We're thinking this week about some of the people who met Jesus during the last week of his life.

Some of them, like Judas, had known him for a few years.

He was the apostle who betrayed him, you remember. Today I want to think about someone

else who had probably known him even longer, Simon Peter. It's interesting that in Matthew's

gospel, the verb betrayed is used in connection with Judas' act, I think about 14 different

times. But the verb deny is used in connection with Judas' act, I think about 14 different times.

But the verb deny is used in connection with Simon Peter only, I think, twice.

Once when Peter says he'd die before denying Jesus,

and once when Jesus tells him he will deny him three times by Cockrow.

I say it's interesting because if you'd been walking the streets of Jerusalem after Jesus' arrest and trial, you might well have encountered

two very distraught apostles full of self-recrimination. We're told that Judas regretted what he

had done, and we're told that after Simon

Peter had denied Jesus, he went out and wept bitterly.

So here's a question.

If you'd encountered both these men, would you be able to tell that one of them would take

his life in despair

while the other would be saved?

Put it another way.

Is the difference between denying Jesus and betraying Jesus, a difference in magnitude or

a difference in kind? Or put it yet another way, how come Peter denied

Jesus and yet was saved, whereas Judas betrayed Jesus and was damned? I said yesterday there

was a mystery to Judas's sin. We told that Satan's hand was instrumental in what happened.

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