Good Friday 2026

Description

In this Good Friday message from Luke 22, Dr. Kurt Bjorklund traces Peter's journey from hubris to denial to regret to grace — and shows how we follow the same path. If you've ever felt distant from God, this message will move you toward the restoration and recommission that only the cross can offer.

Message Summary

Most of us come to Good Friday with a general sense of its weight. We know the theology. We know the story. But Kurt, preaching from Luke 22, offered a different invitation this year — not just to observe the events of the cross from a distance, but to step into the story through the experience of one of its most complicated characters: Peter.

Peter's journey in the hours surrounding the crucifixion moves through four distinct stages. And if we're honest, it's a journey most of us know well.

Stage 1: Hubris — "I'll Never Deny You"

The story begins with a bold declaration. When Jesus tells his disciples that they will all fall away, Peter pushes back with complete confidence. In Matthew 26:33–35, he insists, "Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will... Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you."

Kurt named this for what it was: hubris. Not just confidence, but an unawareness of his own capacity to fail. And he turned the mirror on us: "I wonder how many of us come here this evening with a little bit of hubris, saying, I follow Christ, I'll always follow Christ, I'd never disown Christ. And as a result, our experience of Jesus and of the cross remains somewhat shallow."

The danger of the "saint" side of our identity, Kurt noted, is that it can quietly blind us to our need. Martin Luther's famous insight — that believers are simultaneously sinners and saints — cuts against any version of faith that assumes we are beyond the reach of failure. Peter was personally discipled by Jesus. He had witnessed miracles firsthand. And still, he fell.

Stage 2: Denial — "I Don't Know What You're Talking About"

Peter doesn't deny Jesus all at once. Kurt drew attention to a subtle but important detail in the Greek text: the word Jesus uses when predicting Peter's betrayal ("you will disown me," Luke 22:34) is more severe than the word used to describe what Peter actually does in the moment of denial. There is a progression — from a small, quiet distancing, to a firmer denial, to a final emphatic disowning.

"There's almost a progression from a small denial to a more significant denial to a disowning kind of denial," Kurt observed.

He also noted that Peter's physical movements tell the story: first he follows Jesus, then he follows at a distance, then he sits among those warming themselves by the fire of the people who had arrested Jesus. It mirrors Psalm 1 — walk, stand, sit — a quiet drift toward the wrong crowd.

And the application is closer to home than most of us would like to admit. "There are other ways that you can deny Jesus Christ. You can do it with a simple choice to be quiet when the values of Jesus Christ are being spoken about. You can just simply say, I'm going to follow at a distance." Our denials rarely happen in dramatic moments. They happen in small, everyday choices.

Stage 3: Regret — "He Looked at Him"

After the third denial, the rooster crows. And Luke records one of the most quietly devastating moments in all of scripture: Jesus turns and looks at Peter. No words. Just a look.

"What it doesn't tell us is, was it a look of disgust? Was it a look of compassion? We don't actually know. All we know is that he looked at him, he locked eyes more or less with him. He saw him."

And Peter wept bitterly.

Kurt asked the room a pointed question: "When was the last time that you wept about denying Jesus in some way in your life?" Not out of guilt or shame for its own sake, but because being truly seen by God — known to the core — is what breaks us open to grace. Like a child caught in wrongdoing who will do anything not to meet a parent's eyes, many of us have found subtle ways to avoid that kind of honest reckoning. We redefine standards. We avoid examination. We stay in the shallow end.

The regret Peter experienced wasn't the end. But it was necessary.

Stage 4: Grace — "And Peter"

After the resurrection, when Jesus instructs the women at the tomb to go and tell the disciples, Mark 16:7 records a striking detail: "and Peter." Of all the people Jesus could have singled out, he chose the one who had most publicly failed him.

And when Jesus later meets the disciples on the shore of the lake, he has built a charcoal fire — the same word used to describe the fire Peter stood beside when he denied Jesus. "I want you to smell what it was like when you denied me," Kurt suggested, "so that you know that when I restore you and give you grace and recommission you, that you have come full circle."

This is the heart of the message. Quoting Luke 7, Kurt reminded us that the person who is forgiven much, loves much. The reason passion for God grows cold in many hearts is that we stop seeing ourselves in Peter's story — we forget how much we've actually been forgiven. But when grace lands on someone who knows their own failure, it doesn't just produce relief. It produces worship, love, and a new sense of commission.

