Day 21: Betrayal and Denail

Ornament: Rooster Scripture Reading: Matthew 26:4-75 Gospel Art Picture:228, 229 Carl Bloch Painting: Peter's Betrayal Video: Jesus is Tried by Caiaphas, Peter Denies Knowing Him

“This was also a telling time among those who knew Jesus more personally. The most difficult to understand in this group is Judas Iscariot. We know the divine plan required Jesus to be crucified, but it is wrenching to think that one of His special witnesses who sat at His feet, heard Him pray, watched Him heal, and felt His touch could betray Him and all that He was for 30 pieces of silver. Never in the history of this world has so little money purchased so much infamy. We are not the ones to judge Judas’s fate, but Jesus said of His betrayer, “Good [were it] for that man if he had not been born”…

Later, after Jesus’s arrest and appearance at trial, Peter, accused of knowing Jesus and being one of His confidants, denies that accusation not once but three times. We don’t know all that was going on here, nor do we know of protective counsel which the Savior may have given to His Apostles privately,but we do know Jesus was aware that even these precious ones would not stand with Him in the end, and He had warned Peter accordingly. Then, with the crowing of the cock, “the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, None Were With Him, Ensign Magazine May 2009.