Betrayal: Peter contra Judas

 Father Pothin’s Reflection for the Third Sunday after Easter 2016

The Gospel. St. John xvi. 16.

The readings this season describe the meeting between Jesus and his apostles after the resurrection. In the previous life, before His death, they abandoned Him, some even betrayed Him. Judas “sold Him” to the Pharisees and chiefs priests; Peter’s betrayal was in denying Him three times.

In his betrayal of Jesus, Peter is no different from Judas. But Peter is the rock on which Jesus founded his church, and Judas is the villain of the Christian story. How does Peter differ from Judas?

You might suppose that the difference lies in the fact that Peter repented his betrayal of Jesus and Judas didn’t. But the Gospel of Matthew says that Judas confessed his sin and repented. (Mt 27:3-4).  So what exactly is the difference between Judas and Peter?

Finding himself sinful, Judas killed himself.  Finding himself similarly sinful, Peter cleaved to Christ. Peter let nothing, not even his own sins, introduce any distance between him and the Lord he loved. That is the difference between Peter and Judas. And that is why Peter is the rock on which the church is founded.

Betrayal is an archetypal structure within the human soul, just as sin is innate within the human condition. We, all of us, betray and sin. We betray ourselves, betray our loved ones, betray our communities, and sin against our God. Everyone stands in need of forgiveness.

–Fr Pothin