"This isn't just forgiveness. This is a recommission."

Questions for Reflection

1. Which stage of Peter's journey do you most identify with right now — hubris, denial, regret, or grace — and what might God be inviting you toward from where you are?

2. In what everyday areas of your life are you most tempted to "follow at a distance" — staying close enough to feel connected to Jesus, but far enough to avoid the cost of full commitment?

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  Introduction

  Good evening. It is Good Friday, which is one of those days in the church year that comes. And, you know, it's significant, and it's significant because of the deep theology. And yet it's possible to read the text, to hear the music, to think about it, and to just kind of say, yeah, okay, I get it. It's a big day.

  And what I'd like to do this evening, for a few moments, is take you back, hopefully through a little bit of film and scripture, to Luke 22, where Peter has his story told about how he interacts with these final moments before the cross. And my hope is that rather than just seeing the events of Jesus' life or just seeing the theology, that we'll be able to place ourselves maybe in the story for a moment, not because we're trying to replace Peter's experience, but because there's some similarities. And Peter's story is told in the synoptic gospels — Matthew, Mark, Luke. All three of those tell many of the same events from different perspectives. And this is one of those events that is told in all three of the Gospels.

  Scene 1: Hubris

  And the first scene that you just saw, I'm going to say, is a scene of hubris. And the reason that I use that word is because here he is saying, listen, I know you're saying that everyone will deny you, Jesus, but I never will. Now, that may not seem like it's that big of a story or that big of a statement, but what he was doing in that moment was he was in essence saying, I have it together. God, Jesus, I will never disown you. In fact, in Matthew's account — in Matthew chapter 26 — we see that he's even more emphatic the way that he reports it.

  Peter replied in verse 33, "Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will." Then in verse 35, it says this: "But Peter declared, 'Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.'" Now, on the one hand, he had good reason to have confidence. He had seen Jesus doing miracles. He had been personally discipled by Jesus. I mean, this is a reason to have some confidence. But on the other hand, there was an audacity and a hubris and an unawareness of his own capacity to fall away.

  And I wonder how many of us come here this evening with a little bit of hubris, saying, I follow Christ, I'll always follow Christ, I'd never disown Christ. And as a result, our experience of Jesus and of the cross remains somewhat shallow because we're constantly thinking that we've done enough, that we're above other people who fall away and we won't be those people.

  Now, certainly, when we think about Peter and the theology of this, it's possible that we could end up overemphasizing either our sinner side of the equation or our saint side of the equation. And here's what I mean. There's a sense in which we're simultaneously sinners and saints. Martin Luther said that once years ago. And the idea is we are sinful people and we remain sinful no matter how much God works in us. And yet we're declared saints. And when I say we can emphasize one or the other too much, what I mean is we can get so into being sinners that we say, I'm just a sinner and I just make mistakes, I'll never have victory over sin, I'll always be this person. Or we can get so into the saint side of it where we say, I've got it together. And here's what was true for Peter in the moments leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ: there was a hubris that said, I've got it together. And it was part of his experience.

  Scene 2: Denial

  But let's see what the next scene is.

  So Jesus had told Peter that he would deny him three times. He says, no, I'll never deny you. And now, just a few moments later, he's confronted with the moment. We're told that there was a young person who was serving as part of the contingent there who said, weren't you one of them? He's like, no, I don't know what you're talking about. Then somebody else said, I know you were with him. He said, no, I don't know what you're talking about. And then a third time somebody said, weren't you with him? And again, he said, I don't know what you're talking about.

  And the way that this plays out in Luke chapter 22 — where Jesus is talking to him — you get this simple statement about how Peter followed at a distance. So it starts with him just simply saying, I'm going to follow. And probably he was just wanting to see what was happening. That may not have been an indictment of Peter in any way, but it's also possible that he started to have a little bit of fear in this moment. And then he was sitting with the people. So he was sitting in such a way that as he sat there, he was part of the equation. And that's when this all came to be.

  And when we read about Jesus saying that you'll disown me, there's actually two different words that are used in the text for disowning. In Luke chapter 22, we see this. In verse 34, it says, "I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny me — deny that you know me — three times." And then in Luke chapter 12, verse 9, we see this phrase again: "But whoever disowns me before others will be disowned before the angels of God." And then in Luke 9, verse 23, we see it this way: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow me."

