The Vow of the Promise Keeper
Rev. Richard A. Bolland
Matthew 26:31-35
(Feb. 29, 2004 Sermon Transcript)
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Then Jesus told them, this very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. But after I have risen I will go ahead of you into Galilee. But Peter replied, “Even if they all fall away on account of you, I never will.” “I tell you the truth”, Jesus answered. “This very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.”. But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you!” And all the other disciples said the same.
Dear friends in Christ, the making of a sacred vow is always very serious business. On the day that we stand before God and confirm the baptismal vows our parents took for us, twice it was promised in that rite of the church, that we would suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from it. And yet tragically, many break that vow.
When we stood before the altar of God, and promised before God and His people, that we would take this woman or this man to be our spouse, and live with that person faithfully until death parts us, we meant what we said. But many have walked away from those vows, and broken them completely.
When a candidate for the Office of Holy Ministry stands before God and His people, he takes a vow to conform all of His teaching and preaching to that Holy Scripture, to that Lutheran Confession, so that he will remain faithful to these standards of God throughout the entire course of his ministry. And yet, sadly, many walk away from those sacred vows as well, and teach as they will.
When sinful human beings make such vows, it is a sad reality that many have broken them in one way or another.
In this particular text we find vows taken again, by no one less than the chief of the apostles, St. Peter himself. He twice indicates that he will never, under any circumstance, even death, fall away and deny the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, it is a promise we find will be broken that very night. It is a vow that will be shattered before the dawn of that day.
And so as we begin our Golgotha journey this year, this Lenten season must begin by remembering that Christ voluntarily lays down His life for us, so that He will heal the wounds of our many broken promises, by keeping the promises that He makes with His life, His suffering, and with His death and resurrection.
How often, and easily, dear friends, do we forget out vows. But please notice when they are made, they are sincerely intended, for as you read the text that serves as our basis for meditation this morning that there was no indication of any kind that Peter was in the least insincere. In fact, he really, honestly meant what he said. He would suffer even death rather than deny Christ. Twice he contradicts the Lord. He said, After I have risen I will go ahead of you into Galilee. And Peter replied, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.” “I tell you the truth”, Jesus answered. “This very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.”. But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you!” And it says of course, And all the other disciples said the same.
Perhaps Peter forgets with whom he is speaking. This is God in human flesh! God cannot say that something will happen and then it might not. For anything He says, will come to pass. But that does not prevent Peter from denying it. And from contradicting God face to face.
And then please notice that he rashly compares himself with the other disciples and apostles that are there, and says, “Even of all of these fall away, I won’t!” And so he declares his commitment, and his vow, to be superior to all the others. I would suggest that often times we make promises before God that we fully intend to keep, but we don’t. Perhaps we have fallen again into that pet sin which seems to be the cancer of our lives, that we can’t seem to shake off, and again and again we revisit it despite promises after promises that we will dispense with that behavior, and promises to God that we will walk the other way. And yet, where do we find ourselves yet again? But right back at it.
When we vow to the Lord that indeed we would be regular in worship and scripture study, and then we find that we have indicated that we have walked away from it, and considered it to be not particularly important, and kind of on the outside boundaries of those things in life that we consider critical. And despite our promises that we would come and listen to the Lord, we find other things far more important.
And then, sometimes we just say, “You know, Lord, I just want to be a better Christian. And so I’m going to try real hard to do just that!” And so we try, but we are sinful human beings, and we constantly disappoint, and betray, and break our promises and vows, and we end up right back in our old habits once again.
And sometimes, like Peter, we mistakenly think ourselves better than others. That our level of commitment is just a tad bit higher than other people who surround us. After all, you can always find somebody who seems to be less of a job of being a good Christian than us!
So, we find that Peter, in his claim to that kind of superiority was badly wrong. From Matthew the 26th chapter. At that time, Jesus said to the crowd who had come to arrest him, “Am I leading a rebellion that you come out with swords and clubs to capture me? Every day, I sat in the temple courts teaching and you did not arrest me. But this has taken place that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.
And if that weren’t enough, of course, there were the declarations of distance that Peter makes three times before witnesses as Jesus stands trial close by. I don’t know the man!
Well, I would like to suggest that the world would be a very noisy place indeed if God had appointed us roosters to crow at every sin, which is a betrayal of the will of God, which we make in our own lives. Could you imagine the cacophony of poultry making thunderous noise for us all constantly. There would never be peace and quiet.
