Listen for God's word to you from John 13:18-30...
“I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen. But this is to fulfill this passage of Scripture: ‘He who shared my bread has turned against me.’
“I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am who I am. Very truly I tell you, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.”
After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, “Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.”
His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, “Ask him which one he means.”
Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, “Lord, who is it?”
Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.
So Jesus told him, “What you are about to do, do quickly.” But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the festival, or to give something to the poor. As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.
I would like to draw your attention to two things in the verses we have just read. First, Jesus knew who was going to betray him.
This fact highlights Jesus’ divine knowledge, but it also shows us Jesus’ deep love. Jesus knew who was going to betray him, and yet he reached out to Judas repeatedly in love and compassion.
To understand what is going on in this story we must comprehend something about the seating arrangements at this meal. Jesus and his disciples were not sitting at a table as we would. The table itself was a low, solid block. There would have been pillows around it; Jesus and his disciples would have reclined at the table, each leaning on his left elbow so that their right hand could be free to eat. Thus, each man’s head was literally on the chest of the person to his left. Jesus, as the host, would have been at the center of the table. Thus, John’s portrayal of the las supper reveals “the disciple whom Jesus loved” seated on Jesus’ right hand, for his head is on Jesus’ breast.
Who was the disciple whom Jesus loved? When we read to the end of the Gospel, we discover it is John, the author of the Gospel. Tom Wright describes him this way…
The picture we get is of a young lad, perhaps the youngest of them all. If he was indeed John the son of Zebedee, he may have been a cousin of Jesus on his mother’s side. He may not yet have been twenty. He had looked up to Jesus all his life, had followed him with joy and devotion (if not always, yet, with total understanding). Jesus had, as we say, a special affection for him, a soft spot. The others didn’t resent it, perhaps because he was, after all, only a lad. They didn’t find him a threat.
So close was their relationship that he was able to ask Jesus the question the others all wanted put.
Peter was the one who asked John, the beloved disciple, to put the question to Jesus. This suggests that Peter was seated to the right of John, close enough to whisper his question.
The place of Judas is also one of special interest. It seems apparent from John’s portrayal of the scene that Jesus was close enough to Judas to speak to him without the others overhearing. If that is correct, then there is only one place where Judas could have been sitting. Since John occupied the place on Jesus’ right, that means that Judas must have sat immediately to Jesus’ left and Jesus’ head would have been on Judas’ breast.
The place to the left of the host was the place of highest honor, reserved for the most intimate of friends. Before the meal started, Jesus may have said to Judas, “Come, sit beside me tonight so that we can talk.” If these surmises are correct, then I think we can also say that Jesus was appealing to Judas to be true to their friendship. Jesus was appealing to Judas in love.
And there is more. For a host to offer a guest a special bit of food from the meal was also a sign of close friendship. Thus, when Jesus offered the bread to Judas, he was showing Judas how much he loved him. We should notice that none of the other disciples were surprised. Jesus must have been in the habit of demonstrating a special love for Judas.
Thus, we see in this passage, Jesus showing his love to Judas repeatedly, even though he knew Judas was going to betray him. Similarly, Jesus never fails to show his love to us, even though he knows how often we fail him.
A second thing we need to notice in this story is that the disciples did not know who was going to betray Jesus.
If the disciples had known who was going to betray Jesus, or if it had been obvious to them what a stinker Judas was, then they would not have needed to ask, “Lord, who is it?”
It is only because we are so familiar with the story that Judas is the obvious villain to us. But it was not obvious at all to the disciples.
I think there is a warning in this for all of us. We need to take care that we do not label other people as Judases, for the fact of the matter is: we don’t know.
Often, we think we know who the Judases are in our contemporary world, but I wonder how often we are wrong. It’s a mistake to label people don’t you think? Jesus who did know who was going to betray him, loved Judas anyway. What does that suggest our attitude should be toward the supposed Judases of our lives?
When I have preached on this passage in the past, I have titled the sermon, “The Power of Darkness”. And it is true, there is a lot of darkness in this story. But the good news is that Jesus’ light always overcomes the darkness. Paul puts it this way, “But where sin increased, grace increased all the more.” (Romans 5:20)
But you may say, “Judas was a lost soul in the end. If he had repented like Peter he may have been forgiven, but he ended his life instead.”
My answer to that is, “Yes, but do we know that is the end of the story?”
We confess in The Apostles’ Creed that Jesus, between his death on the cross for our sins and his resurrection, “descended into hell”. That part of the creed is based upon 1 Peter 3:19 where we read that Jesus “went and preached to the spirits in prison”. And 1 Peter 4:6 says,
For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to men in regard to the body but live according to God in regard to the spirit.
I believe that Jesus descended into Judas’ hell: he descends into each of our hells. Furthermore, the same Jesus who descended into hell is the one who said, “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” (John 12:32) To my mind, that includes Judas, if he would accept Jesus’ offer of forgiveness. Some day we shall find out if he did.
The bottom line is this… right now, the darkness may seem very powerful indeed. But one day the Light will swallow the darkness…
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