Matthew 26 Devotional

Poured Out for Failing Friends

“This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”Matthew 26:28 (BSB)

Matthew 26 is full of people failing Jesus. Judas agrees to hand him over for thirty pieces of silver (26:15). Peter insists that even if everyone else falls away, he never will (26:33). In Gethsemane the disciples sleep while Jesus prays, and at his arrest they all desert him and run (26:40, 26:56). By the end of the night Peter has denied knowing him three times, and he goes outside in bitter tears (26:75).

At the Passover table Jesus takes a cup and tells them all to drink from it. It is his blood of the covenant, given for many so that sins can be forgiven (26:27-28). He offers it to the very men he knows will betray, deny, and abandon him that night (26:21, 26:31, 26:34). Peter's tears are not the end of his story, for Jesus has already promised to go ahead of them into Galilee after he is raised (26:32). Your failures are the very thing his blood was poured out to forgive.

To think about: What failure do you keep replaying, and how does Jesus' cup, given to friends he knew would fail him, speak to it?