Peter at the time of Jesus' crucifixion According to the earliest gospel text, the only followers of Jesus who saw him crucified from afar were a few women who accompanied him on his journey from Galilee to Jerusalem for his annual

Peter Recognizes Jesus as the Messiah 13 Having come to the region of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus began to ask His disciples: “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said: “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one from the prophets.”15 “And you? -

Peter recognizes Jesus as the Messiah (Mark 8:27–30; Luke 9:18–21)13 When Jesus came to the area around Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples: “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”14 The disciples answered: “Some say that You are John the Baptist, others that Elijah, and still others that

Peter recognizes Jesus as the Christ (Matthew 16:13–16; Mark 8:27–29)18 One day, when Jesus was praying alone and His disciples were not far from Him, He asked them: “Who do the people say that I am?”19 They They answered: - For John the Baptist; others say that you are Elijah, and still others that you are one of

CHAPTER 23. Journey of Jesus to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles. Talk about Him. Jesus' speech about himself. The order of the chief priests and Pharisees to seize Jesus. The feast of the Jews was approaching - the setting up of tabernacles, established in memory of the forty-year wandering of the Jews in

Today we glorify all the saints of our Church who are holy by the holiness of God. And we are all called to this holiness. For this we are baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, for this we partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, where just before communion we hear: “Holy to the holy.” If anyone is not holy, says Saint Cyril of Jerusalem on this matter, let him not approach. “There is one holy, one Lord, Jesus Christ,” and the holy father-monks from their deserts, which were the field of their spiritual battle, together with the martyrs, tell each of us about the only secret of life: “Give the blood and receive the Spirit.” Where do we get this power of dedication? Only with the Lord. We must accept in the Eucharist the blood of the First Martyr, the First Saint, the only holy Lord Jesus Christ, through Him we must partake of the Divine Spirit, in order to be able to give ourselves and be saints, Christ's.

“Whoever confesses Me before men,” the Savior tells us today in the Gospel, “I will confess him before My Heavenly Father, and whoever denies Me before men, him will I deny before My Heavenly Father.” This loyalty in the face of suffering, in the face of death, is what defines saints. To be a believer means to be faithful, and this is the only way the Church lives. Today we need to hear these words of the Savior that we can renounce our Christ and may find ourselves deprived of the Kingdom of holiness, of Divine life. How do we renounce? We deny Christ verbally when we say that we do not know Him. Can we really say that? As one woman said, she repented that when there was a population census in the 30s of the last century, where the question about religion was on the questionnaire, she wrote: “non-believer.” And millions, as if going to church, renounced their Lord in those terrible years. This renunciation may not be direct. IN " Ancient Patericon" tells about one monk who went to the city out of obedience to buy something for the monastery. There he met a very eloquent Jew who began to tell him about his faith. He listened to him and said somehow very abstractly, absently: “Perhaps what you say is true.” When he returned to the monastery, his spiritual father told him: “You are no longer a Christian. You have denied the Lord. What darkness I see in your soul! This renunciation may be the same as it was with one very learned, very educated person. Once he was asked how he, such an enlightened, such an educated person, could believe in God: “Do you really believe in Christ?” Yes, he answered, but not fanatically. This meant that his faith is by itself, and the world by itself, one does not concern the other, the world need not worry - he will not cause any trouble with his faith to this world, he will not disturb the world with anything to force respect for those vague principles on on which his faith is based.

We need to see absolutely clearly that we are only believers when we differ from the world. The very word “holy” means “different from the world”; a saint is one who is dedicated to God. We know that the temple is holy, it is different from all other buildings, because it is dedicated to God. Saturday at Old Testament was holy - it was different from all other days because it was dedicated to God. A Christian is a person who is dedicated to God, and therefore he must be different from other people. The worst thing is when we are no different from them. Not so long ago, many Christians calmly sent their children to be pioneers, Komsomol members, without even thinking that this was participation in an organization that officially and necessarily professed atheism, that is, an indirect renunciation of God. In the same way, now many of us are ready to hand over our children to any kind of torn apart, to any kind of programs, television and other, even more global programs for educating a person with the complete destruction of the most important thing that is in a person - reason, shame and conscience. And yet we seem to be believers. We live in the world, but we are called not to merge with this world, not to mix with it. We can defeat the world only by the way in which we differ from the world, that is, by the presence of God in us, that of Christ, the Divine and truly human, which does not yield anything to the corrupting beast in our faith.

