Mark 14:29 Commentary and Bible Study

It is an amazing statement, and it gives us insight into the folly of self-confidence, the foolishness of self-confidence and self-reliance. Here is Peter, you might say, at that time, seemingly the foremost disciple, and these words are astonishing come from him: ‘Although everyone else should be offended, yet will not I.’ But in due course, very soon, all the disciples will be joining him in this kind of claim and affirmation – ‘Yet will not I.’ To begin with, this is serious. He is flatly contradicting the Lord. He is a follower of the Lord. He believes him to be the Messiah. He is God as well as man. He has been startled at the number of times Christ has demonstrated that he knows all things. His word has come to pass. He is infallible. ‘All of you will be offended at me and lose your faithfulness and dishonour me and run from me, this very night.’ ‘No Lord, you are wrong Lord.’ It has happened with Peter before, and he has been reproved, but now head-on he clashes with the Lord and he contradicts him. And why does he contradicts him? Because the Lord has said something about his falling and failing. ‘I can't accept this’, says Peter. ‘Whoever else falls, yet not I.’ It may be over-confident. It may be a blind statement, but in his deep affection and love for the Lord, you can almost hear this coming out without thought – ‘I will not offend you.’ But, no, Peter says something much worse than that. He says, ‘Though everybody else does, I will not.’ Almost as though he is saying, ‘Oh, yes, Matthew might. He, after all, was a tax gatherer, he sold out to the Romans before now. I can imagine him buckling, and I can imagine all the others also. They all might, but I will not.’