“Peter said to him, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!” And all the disciples said the same.” (Matthew 26:35)
When it comes to living for Jesus, we're constantly overestimating our strength. We tend to think highly of what we have in us and our own resolve. This tendency is not true of just a few of us but all of us. Notice that verse 35 says, “and all the disciples said the same.” This is not a Peter problem; this is a human problem. And in the most wonderful twist of irony, the one person who doesn't overestimate human strength is the one who actually has it in him to obey God. Jesus. I like what Alfred Plummer, the Anglican theologian says about the transition from verses 30 to 35.
The Evangelist exhibits a tragic irony in placing our Lord's Prayer in the garden of Gethsemane immediately after the confident boasting of Peter and his companions. The apostles are so sure of their own strength that they will not allow the possibility of failure even when they're forewarned of it by Christ. The Son of man, on the other hand, is so conscious of the weakness of his humanity that he prays to the Father that he may be spared the approaching trial.
No one is more realistic about the limitations of human frailty than Jesus. One of the many things Christmas is saying to us is that God, in Christ, has so put on our humanity that he understands the weakness of our frame better than we understand it.
“We will die with you,” says the disciples. “You can't even watch one hour with me,” says Jesus. In the work of redemption, Jesus goes alone.
God With Us & For Us In Our Failing