You can also renounce Christ not with words, but simply with silence. Again and again, life gives us the opportunity to intercede for our Lord, when He is again insulted, when again there is dishonor, blasphemy, blasphemy around us, and the opportunity to speak out against evil, already open, arrogant, in which is the obvious presence of the devil, the murderer, the father of lies. And we remain silent again and again. When the opportunity arose for the Church to speak, when seemingly all freedoms were declared, was it really the freedom to speak only half-truths and half-lies, only lies, and not the word of truth! Previously, our Church was called the “Church of Silence” because the mouth was forcibly closed. Can it really still be this Church of Silence! If from the very beginning of the so-called perestroika the Church had raised its voice against this terrible satanic corruption that is being committed in our Fatherland, and had not remained silent, then, of course, much would have been different now. At that time, the authority of the Church was the highest, according to all sociological surveys. During the years of godless communism, people were hungry for the word of the highest truth, then debauchery was still terrifying, it shocked normal consciousness, they had not yet become accustomed to it as they are now. What is lost cannot be returned. And now, if we continue to maintain this silence, which can be perceived by society as a sign of agreement with lawlessness, it will, of course, be bad for us and for everyone who expects salvation from the Church.

But there is also a renunciation of Christ with one’s entire life. We live in such a way that we constantly renounce Christ. Too often we find ourselves only as hearers of God's Word and not as doers of it. Because of you, as the Apostle Paul speaks of precisely this kind of renunciation, the Name of God is blasphemed and subjected to reproach among the pagans. And, of course, if all the words about truth, about purity, about love that we say do not come true in our lives, then they become suspicious for those who listen to us. Both the Name of God and the Church of Christ are again being dishonored. This confession, this fidelity to Christ is costly. As in the Gospel, Christ says: “Whoever wants to be My disciple must take up the cross.” This means that we always face a choice, we must always sacrifice either Christ, His commandment, or ourselves and our well-being. There is no such thing that we can preserve both. And until there is a determination in our lives: “Thy will be done!” - not only in all the circumstances, the most terrible and sorrowful, that the Lord sends to us, but in everything that we fulfill in life, saying: “May the commandment that You gave me be fulfilled with Your help and power!” - until then our confession will not be true. The Lord warns us that whoever wants to save his life, his soul, save it in this world, will destroy it. And we know that this is exactly what always happens, and in those years of great persecution, many wanted to save their lives, and therefore they renounced Christ, and therefore they ruined their lives.

Now the world considers the most important principle of life to be precisely how to preserve your life, preserve it and acquire everything that is necessary for this life (as the world understands it). But at the same time, it is impossible not to see that the only thing that makes this life precious is lost, that which is really worth living, because without Christ, without love for Him, life is meaningless and empty, and only through life by faith, through selfless love for To the Lord and to people, through giving ourselves, through spending our life for this, we gain it. We are very feeble and weak, and none of us can say that he is stronger than Peter, who, because of one word of the maid, denied his Savior. And each of us must see today how many times he has renounced Christ, either in word, or in silence, or in his life. And we must all turn to our saints, who were also weak and fragile. They, too, sometimes had hesitations in faith, some even renounced the Lord, but they knew that the Lord, if they turned to Him with all their hearts and repentance, could restore everything. These saints remind us that although by nature we sometimes do not have the strength to resist the smallest sorrows and temptations, when the most important test comes, Christ will work in us. The Lord, through the Holy Spirit, gives consolation to every suffering and strength to every human weakness. He tells us: “Fear not, little flock!” He tells us: “Look, are not many birds sold for two assars, but each of them is in the memory of the Heavenly Father, Who cares for them and knows what will happen to each of them? Are you not more valuable than these small birds?” “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body and then are unable to do anything more.” Is it really possible that a sword or persecution, the whole Church of Saints tells us, or some kind of torment, or some kind of grief, can overcome the love of God that He has for each of us? Let us be faithful to our Lord through the intercession of all our saints. And the Lord will always be faithful to us, for He cannot, as Scripture says, be faithful to Himself.