  Now you may say, okay, deny, disown — what's the difference? Aren't these just kind of synonyms for one another? Why are you pointing this out? Well, in the Luke 22 text where we read about Peter's denial, what we actually see is that Jesus says, "You're going to disown me." It was a more severe word. And then when Peter denies, it's a simpler word — a less offensive word. And in the other uses of those words, what's happening, I think, is that Peter is basically not going all the way into this emphatic refusal until the very end, where he states emphatically that he didn't know him. And so there's almost a progression from a small denial to a more significant denial to a disowning kind of denial.

  And here's why this is significant. You and I may say, you know what, I don't know that I would ever — kind of the hubris of Peter — deny Jesus. But we probably won't have to watch him be crucified. Our lives may not be at stake for saying something about Jesus Christ or acknowledging him as Savior. But there are other ways that you can deny Jesus Christ. You can do it with a simple choice to be quiet when the values of Jesus Christ are being spoken about, when his name is being mentioned. You can do it by saying in a much more simple way that you are going to not be in alignment with somebody else who articulates what Jesus is about. You can just simply say, I'm going to follow at a distance. Or you can sit with those who are opposed.

  Psalm 1 says, "Blessed is the person who doesn't sit with the scoffers, who doesn't walk with the ungodly." And the way that plays is: walk, stand, sit. It's a progression from you're just kind of doing your life, to you're standing, you're loitering, you're sitting, you're comfortable with them. And again, the idea is it starts in one place and it moves to another.

  Now, certainly, Peter probably had legitimate fear, but he probably also had imagined fear. And I don't know where you're tempted to deny Jesus Christ, but in Luke 9, we're told that if we don't deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow him, that we aren't really his disciples. And what that means is that it's possible that you may not deny Jesus as Lord and Savior, you may not deny him publicly, but in dozens of weekly, daily choices to simply say you're not going to be lord of me in this area of my life, that you can deny Jesus Christ. And that was part of Peter's experience.

  Scene 3: Regret

  But now let's see what happens next.

  Right. Now, that was just two verses. And all you have here is: after the denial, Jesus looks at Peter. And that's all the text says. What it doesn't tell us is, was it a look of disgust? Was it a look of compassion? We don't actually know. All we know is that the look was — he looked at him, he locked eyes more or less with him. He saw him. And it was enough that it led Peter to go out and weep bitterly. And the reason he went out is because all of a sudden he heard the voice of Jesus say, "You're going to deny me three times." He could replay those little tapes and say, I did. And so he goes out and he weeps.

  So let me ask you a question. When was the last time that you wept about denying Jesus in some way in your life? Or that you felt something so deeply — maybe you didn't physically weep, but you felt that? Now, again, I realize some of you may say, well, hey, I'm a forgiven sinner, and I don't have to weep about my sins because Jesus paid for it. I get that. But when's the last time?

  Because notice, Peter here was not somebody who was just coming to Jesus. He had already come. And yet here he was in this moment where he says, I let Jesus down. And when Jesus looked at him, here's what I think probably was happening, and why this is such a striking moment. He looked at him, and I think Peter felt seen and known to his core.

  Any of you have been around little kids when they misbehave? Do you know what little kids don't want to do when they misbehave? They don't want to look at you, right? I mean, have you ever noticed this? They're like, look at me — and they're like, I don't know what you're talking about. Punish me if you want to, don't make me look at you, because I don't want you to see me. Sometimes when they're really little, they'll even try to hide their face — like, if you don't see me, you can't possibly know what just happened.

  And you see, some of us probably haven't had the experience of feeling looked at or seen by God in a while, because we have either just denied that we have any regret, we haven't examined ourselves. Maybe we've redefined all of God's standards around any area of our lives where we feel like we could be off in any way. In fact, you could even say, just to suggest that I have a regret is kind of off-putting to me, because it means that you're saying I'm not really in tune with Jesus. But what I want you to see in this is that this account — poor Peter — who had seen the miracles, been part of an incredible experience with God, discipled by Jesus personally, went from hubris to regret in a matter of moments because he was aware of how he had let Jesus down.

