Sermon Insight: Peter was the Most Like Judas

I am right now engaged in sermon preparation. My text for next Sunday is Matthew 26:30-56 which centers around the events leading up to and including Jesus' agony in Gethsamane. In his sermon on verses 30-35, which centers on Jesus' prediction that Peter and the other disciples would forsake him, John MacArthur suggests that Peter, of all the disciples, was most like Judas.

And then there is a marvelous contrast between pride and humility here...between pride and humility. The pride comes through in the mouth of Peter. Peter answered, although no one was asking, frankly, "And said to Him," he just mouthed off, that's all, "Though all men shall be offended because of Thee, yet will I never be offended." And you can just see him looking at the other guys saying, "You may go, I'll stay, I am the truest of the true." Proud, self-confident Peter...coward, weak, ignorant but didn't know it. He is a tough case. My own feeling is he's the closest to Judas of all the disciples. Except for the fact that he believed, he's very little different...very self-centered, very egotistical, very consumptive, very proud.

And you know, the guy does not learn well. He does not learn well. "Though all men shall be offended," everybody may be trapped, all people may be trapped, "I will never be offended, I'll stand with You all the way."

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Whether or not MacArthur is right is beside the point. The main conclusion to draw here isn't the similarities between Peter and Judas (they are both guilty), but the differences between them. Judas responded to guilt by committing suicide and thus stands guilty apart from Christ. Peter, on the other hand, humbly repented and turned back to Christ. In this sense, the two could not be more different.