Peter and Judas in Contrast on Resurrection Day
Monday Ministerial Musings
By Rev. Mark William Ennis
2024 Blog #16
April 21, 2025
Peter and Judas in Contrast on Resurrection Day
I love the service celebrating Jesus’ resurrection. I wish it was held more than once each year. It is festive. The music is always better than normal. More flowers adorn every sanctuary. Attendance is always higher than during other services. I especially enjoyed the brass that we enjoyed at the Community Church of Glen Rock this year. The music here is always superlative, but yesterday, to celebrate the resurrection, it was even more magnificent. What wasn’t to like about the service.
And yet, every Resurrection Day, I feel a little sadness when I think of the story of Peter. Peter, who was an ordinary blue-collar guy, was called by Jesus to witness extraordinary things, and even to do greater things. He was called to be steadfast, but he wasn’t. When the going got tough on Thursday of Holy Week, he denied knowing Jesus. He felt frightened and none of us act our best when we are anxious or scared. Sometimes we act badly when frightened.
Peter felt horrible and he knew he had not just betrayed Jesus, but also the rest of the disciples whom he was called to be the shepherd of after Jesus would be taken away. I feel for Peter. At times in my life, under stress and fear, I have not acted as my best self either. I guess that none of us do. Peter had one redeeming trait. He did not run away. Despite his bad behavior, he stayed within the fellowship of the disciples. He was willing to face the wrath of those others but still stay with them. He continued to take his role as the rock of the church very seriously.
Judas, on the other hand, had betrayed Jesus. For thirty pieces of silver, he told the temple leaders where Jesus would be on Thursday night so that he could be seized by the temple guards. Later, Judas saw the result of his actions and repented. He threw the money earned from his betrayal back at the priests who had given the cash to him. He then had a choice to make. Should he return to the other disciples and face the consequences of his actions, or should he distance from them?
Judas chose the latter and we have no evidence that he ever saw any of the other disciples again. Instead, he went out and committed suicide. I can only guess what it would have been like for Judas, or the other disciples, had Judas returned and interacted with the others. I assume that he was too afraid to try to connect and his fear and shame drove him to kill himself. How different things would have been if he had the courage of Peter, and despite what he had done, tried to connect rather than withdraw.
Many of us are not so different from Peter, if not Judas. Sometimes we deny Jesus by our lifestyles and our self-centeredness. At times, we deny being disciples of Jesus because in our culture, it isn’t “cool.” Despite Jesus’ instructions to take care of the poor, often we deny Jesus by adopting to the self-centered values of the world rather than the merciful message of Jesus.
If this is true for us, then we now have a chance to repent of this. During this glorious time of Resurrection, we can choose to do things differently. If we have denied Jesus, we have a chance to reaffirm Jesus and rejoin other disciples. We can seek forgiveness for every time that we have denied. Let us not be Judas who stayed away. Instead, let us be Peter, who knew his sin, but came back to find fellowship and reconciliation.
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