Archpriest Alexander Shargunov, rector of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Pyzhi

Question No. 550

What is the difference between the denial of the Apostle Peter and the betrayal of Judas?

Vladimir L. ,France
13/02/2003

Father, please clarify these questions.
The Apostle Peter denied Christ, repented and was forgiven by the Lord.
Judas Iscariot betrayed Christ, repented, but hanged himself.

1) Is the degree of sin of Apostle Peter and Judas the same (at first glance, both seemed to have betrayed);
2) Both repented, but the result of the first repentance was forgiveness by the Lord, the result of the second was strangulation. What is the spiritual difference between such seemingly equally external repentances, in order to understand and repent correctly?

God bless you for the clarification.

Answer from Father Oleg Molenko:

1) The sin of Peter's denial and the sin of Judas' betrayal. – these are sins that are close in severity, but different in origin, direction and spiritual quality. The denial of Peter, which lives in every person (that is why it must be discovered through repentance and gotten rid of it before death), is the sin of human WEAKNESS, and the sin of betrayal and sale (for something material) of Christ is the sin of human CHOICE. This is the fundamental difference between these similar sins, which leads to opposite results.

Apostle Peter did not want and did not think of renouncing Christ. Even in front of all the other apostles, he assured that even if everyone renounced, he would not renounce even to the point of prison and death. It was a sincere desire and statement, but it had the effect of being heated. The Lord predicted the denial of all the disciples, and about Peter that he would deny three times, but He did not cease to consider them His own. About the betrayal of Judas Claim. The Lord also predicted, but called him the devil. At the same time, the Lord said that only one out of 12 would betray Him. This means that Peter and the others were above suspicion.

When the blood cooled, and the danger of being captured, thrown into prison and executed became a reality for Peter, the sinful weakness of human nature, predicted by the Lord, manifested itself in him (like in each of us), and he spontaneously denied for the sake of FEAR. This renunciation experimentally revealed to him the abyss of sinfulness of a person who had already consciously chosen the Lord, confessed Him as God, left everything for His sake and decided to follow Him. This renunciation, unexpectedly discovered by God’s permission, shows that it is not enough for a person to believe in Christ as his God and Savior (as Protestants absurdly claim), it is not enough to see His miracles and transfiguration, it is not enough to walk on the waters by the power of God, it is not enough to be chosen as disciples and apostles Christ Himself, it is not enough to be with Christ, to eat with Him, to drink with Him, to listen to Him, to pray with Him, to partake of His Body and Blood (which Peter did at the Last Supper before his denial), it is not enough to see His saints in glory (Moses and Elijah on Tabor) , for all this does not preserve from the person living in the heart of GOD. A person is born with this severe disease called the FALL, the root of which is DENYING GOD (after all, the first people Adam and Eve denied God by believing Satan) on the basis of pride. Our task is to gradually heal from this severe illness through the repentance commanded by God and the grace of the Holy Spirit given for it and to overcome our renunciation of God.

Judas hatched plans for betrayal, looked for a convenient time and increased the price of the Priceless. He not only betrayed the Lord into the hands of His enemies, but SOLD Him for money. Judas acted quite consciously and selfishly. It was his conscious choice and the manifestation of his relationship to the Lord God. Scripture tells us that he was a THIEF. A thief is a life choice. This is a choice of atheistic and misanthropic ideology and practice based on it. Stealing is the choice of a proud peace-loving person who exalts himself over others, an envious person, an unbeliever and an impatient person. From theft there is one step to murder of God and man. It is no coincidence that Satan is called in Scripture the father of lies, a murderer and a thief. As is the father, so are his children. Complementing Scripture, the Monk Nile the Myrrh-streaming Athonite in his posthumous broadcasts tells us that Judas Iscariot cohabited with his mother and killed his father. So he was a fully formed fighter against God and a wicked man, i.e. the devil, as the Lord rightly called him. And the characteristic of the devil is to justify himself in every possible way by blaming God for everything and completely killing his ability to repent or make a good change.

