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‘And they began to be sorrowful, and to say unto Him one by one, Is it I? and another said, Is it I?’
Mar_14:19
I. Self-recognition of the possibility of sin.
(a) This self-recognition is better than self-confidence. Had St. Peter been uniformly possessed with this spirit; had he humbly recognised the possibility of denial rather than boldly say out, ‘Though all men should deny Thee, yet will not I,’ would not this very fear have been a preservative?
(b) This self-recognition may be roused in various ways. Here it was by our Lord’s express challenge. ‘One of you shall betray Me.’ Such a challenge, thrown out under any circumstances without a hint of the quarter whence the traitor should arise, would naturally produce self-questioning. Sometimes it may be on reading, hearing, or seeing another’s sin. In the humble mind the inquiry may be well started, ‘Am I not capable of this very fault I am compelled to witness and condemn in others?’ Will not this tinge all our judgments on others with mercy? Perhaps the question may arise when we are ourselves overtaken in a fault. Is this I? Then we feel that deep down in our nature there is the possibility of even worse.
II. The recognition of Christ’s knowledge of the human heart. ‘Is it I?’ It is the same admission as St. Peter’s, ‘Thou knowest all things.’
(a) The Saviour knows our characters. How very diverse were those of these few disciples, all dipping in the same Passover dish of charosheth, and partaking of it with the bitter herbs! But all were known to Him. ‘I know My sheep.’
(b) The Saviour knows our capabilities, the good and bad possibilities within us. Was Judas chosen as a disciple and ordained to be with Him as an apostle other than for the growth and development of the good in him, that he might be really Judas, i.e. ‘the praise of God’?
(c) The Saviour knows our future. The knowledge of His Cross, the minute predictions with reference to this very Passover preparation, are all so many proofs of His intimate knowledge of futurity. He told St. Peter what he should do; He now reveals to Judas what deed he was about to commit; and when the foul traitor saw that he was discovered, the devil entered into him.