Therefore, let us give thanks to God that He is the one who keeps His vow toward us, even when we break our vow to Him.
Christ’s purpose in giving Peter and the other apostles this warning wasn’t merely to lay some kind of guilt trip on them. It wasn’t some act of sadism to let them know they were going to mess up, and that’s the way it is. But rather, He was setting them up, and especially Peter. He was setting them up so that they would be ready, to prepare them for repentance and for restoration. The purpose of the warning was not to condemn, but to remind them who He is. And what He has come to do.
Yes, it was a warning, sure enough. A warning which the Lord understood that, that despite every denial that came to His ears, would indeed, and had to come to pass. Instead, Christ’s prediction of this certain desertion was to prepare to help to raise Peter, after his fall. God specifically causes a selected rooster, of all creatures, to bring to mind those very words He had spoken to Peter that night. Now, it may seem strange, I suppose, that God would pick on some poor chicken to do the job, but those of us who have been around farms enough will understand that often roosters serve as a sort of natural alarm clock in the morning to wake up the sleeping. To get the job done, that lies before the farmer.
Well, sure enough, that rooster served as a wake-up call for Peter. Listen to the words of Matthew. Then he began to call down curses upon himself, and he swore to them, I don’t know the man! Immediately a rooster crowed. Then Peter remembered the words Jesus had spoken. “Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.
That rooster was a gift. That crowing was a wake-up call. That crowing brought him back to repentance, and to restoration. What kind of spiritual alarm clocks has God appointed for us when we sin? And thereby desert our God?
Certainly God permits the consequences of our sins in this life to play themselves out for such purposes. The man or woman who was adulterous, finds indeed that sexually transmitted diseases, or destroyed families, or lost employment, all come at a great price. But they serve as a sort of alarm clock to the individual to call that person to repentance and to forgiveness.
And then, let it be know, that the one who abandons the means of grace, or who thinks lightly of them, and wrongly so, finally ends up in such a state of spiritual starvation that, by God’s grace, sometimes that condition of that man or woman finally finds itself in such circumstances that they know there is something absolutely, desperately lacking in their lives, and then are driven by that realization back to God’s precious means of grace, to word and to sacrament, and are restored.
And perhaps, there is the embezzler of his employers funds, who ends up in jail, serving his time, and there, because of the consequences of his sin, discovers that life must change, and God must be heard, and broken promises must be forgotten and forgiven, and life must move on with God.
This is the work of God’s law. It is painful. It is, at the same time, God’s strange way of loving us. In the same manner that parents discipline their child, we are brought back to the realization of what we are, and what we need. And what we need most of all is to know that our God, through Christ, forgives our sins, and restores us.
Yes, our Lord’s suffering and death was made in payment for every last one of our broken promises and our abject betrayals. Our Lord’s agony on the cross is the only available payment for our desertions and our betrayals and our fleeing from His presence, and from His word and sacraments, and from His will. And in our lawlessness that is the only place we may go to find rest and forgiveness and peace with God.
The restoration which Christ brings also assures us that He will be with us now, and He will be with us forever. It’s very subtle, but did you notice in the text the promise that God makes to Peter? In the midst of His warnings? Listen carefully. But after I have risen I will go ahead of you into Galilee. He’s letting the disciples know that even though they will fall away on account of Him, that He will be with them, and that it is not over between Him and them. But rather, there is a future with God. That word is tells us that Jesus is telling them His own promise. I will be with you despite your sin, despite your betrayal, despite your broken vows.
His promise is not just for them, but for us all. For every Christian everywhere. Even in the very midst of our sins, in the very midst of our desertions, in the midst of our betrayals, it’s not over between us and the Lord, thank God! But rather, He continues to be faithful to us. He is the one who keeps His vows. Here is the promise in which we fervently trust. We can trust that this promise of forgiveness and restoration, because we know the one who makes the promise! You see, every bit as much as we know that when we read this text, that God says what will happen in the denial of these men. Just as surely as we know that that will occur, so surely will we know beyond any shadow of a doubt that His promise that He will be with us even to the very end of the age, that He will forgive our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness, will most certainly also be true and come to pass.
And so, we know that we trust in the one who always keep His promises. And therefore our hope is in the promises of the vow-keeper, not the vow-breakers. Our hope then is in Christ, in whose name we conclude, Amen.