Irreversibility, irrepentance and rejection are the indelible stamp of the devil and devils in the flesh (such as Judas Isk., Julian the Apostate, bishops Anna and Caiaphas, M. Sergius Stragorodsky, Alexy Simansky, Pimen Izvekov, Alexy Ridiger and other leaders of modern apostasy). It's no coincidence that grave sin Judas' betrayal and apostasy of the clergy is reflected in Scripture in these words:

Jeremiah 7:
1 The sin of Judah is written with an iron chisel, inscribed with a diamond point on the tablet of their hearts and on the horns of their altars.

The hearts of apostates are like stone tablets, and the sin of apostasy is written on us with an iron chisel with a diamond tip, which speaks of the indelibility of this sin and the irreversibility of these traitors to God.

2) According to the difference in the origin of the sins of Peter and Judas, they also regretted their actions. Judas was REGRET, REGRET, ANNOYED, ANGRY WITH HIMSELF - this is how the word “repented” should be understood for Judas - for the act he committed. This annoyance with oneself had nothing to do with true REPENTANCE. It was sinful DESPAIR, which Satan inspired him to, who entered his heart through a piece of bread he accepted from the hands of the Lord. The Monk Nile the Myrrh-Streaming adds that the Lord bent twice the branches of the tree on which Judas hanged himself, but Judas threw the noose to the next highest branch until he hanged himself completely the third time. By this strangulation, he only revealed his long-standing spiritual strangulation, strangulation from addiction to material things and contempt for the commandments of God (“Thou shalt not steal,” “Thou shalt not covet what is thy neighbor’s”).

Using the example of Judas Iscariot, we see how dangerous it is to be stuck in sinful passion (for Judas the leading passion was the love of money) and in passionate thoughts. Such inertia blinds a person, betrays him into the clutches of demons, and they, through the action of passion, bring him to Betrayal of God (if possible and on occasion) and then plunge him into despair and final destruction.

God gives repentance for correction and salvation, but repentance for despair and destruction is given by the demon.

With demon-guided repentance, a person does not repent of his condition and does not seek God’s mercy to get out of it, but only MEASURES his action or deed and its cost and, seeing an obvious discrepancy, becomes very upset and annoyed with himself, comes to despair and, unable to tolerate out of pride in his ridicule and outrage at himself in the form of this discrepancy between “price” and “deed,” he commits suicide. For example, a robber has developed a careful plan to rob a large bank, cherishes dreams of having a huge amount of money, goes to work, led by demons, and a stand is waiting for him, or instead of money a “doll” is discovered, i.e. paper, and he, repenting from despair, kills himself.

So it was with Judas. Having betrayed the Lord for 30 pieces of silver into the hands of the Jewish priests who were looking for Him, Judas, blinded by the love of money, believed that Jesus would only be put in prison for a while, or, in extreme cases, “beat him a little.” He did not imagine that his Teacher would be killed so quickly with a shameful death on the cross. When demons attract a person to sin, they increase the acquisition (for Judas it is money) and its importance, but they justify and diminish the sin itself. After committing a sin, they belittle what they have acquired (Judas returned the pieces of silver to the high priests) and endlessly increase the size of the sin committed and its severity (“gave up innocent blood”), showing God as an unmerciful Judge. Demons and high priests easily deceived Judas, who was blind from passion, betraying the Lord to death. This greatly angered Judas, which is why he angrily threw the money down on the ground in front of the high priests, reproaching them for deceiving them in the price. Judas did not repent for his terrible sin, but regretted the miscalculation that resulted from his action. This is what Judas' repentance looks like.