  One of the activities that I do — not all the time, but frequently — is I'll try to reflect at the end of a day two moments. I'll try to just recall and say, God, today, where was I most like Jesus Christ in my attitudes, my actions, my demeanor? And where was I least like Jesus Christ? And it's a simple activity, but what it does for me is it helps me to often recount some spaces that I ran right past in the moment. And I didn't think about how I was not reflecting the character of Jesus Christ, how I had my own agenda that trumped the agenda of Jesus in that moment, how I all of a sudden said I care more about me than I do about Jesus. And whenever I become aware of that, it's like there's a moment of just saying, God, I know that I have missed what Jesus has done and called me to do, because I've chosen my own path. And for Peter, this was part of his path.

  Now, before we see the last scene, we're going to hear a song that helps us relate to this moment.

  Scene 4: Restoration and Grace

  Now, I want to just point out a few things. That was actually the end of the Gospel of John — that's why he kept saying "the disciple whom Jesus loved." John was referring to himself. But I want you just to see a couple things, because Peter had this hubris at first — I'll never disown you. Then he, through fear, denies Jesus. Then he has regret. Now we have moved past the resurrection.

  So now we just need a moment for the theology. Jesus dies, the Lamb of God, to take away the sin of the world. He's raised to new life to validate that he has overcome death and sin and has victory over all. And here he is giving a little fishing lesson to his disciples.

  Now, as I said, there's a lot in that text. We could talk about how it was the wrong part of the lake at the wrong time of the year, the wrong kind of fish to be caught — all of this was part of the story. But I want you to just see a couple things.

  One: when Jesus was making that fire on the shore, the word that's used there for "he made a fire" — he was burning — it was charcoal. And it was the same word that was used for where Peter was warming himself by the fire when he was denying Jesus. You know how sometimes smells can trigger a memory or an idea of something? Well, what happened, I think, is Jesus, in a way, by preparing it this way, was saying, I want you to smell what it was like when you denied me, so that you know that when I restore you and give you grace and recommission you, you have come full circle.

  I mentioned that this is told — not this exact account, but — in multiple Gospels. In Mark, chapter 16, verse 7, when Jesus is first raised from the dead and he says, "Go tell my disciples" — do you know what he includes in that moment? It says in that verse, "and Peter." I mean, think about this. Peter had just denied Jesus at the biggest moment. And Jesus says, "Go tell my disciples" — and he singles out Peter, and he says, "I want you to tell Peter." And then when he makes this breakfast, he makes it with the same kind of charcoal that Peter had been around when he denied him, as if to say, I am recommissioning you. I am doing something for you. This isn't just forgiveness. This is a recommission.

  And here's the reality for you and me: when we understand the grace of God, it means that our heart can expand to love God fully. In Luke 7, Jesus has an encounter with a woman — a woman of the town. It was a slang term basically for her not being a woman of upstanding character. And after his interchange with some of the religious leaders, Jesus, at one point — when she undoes her hair and begins to wipe his feet with her hair — he says, "The person who's forgiven much loves much."

  Do you know why sometimes love and passion for God can grow cold in some of our hearts? Because we don't see ourselves in this story anymore. We start to think that we haven't denied Christ, or it's been a long time since we've seen it.

  And here's the truth. We can go through all four of these encounters in a few minutes: hubris — I've got it; denial and fear; regret; and then the experience of grace. And when you experience the grace of Jesus Christ, what it does is it brings you to worship and to love and to a new commission from him.

  Conclusion

  And here's my hope today. Good Friday is a time to reflect on the depth of our sin. That's what Lent has been about — to reflect on our sin and our need for a savior. But now, as we move toward Easter, you would say, but it doesn't end here. Jesus rose, and he says, "Go and tell my disciples, and Peter" — any of us to come. And that is where our hope is.

  God, as we're gathered here today, I ask that you would help each one of us to not just read this text and see this story, but we would be able to feel — if we're kind of stuck in hubris or fear, regret — and God, you would move us to grace and to worship. God, we pray that wherever we're coming from, that we wouldn't just kind of go through a Good Friday with some religious observance and some nice thoughts. But that we would feel the impact of who you are. And we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.

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  This transcript was generated by automated transcription software and subsequently reviewed and formatted with the assistance of an AI language model (Claude, by Anthropic). Light edits were made to punctuation, paragraph breaks, and sentence structure for readability. The content and wording of the sermon have been preserved as faithfully as possible. No theological content was altered or added.