Jesus' Final Visit to JerusalemSample

Jesus’ Prediction of Peter’s Denial

On the way, Jesus told them, “Dear children, I will be with you only a little longer. And as I told the Jewish leaders, you will search for me, but you can’t come where I am going. So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

Simon Peter asked, “Lord, where are you going?”

And Jesus replied, “You can’t go with me now, but you will follow me later.”

“But why can’t I come now, Lord?” he asked.

“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat. But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers.

“Tonight all of you will desert me. For the Scriptures say,

‘God will strike the Shepherd,

and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’26

But after I have been raised from the dead, I will go ahead of you to Galilee and meet you there.”

Peter said to him, “Lord, I am ready to go to prison with you, and even to die with you. Even if everyone else deserts you, I will never desert you.”

But Jesus replied, “Die for me? Peter, let me tell you something. I tell you the truth: This very night before the rooster crows twice tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me.”

“No!” Peter declared emphatically. “Even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you!” And all the other disciples vowed the same.

Then Jesus asked them, “When I sent you out to preach the Good News, and you did not have money, a traveler’s bag, or an extra pair of sandals, did you need anything?”

“No,” they replied.

“But now,” he said, “take your money and a traveler’s bag. And if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one! For the time has come for this prophecy about me to be fulfilled: ‘He was counted among the rebels.’27 Yes, everything written about me by the prophets will come true.”

“Look, Lord,” they replied, “we have two swords among us.” “That’s enough,” he said.

Footnotes:

26 Zech 13:7.

27 Isa 53:12.