It's a completely different matter for Peter. He sinned due to universal human weakness, manifested in unexpected and tense conditions. The Lord allowed this weakness to manifest itself in Peter. To do this, He withdrew His help and grace. This was a special providential action of the Lord, by which He prepared Peter to be the Supreme Apostle. This abandonment of God was allowed for the true humility of Peter, for his experimental knowledge of the depth of the fall and sinfulness of human nature, expelled from Paradise for this illness. Without this experienced self-knowledge, there cannot be in a person a solid foundation for humility, spiritual poverty, true repentance and crying, compassion for other people, knowledge of the greatness and significance of the redemptive work of Christ. With similar God-forsakings, the Lord visits the soul of every truly repentant ascetic, for the Lord’s goal is to reveal to us our true terrible state and from the sight of this destruction to lead us to true repentance, real confession of the Savior and Redeemer in Christ Jesus, true humility, real cleansing from sin and correction , healing of the soul, thanking God for His economy of our salvation, compassion for other people, with a way out of condemning them.

Threefold renunciation, with the aggravation of sin at each stage: “I don’t know...”, “I swear that I don’t know...”, “I swear to God that I don’t know...”, was necessary to bring a person to the depth of knowledge sin living in him. Without this (i.e., seeing a small degree of sinfulness), a person will not be able to truly repent and cry bitterly about his distance from God. An amazing picture: Peter physically stands next to the Lord, but spiritually in his heart he is far from Him. This happens with modern “Orthodox” people; physically they are in church, in temples, at shrines, but in their hearts they are far from God and do not even know about the renunciation that lives in them. That is why, on occasion, they easily renounce, betray and sell the Lord or the Truth, the Way, the Life for some low-value temporary thing.

The Lord, who measuredly allowed Peter to forsake God, Himself brings him out of it, turning it into true, unfeigned and unfeigned repentance and granting bitter, cleansing and the only cry that comforts the soul:

Luke 22:
61 Then the Lord turned and looked at Peter, and Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He said to him: before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.
62 And, going out, he wept bitterly.

We see a chain God's actions: the Lord’s prediction about Peter’s threefold denial of Him – abandonment of God, which led to the manifestation of the renunciation of God hidden within, – appeal to the sinner Peter – Divine glance at Peter, bringing him to consciousness of sin, – the action of God’s grace, overcoming Peter’s oblivion and reminding him of the words of the Lord ( Scripture), – Peter’s exodus to active repentance – the gift of repentant, cleansing crying.

Scripture does not tell us what happened to Peter after this, until the Lord restored him to apostolic dignity during a meal prepared by the Lord Himself. During this conversation (John 20) it turns out that Peter loves the Lord, more than the other disciples (for the Lord asked whether Peter loved more than them, and not in general about love for Himself, which He had no doubt about) and refers to this on the Lord Himself:

John 20:
15
16 Peter says to Him: Yes, Lord! You know I love you. ...
17 God! You know everything; You know I love you.

Peter's threefold questioning of whether he loved the Lord was necessary for Peter's threefold declaration of this love and the Lord's knowledge of this love. This threefold testimony of love was necessary to testify to Peter’s threefold repentance for his threefold denial of the Lord. Through this repentance and crying, Peter moved from an external pious attitude towards the Lord, in which outbursts of blood, passion, jealousy beyond reason and other similar manifestations of the old man were strong, to an internal spiritual attitude. This union of man with God into one spirit is the fruit of true repentance (as rebirth into a new man according to Christ). In such repentance, a person truly comes to know himself and his God, humbles himself before Him, becomes a worshiper of God in spirit and truth, and begins to love the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Father and the Holy Spirit with all his heart, mind and strength. It is in such repentance that reconciliation between man and God occurs, intimate personal knowledge of God by man and man by God, mutual love between God and man.

That is why Peter was saddened when he heard the question about love from the Lord for the third time, because he was afraid that his repentance was sufficient. After all, he knew from his experience that the Lord had forgiven him, that they had been reconciled, that God had shown him His love in response to Peter’s repentant love. Why does the Lord ask as if none of this happened? And overcoming his sadness from bewilderment, Peter adds to his third statement: “ God! You know everything;" - reminding the Lord of their meetings of love at his repentance. By this Peter seems to be saying: Lord, you know everything! You know how madly I sinned against You, how I came to my senses, how I repented later, how I grieved, how I lamented, how bitterly I wept and I wept, how I was tormented, how I repented and reviled myself, how I yearned for You, how I found You in repentance, how You visited me, supported and consoled me, how You had mercy on me, how you forgave this grave sin and other sins, how you healed my soul How we were reconciled, how I loved You with all my nature and being!

