospel that was
written by him. We really don’t know how
long John was there, but as mentioned he was the one who got Peter into the
courtyard.
Jesus
had told all of the disciples, including Peter what the outcome of this trial
would be, but he desired to go in and see for himself, something that I believe
that he wished later on that he would not have been there, but this was prophesied
that it would happen and so Peter went in, not only to fulfill the prophecy but
because he wanted to be there.
I
will end this SD with a quote from MacArthur’s commentary: “By the time Jesus appeared before Caiaphas,
it was probably about 1:00 A. M. While Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard,
‘with the officers, and warming himself at the fire’ (Mark 14:54), a certain
servant-girl came to him and said, ‘You too were with Jesus the Galilean.’ The term Galilean was frequently used as an
epithet of derision by citizens of Jerusalem, who felt themselves superior to
their less sophisticated neighbors to the north. To refer to someone as a Galilean was to
suggest he was backward and unprogressive.”
This
same kind of thing happened in the neighborhood that I grew up in as many of
the people living there were from Ohio, while some moved in from West Virginia
and were at times looked down on.
7/4/2024 10:28 AM
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