SERMON: “Meeting Betrayal with Love: The Last Supper Together” (John 13:18–30)
“Meeting Betrayal with Love:
The Last Supper Together”
(John 13:18–30)
Series: “John:
Life in Christ’s Name” Text:
John
13:18–30
By: Shaun
Marksbury Date:
March
24, 2024
Venue: Living
Water Baptist Church Occasion:
AM Service
I.
Introduction
One
of the most fascinating studies in history is that of traitors, for we love to
hate them. For every Ceasar who arises,
there seems to be a Brutus or two, ready with a knife. In the history of America, for instance, one
name is synonymous with treachery. As
one commentary explains, the
There
are many such collaborators, sell-outs, and turn-coats for history students to
rightly boo and hiss. Sometimes the
plans of traitors succeed, and sometimes they fail. Of course, for some of us, dealing with
treachery is hardly just a matter of history — it’s a present
reality. Life-long friends or family
members may metaphorically stab us in the back for seemingly insignificant
reasons. As Christians, we often
struggle with how to deal with our own pain, loss, and betrayal, wondering how
to deal with such individuals in our lives.
Of
course, in this passage, we get a glimpse of how our Lord began to deal with
it. The most famous story of betrayal is
right before us, but Jesus deals with it differently than you or I would be
tempted to do. He meets betrayal with
love, showing us a different way of handling these kinds of situations in our
own lives. In this passage, we see Jesus
lovingly predict His betrayal, lovingly confronts His betrayer, and lovingly allow
His betrayal. Let’s consider the first
of these challenging points.
II.
First, Jesus Lovingly Predicts His Betrayal (vv.
18–21)
“I do not speak of all of you. I know the
ones I have chosen; but it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who eats
My bread has lifted up his heel against Me.’ From now on I am telling you before it comes
to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives
whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.” When Jesus had said this, He became troubled
in spirit, and testified and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, that one of you
will betray Me.”
Jesus
never looses focus for why He is here and what He needs to do. Yet, He filters all His choices through
love. As we read back in v. 1, “Jesus…, having
loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” He served them by washing their feet,
indicating to them that they were all eternally cleansed by His word.
Yet,
there was Judas. Jesus already knew
betrayal was in his heart, not love (He said back in 6:70 that one of them —
who turned out to be Judas — was a devil).
Yet, Jesus doesn’t just expose Judas to the others, pointing and saying,
“Get him!” Rather, Jesus leaves the
question of betrayal open for a moment, allowing all to search their hearts and
know for themselves where they stand. In
other words, He offers all of them, even Judas again, a moment of grace.
Still,
this doesn’t mean Jesus chose Judas to call him to sin; in the words of James
1:13, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God
cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.” Judas always had the choice, but he was
“carried away and enticed by his own lust.
Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is
accomplished, it brings forth death” (James 1:14–15). His sin caused him to turn away from Christ
in the end, but Judas always had an opportunity to repent.
Jesus
allowed him to walk with Him and to share meals with Him. As such, our Lord quotes from Psalm 41:9. There, David laments his betrayal, possibly by
Ahithophel (2 Sam. 15:31). That moment
served as a type of Judas’s relationship with our Lord. As one commentary explains,
The
long-term sharing of bread in the Middle Eastern context was normally
interpreted as referring either to a family member or a permanent guest at the
table. … To lift up the heel, therefore, in a culture where displaying the
bottom of the foot has been regarded as a breach of honor, especially after one
had enjoyed acceptance at the meal, was the epitome of shaming the host and the
equivalent to being a traitorous scoundrel, after the manner of Ahithophel and
his betrayal of David.[2]
But,
nonetheless, Jesus continues to operate with love and care, not frustration or
anger. He tells them in v. 19 that He is
predicting these events ahead of time. A
false prophet gets prophecy wrong (Deut. 18:18–22), but they will see all His
predictions come true.
The
main reason He cites here for this prophecy is so that they may believe, “I
am.” The translators have added in the
word “He,” but in this case, that seems unwarranted. In context, this reflects the divine name of
Exodus 3:14, making this a divine claim.
Consider Isaiah 43:10, which says God is God because He rightly knows
the future (“ ‘You are My witnesses,’ declares the Lord, ‘And My servant whom I
have chosen, so that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He.”). Because Jesus proves He’s God through His
accurate prophetic insight, He lacks error in His choices, both of the traitor
as well as the rest of them with their inconsistencies.
