The Final Evening: The Passion narrative is the account of the suffering and death of Jesus. It normally includes all the events beginning with the garden scene in Gethsemane and finishing with the burial. The centrality of the cross in early Christian preaching is reflected in the major emphasis given to it in each of the four Gospels. Matthew 26 records the events of Wednesday and Thursday of the final week of Jesus’ life.

26:69–75 Earlier in the chapter, we learned that Peter followed (although at a distance) the mob that arrested Jesus and sat down with the guards in the courtyard to see how it would all turn out (v. 58). The houses of the well-to-do in first-century Palestine were built around open courtyards. Mark’s reference to Peter being “below” in the courtyard (Mark 14:66) indica…