Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Matthew 26:31

"Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended in me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad." — Matthew 26:31 (ASV)

“This very night” makes clear how soon the disciples’ defection and Peter’s denial will happen. The intimacy of the Last Supper is shortly to be replaced by disloyalty and cowardice. The disciples will find Jesus an obstacle to devotion and will forsake him. As the quotation from Zechariah makes clear, their falling away is related to the “striking” of the Shepherd. Jesus has repeatedly predicted his death and resurrection, but his disciples are still unable to grasp how such things could happen to the Messiah to whom they have been looking (16:21–23; 17:22–23).

Yet Jesus’ words “for it is written” show that the disciples’ defection, though tragic and irresponsible, does not fall outside God’s sovereign plan. Zechariah 13:1–6 pictures a day when, owing to the prevailing apostasy, the Shepherd who is close to the Lord is cut down and the sheep scattered. In 13:8–9 most of the sheep perish; but one-third are left, after being refined, to become “my people”—those who will say, “The Lord is our God.” If Jesus’ quotation of Zechariah in the Gospels presupposes the full context of 13:7, then the disciples themselves join Israel, the sheep of God, in being scattered as the result of the “striking” of the Shepherd. Their falling away “this very night” continues to the Cross and beyond. But a purified remnant, a “third,” will survive the refining and make up the people of God, “my people.”