27Then Jesus said to them, "All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written:
| 'I will strike the Shepherd, And the sheep will be scattered.' |
28"But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee."
29Peter said to Him, "Even if all are made to stumble, yet I will not be."
30Jesus said to him, "Assuredly, I say to you that today, even this night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times."
31But he spoke more vehemently, "If I have to die with You, I will not deny You!"
And they all said likewise.
I just did a quick search to see when the word stumble had been spoken by Jesus before. He used it twice in the Book of Mark: in Mark 4:17 where he explains the parable of the sower and the seed scattered on the stony ground is like those who, "when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they stumble." He again uses the word stumble in Mark 9:42 where he says "But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea."
First of all, when I think about the levels of soil mentioned in the parable of the sower, the stony ground is one of the poorer soils, even poorer than the weedy soil. He now seems to be comparing the hearts of his disciples as the stony ground. They will stumble in their faith as they face the trials to come up this night. To me, this is another humbling reminder of our imperfect human state. I have said before that we are all sinners. But this is making me consider that we all also have stony ground. We will all stumble at some time. Jesus knows that. But He will be there to help us up again as we strive for creating in our hearts the good soil.
I had always remembered this verse about Peter arguing that he would never deny Jesus. I hadn't remembered that Jesus said they would all stumble. And I had never even noticed before that Jesus said it would be because of Him. Not because of their own weaknesses, not because of the difficult situations they would soon face, but because of Jesus. This must have been hard for Jesus to talk about. As he said before, whoever causes one of those who believe in Him to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea. He is about to be the one to cause those He loved to stumble. He is about to suffer something worse than a millstone hung around his neck and being thrown into the sea. He is taking the responsibility and the punishment.
How many times have we in our own human determination said we would never do something. Just like Peter, we have said we would not do it. Even trying as hard as we can, we often still stumble. Why does this happen? We all strive for the good soil, yet there is always some stony ground there. We cannot reach the good soil on our own. We need Jesus' help. As He quoted here, it is when He will strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter that the disciples will stumble. They will not have Jesus there to guide them and help them. That is when they will stumble. As with the disciples, we need Jesus near to help us keep from stumbling. Jesus said after He is raised He would go before them to Galilee. Jesus goes before us in all things now. We need to reach out to him, not our own determination, to keep from stumbling. He is there to help us.