The Flock Shall Be Scattered

We often speak about Peter’s denial and his faltering of resolve during the trial of the Savior.  Whatever might be said of that experience, I think we sometimes miss the fact that actually all of the apostles faltered and in some regard forsook their Master that night, if only temporarily.  After partaking of the Passover meal together and before going to Gethsemane, the Savior told his eleven apostles—apparently quoting from Zechariah 13:7—“All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad” (Matt. 26:31).  Here the sheep were the apostles, and when their Shepherd was in trouble they would fail to sustain and stand by Him. 

We see I think how these “sheep” forsook their shepherd in a handful of the details that the gospel accounts give us regarding the experience at Gethsemane.  When the apostles arrived at Gethsemane, despite all of their previous experiences, the weight of that evening pressed so heavily upon them that they started to doubt.  The JST tells us, “And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane, which was a garden; and the disciples began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy, and to complain in their hearts, wondering if this be the Messiah” (JST Mark 14:36).  How dark that night must have been for them to so easily forget all of their powerful experiences with the Master for the previous three years!  The next verses tell us that Jesus “rebuked” Peter, James, and John and told them to “tarry” and “watch” while He continued on to be alone in the garden.  Despite this counsel, when Jesus was suffering so immensely and came back He found the three chief apostles to be sleeping: “What, could ye not watch with me one hour?” (Matt. 26:40)  After the suffering and the arrival of Judas to capture Jesus, Matthew gives us this chilling detail: “Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled” (Matt. 26:56).  But it appears the Peter did not—in fact He seems to have been the only one (with the possible exception of the “other disciple” mentioned in John 18:15-16) that tried to stay with Jesus.  We read that as “they led Jesus away to the high priest… Peter followed him afar off, even into the palace of the high priest” (Mark 14:53-54).  So while the other disciples it appears left the scene completely, Peter followed, presumably hoping to be able to see what was happening and to help the Master.  Of course it was shortly thereafter that He denied knowing the Savior, and under what motivations he did that we can only speculate.  But even if it was a failing of faith in that moment that caused his denial (and it may not have been as President Kimball has suggested), I think he doesn’t get enough credit for sticking close by the Savior when all others had fled.  At any rate, it surely was a difficult, confusing, and terrible night for all the disciples as they tried to figure out what to do as their Lord was taken from them.    

In writing this I certainly don’t intend to criticize any of these first apostles.  Whatever shortcomings they may have had as they were still developing their faith, they certainly made up for it in the way that they subsequently sacrificed their whole lives—most of them literally as martyrs—as they took the gospel to all the world.  Perhaps the lesson for us is that if these faithful men could succumb to the pressures of the crisis and temporarily forget the marvelous spiritual experiences they had had, how much more need have we who are the rank and file of the kingdom to be vigilant and hold fast to our testimonies as our own dark nights of trial come upon us.