Maundy Thursday 2020: 2 - The darkest hour

- Our story begins, not as tradition dictates with the Last Supper, but just after Christ has been arrested in the Garden of Gethsemene.

Those who had arrested Jesus took him to Caiaphas the high priest, in whose house the scribes and the elders had gathered. But Peter was following him at a distance, as far as the courtyard of the high priest; and going inside, he sat with the guards in order to see how this would end. Now the chief priests and the whole council were looking for false testimony against Jesus so that they might put him to death, but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last two came forward and said, ‘This fellow said, “I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.” ’ The high priest stood up and said, ‘Have you no answer? What is it that they testify against you?’ But Jesus was silent. Then the high priest said to him, ‘I put you under oath before the living God, tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.’ Jesus said to him, ‘You have said so. But I tell you,
From now on you will see the Son of Man
   seated at the right hand of Power
   and coming on the clouds of heaven.’

Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, ‘He has blasphemed! Why do we still need witnesses? You have now heard his blasphemy. What is your verdict?’ They answered, ‘He deserves death.’ Then they spat in his face and struck him; and some slapped him, saying, ‘Prophesy to us, you Messiah! Who is it that struck you?’ 

Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. A servant-girl came to him and said, ‘You also were with Jesus the Galilean.’ But he denied it before all of them, saying, ‘I do not know what you are talking about.’ When he went out to the porch, another servant-girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, ‘This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.’ Again he denied it with an oath, ‘I do not know the man.’ After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, ‘Certainly you are also one of them, for your accent betrays you.’ Then he began to curse, and he swore an oath, ‘I do not know the man!’ At that moment the cock crowed. Then Peter remembered what Jesus had said: ‘Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.’ And he went out and wept bitterly.

[Matthew 26.67-75]

Maundy Thursday 2020: 2 - The darkest hour

The denial of Peter

It is an age-old story, the strongest of men defeated by his own weakness. Peter is portrayed in the Gospels as the strongest, and most outspoken of the Apostles. Given the Greek nickname Petros (Rock) by Jesus, in this moment Peter is more βότσαλο (Pebbles), an unsure footing on which to build anything, let alone the Church. Yet even as Peter denies Jesus three times, so will Peter be readmitted in to the fellowship of the apostles after a threefold questioning by Jesus in the shores of Lake Galilee.

In the image by Carl Bloch we see all the elements of the story: the fire; the servants; the cock; the distraught Peter; and, in the background, Jesus. But Jesus does not look on in condemnation, but with love.

Interestingly it is Peter, not Christ who is in the light, Christ rather is hidden and obscured by the encroaching darkness. It is this darkness into which Christ enters that we will be exploring next.

Response: Take a moment to reflect on the times you have denied Christ, the truth of someone dear to you. Ask for God’s forgiveness, and for the prayers of St Peter, who knew what it was deny someone he loved, and knew to be the truth.

The silent hours

The trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin we are told took place at night, that is against custom and the Law of the time. But it does not last all night, and there are those few silent lonely hours between the trial before the Sanhedrin and condemnation by Pilate. We know nothing of these hours.

In Jerusalem you’ll find the Church of St Peter in Gallicantu, which sits on the site of the house of Caiaphas. Underneath the house is an oubliette, a bottle shaped cell, whose only entrance is via a hole in the roof. The cell is a profoundly lonely place, a place of deepest despair. When a prisoner was lowered into the cell they’d have no idea of how deep the cell was, what the floor was like, who or what they’d be sharing it with. It is into this cell that Jesus lowered in those silent hours between his trial and his trip to Pilate’s palace.

When I visited St Peter in Gallicantu I was taken back to another overseas trip, this time to Hungary and the museum called The House of Terror. The building which housed the museum had been used first by the Iron Cross (the Hungarian Fascist party) and then by the Communists as a prison used by the Secret Police. In its basement there were torture chambers and execution cells, the sound in the basement was deadened because it was so well insulated: you could scream and no one on the street outside would hear you. As with the suffering that had seeped into the walls of the cell underneath St Peter in Gallicantu, so to had it seeped into the walls of that museum.

[Further details of the reconstructed cells at the House of Terror, can be found on its website, from where this image was also taken: https://www.terrorhaza.hu/en/allando-kiallitas/first_floor/the-torture-chamber.]

Response: Remember a time when you have felt along, afraid and far from God’s light. Pray for those who may be in such a situation today, that you and they may know Christ’s love and presence.