Lord, grant us the repentance of Peter, so that we may recognize You in our weeping, may we be reconciled with You, may we become friends, may we love You with all our healed being!

You should also know that besides the path of Judas and the path of Peter, there is a path for the rarest of the rare people on earth - this is the path of the most beloved disciple of the Great Lord, John the Theologian. He (like the Most Pure Mother of Jesus Christ) was the only one of the disciples who did not deny His Lord and did not leave Him before the cross and burial. He believed in His glorious resurrection before Peter. It was he, and not Peter, that the Lord entrusted to take care of His Most Pure Mother, adopting him to Her from the cross. That is why the opinion of some is erroneous, who claim that the Lord, in the person of John the Theologian, adopted all humanity as sons of the Mother of God. No! Virgin John the Theologian and Ever-Virgin Mary are a special spiritual race. The great Russian saints also belonged to this family: Venerable Seraphim Sarovsky (about whom, even in his adolescence, the Mother of God Herself, who appeared with John the Theologian, said: “This one is of our kind”) and the righteous prophet John of Kronstadt. This race is not subject to repentance (although they sometimes used it out of their humility), for from their mother’s womb they choose the Lord (the example of the Baptist John) and belong to the Lord, casting out their renunciation of Him with their prenatal choice.

These people are wondrous, wonderful, beautiful and incomprehensible to us. They didn't need to repent. They loved the Lord from their mother's womb once and for all. Their connection with the Lord is a great mystery. Each of them is also a great secret.

For us, corrupted by sin, there remains the path of Peter’s repentance or the path of the prudent thief’s confession on the cross.

The Lord Jesus Christ was taken into custody in the Garden of Gethsemane. All the apostles left the Savior and fled in fear. Only two of them, Peter and John, followed Him from afar.

It was late at night. Armed soldiers and temple guards brought the bound Savior to trial before the high priests: the elderly Annas and his son-in-law, the current high priest Caiaphas.
The Apostle John, known to the high priest, entered the courtyard, and then brought Peter in as well. Seeing Peter, the maid standing at the door asked him: “Peter answered: “.” The night was cold. The servants lit a fire in the yard and warmed themselves. Peter stood with them by the fire.

Soon another maid, pointing to Peter, said to the servants: “And this one was with Jesus of Nazareth.”

But Peter again denied, saying that he did not know this Man. Dawn was approaching, and the servants standing in the courtyard again began to say to Peter: "". A relative of the same Malchus, whose ear Peter had cut off, immediately approached and said that he had seen Peter together with Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Then Peter began to swear and swear: "".

At this time the rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the words of the Savior spoken by Him at the Last Supper: “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.”
At that very moment the Lord, who was taken out of the house, looked at Peter. The Savior's gaze penetrated into the very heart of the disciple. Shame and burning remorse gripped his soul. The apostle left the courtyard of the high priest and wept bitterly over his sin.

From that moment, Peter never forgot his fall. Saint Clement, a disciple of Peter, says that throughout his subsequent life, the apostle, at the first crowing of the rooster, knelt down and, shedding tears, repented of his renunciation, although the Lord Himself, soon after His resurrection, forgave him.
It's Friday morning. The entire Sanhedrin, led by the high priest Caiaphas, gathered for the trial of Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ was condemned to death for calling Himself the Son of God.

When Judas the traitor learned of the death sentence, he realized the full horror of his insane act. Blinded by the love of money, he did not think about what his betrayal would lead to. A painful remorse took possession of his soul. But this repentance was combined in him with despair, and not with hope for God’s mercy and forgiveness.
Judas went to the high priests and elders and returned to them the thirty pieces of silver that he had received from them for betraying the Son of God. They treated Judas coldly and mockingly. “What is that to us,” they said, “be responsible for your own affairs.”

Torment of conscience without hope for God's forgiveness and faith in His love turned out to be fruitless. Judas could not correct what he had done with his own human strength. Unable to find the strength to fight mental anguish, he hanged himself that same night.
The high priests decided to use the money returned by Judas to buy a plot of land for the burial of wanderers.