Matins Devotion: June 20, 2024

John 18:15-40

Simon Peter’s denial of Jesus during our Lord’s Passion is not like Christ’s betrayal at the hands of Judas. Judas is deliberate. He plans and schemes. His actions are all premeditated. He fashions out of his pride an idol to the god of bitterness. Judas seeks out and chases down this false god in order to bow before it.

But Peter is overwhelmed by a false god he doesn’t make, even though he surrenders to it. As Jesus is facing death, Peter fears that death will swiftly become his reward for following Jesus, for belonging to him. And so, in an instant, Peter meets the god of terror, the false god of trembling, the false god of loving your life more than the truth. In an instant, this bold man who was ready to go to the grave defending Jesus bows before an idol as he utters the words, “I am not his disciple,” the words “I do not know the man.”

So the idolatry of Judas is worse than that of Simon Peter. The man who created his own false god is more condemned than the man who surrendered to the false god that overwhelmed him in an instant. Their sins are not equal in weight or in height, but they are equal in the sense that only the blood of Jesus could take away the condemnation those sins brought them.

Nothing you can do can take away the condemnation you earned from spending six months crafting your idols or spending six tenths of a second surrendering to them. So run to the cross of Christ and you will find forgiveness for the sins you committed, both as a Judas and as a Simon Peter. Run to the cross of Christ and there you will find the mercy that covers both premeditated idolatry and idolatry of passion. Look to the wounds of your Savior, and in those wounds you will hear the voice of God command you to get up off the knees you bowed before false gods, just as that voice commands you to come rest in the arms of the one true God who has crushed your idols and made you His own forever.