When they led Jesus Christ to the high priest’s house, the
Apostle John, who was known to the high priest, entered the court, but Peter
remained outside at the door. Then, John spoke to the maid who kept the door
and brought Peter in.
The maid, seeing Peter, said to him, "Are you
not also one of the disciples of this Man (Jesus Christ)?"
Peter answered, "No."
The night was cold. The officers kindled a fire in
the middle of the courtyard and sat warming themselves. Peter also warmed
himself with them. Soon another maid seeing him as he sat in the light warming himself said to the guards, "This man also was with
Jesus of Nazareth."
But Peter again denied it saying "Woman, I do
not know him."
After an interval of about an hour still, another
insisted to Peter, "Certainly, you also were with Him; for your accent
betrays you. You are a Galilean." One of the servants of the high priest,
a kinsman of the man, Malchus, whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, "Did I
not see you in the garden with Him?"
Peter began to invoke a curse on himself and swear, "I do not know this Man of Whom you
speak." While he was still speaking, the cock crowed and reminded Peter of
the words of the Lord how He had said to him, "Before the cock crows
today, you will deny Me three times." The Lord
being among the guards in the court turned and looked at Peter. The gaze of the
Lord penetrated the heart of Peter. Shame and repentance seized him, and he
went out from the court and wept bitterly over his grievous sin.
From that moment, Peter never forgot his fall. St.
Clement, a disciple of Peter, tells how Peter throughout all his remaining days
at the midnight crowing of the cock fell on his knees and in a flood of tears
repented of his denial although the Lord Himself immediately after His
resurrection forgave him. The ancient traditional teaching preserved that the
eyes of the Apostle Peter were red from frequent and bitter weeping.
Note: See
the Gospel of Matthew 26:69-75; Mark 14:66-72; Luke 22:55-62; John 18:15-18,
25-27.
The Death of Judas.
Friday morning came. Immediately, the chief
priests with the elders and scribes convened their council. They brought Jesus
Christ and again condemned Him to death for calling Himself Christ, the Son of
God.
When Judas, His betrayer, found out that He was
condemned to death, he understood all the horror of his act. Perhaps, he did
not expect such a sentence or supposed that Christ would not permit it or would
deliver Himself from His enemies in some miraculous way. Judas understood to
what his love of money had led. Tormenting guilt seized his soul. He went to
the chief priests and elders and brought back the thirty pieces of silver
saying, "I have sinned in betraying innocent blood."
They said to him, "What is that to us? See to
it yourself" (that is, you yourself must answer for your deed).
But Judas did not want to humbly repent in prayer
and tears before the merciful God. Cold despair and depression overcame his
soul. Throwing down the pieces of silver in the Temple before the chief priests, he departed, and he went and
hanged himself. The chief priests taking the pieces of silver said, "It is
not lawful to put them into the treasury since they are blood money." So
they took counsel and bought with it the potter’s field to bury strangers in.
Therefore, that field (a cemetery) has been called in Hebrew Akaldema, which
means "field of blood."
Then, was fulfilled what had been spoken by the
Prophet Jeremiah saying, "And they took thirty pieces of silver, the price
of Him on Whom a price had been set by the sons of Israel, and they gave them for the potter’s field."
Note: See
the Gospel of Matthew 27:3-10.
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