As the disciples prepare for the passover meal, Jesus tells them how they are going to find the upper room by directing them to a certain man, “The Teacher says, ‘My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.’” Take note of this. Jesus has repeatedly told His disciples that He was going to die in Jerusalem. Just the other day, Jesus told them when, “You know that after two days, the passover is coming and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.” Now, Jesus has them repeat it for themselves as they ask the man to use the upper room for the passover meal. Yet, they still don’t get it.
Jesus then tells the disciples that one of them is going to betray Him. This further shocks the disciples and everyone asks if it is going to be them. Even Judas, who has already sold Jesus out, asks the question and Jesus confirms what Judas already knows.
After instituting the Lord’s Supper and offering new meaning to the passover meal as a symbol of His sacrifice on the cross, Jesus again tells the disciples that not only would one of them betray Him, but they will all fall away. This really bothers Peter who denies that He would ever turn His back on Jesus. However, Jesus tells him that he is going to deny Jesus three times.
The rest of the text shows Peter’s downward spiral. He can’t keep himself awake while Jesus is praying, he lashes out at one of the men who came to take Jesus and lops off his ear, and then, after following Jesus from a distance, is spotted in the courtyard and denies knowing Jesus three times.
What I have always found significant in the story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane is how He asked God to take this cup from Him. This is the ultimate cup of God’s wrath, poured out for the sins of the world. Jesus genuinely struggled with what He was about to do on the cross. The late Dr. Warren Wiersbe once showed me how this was the bookend of Jesus ministry. When He was being tempted in the wilderness by the devil, Jesus was offered the kingdoms of the world, another way to save humanity. Jesus passed that test and He passed this one in the garden as well. There is no other way for mankind to be saved except for Christ to suffer and die for the sins of the world, so that we might be forgiven.
Today is a day of prayer. We join with Jesus in wrestling with the reality of our predicament. We, like Peter, fall short of our own expectations. How could we meet the standard of a holy and righteous God? Christ alone is able to make us presentable to our Heavenly Father.