That
brings us to the next verse. Jesus will
still commission them after this for His ministry. He chooses His apostles, those whom He would
send with His authorized message. They
write these gospels, for instance, under His authority. They will write the epistles according to His
word. Those who reject the writings of
the apostles reject the Christ who sent them.
Accepting them, though, not only accepts the Christ who sent them, but
also the Heavenly Father.
Still,
though Jesus is divine, He is also human.
As He ponders His death and His betrayal, we read in v. 21 that He
“became troubled in spirit.” In John
11:33, with the death of Lazarus, we read He “was troubled” or that He
“troubled Himself” being disturbed or agitated of heart. This also happened when He speaks about His
coming death (John 12:27). Now, again,
speaking of this betrayal, He is disturbed.
In context, He cared for Judas, even lowering Himself washing Judas’s
feet, but the Lord pains Himself as He thinks of how this friend will betray
Him. This is evidence of His true
humanity.
Now,
it is time for the disciples to be stirred of heart. They’re shocked to hear what’s troubling Him. Yet, that is the exact effect He wished to
spark, bringing us to the next point.
III.
Second, Jesus Lovingly Confronts His Betrayer
(vv. 22–26)
The disciples began looking at one
another, at a loss to know of which one He was speaking. There was reclining on Jesus’ bosom one of His
disciples, whom Jesus loved. So Simon
Peter gestured to him, and said to him, “Tell us who it is of whom He is
speaking.” He, leaning back thus on
Jesus’ bosom, said to Him, “Lord, who is it?” Jesus then answered, “That is the one for whom
I shall dip the morsel and give it to him.” So when He had dipped the morsel, He took and
gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.
John
paints another vivid scene, with flabbergasted disciples glancing back and
forth. Surprisingly, they didn’t suspect
Judas, a fact all four Gospels highlight.
The disciples instead, in a rare moment of introspection, question
themselves. In Matthew 26:22, we read, “Being
deeply grieved, they each one began to say to Him, “Surely not I, Lord?” Was Judas also looking around at this point
to throw suspicion off from himself? In
any event, they responded as though it was beyond comprehension that one of
their fellowship would betray Jesus.[3] It
is worth our note that such introspection can be good, that we should first
consider our own state before the Lord long before we ever consider the state
of others.
At
some point, though, they obviously become suspicious of others. Luke 22:21 says that “they began to discuss
among themselves which one of them it might be who was going to do this thing.” This might be why Peter felt the need to get
more information.
Before
we get to that, in v. 23, we read something that might strike our ears
oddly. We’ve noted before that, while we
sit around tables to eat, that was not always the custom of Jesus’s day. As one study notes,
The
usual arrangement was several couches arranged in a U formation around the
table. The participants would lie on
their left sides with their heads toward the table and their feet stretched out
away from it. They would support their
head on their left hand and eat from the table with their right. The host reclined between two other guests on
the chief table placed at the center of the U between its two arms. The place of honor was to his left and behind
him and the second place was to his right or in front of him. The person reclining there, the beloved
disciple, would have his head near the breast of the host.[4]
So,
there’s nothing suggestive here, as some with corrupted minds have
suggested. This is why, in the parable
of the rich man and Lazarus, our Lord describes “Abraham’s bosom” as a place of
honor (Luke 16:19–31). Of course, the
word “side,” a perfectly acceptable translation here, may help some people in
their reading.
The
Apostle John, of course, would have been the disciple beloved of our Lord. He was the youngest of the group, and
therefore, perhaps the dearest to the Lord.
In any case, John avoids naming himself in his Gospel, perhaps out of
humility, so he shades his self-references with his relationship with his
Savior (cf. John 19:26; 20:2; 21:7, 20).
Incidentally, it is also good for us to consider ourselves first in our
relationship with Jesus, that He loves us, a fact we shouldn’t take for
granted.
Peter
was not near the Lord at this moment, so he gestures for John to inquire about
the traitor. They do have two swords,
after all (Luke 22:38, 49–50).[5] So,
in v. 25, John asks, and considering their positioning (the NIV might give the
best rendering here) he asked while leaning back against Jesus
to look at Him.
We read Jesus answered him in the next
verse. We don’t read that Jesus answered
“them.” Given that the other disciples
continued to be unaware of Judas, we must conclude that Jesus only spoke loud
enough for John to hear. John, either
out of discretion or a stunned silence witnessing what follows, does not relay
this information to the group.
Why the presentation, then? This tradition would give Judas one more
opportunity to repent. Jesus has washed
this man’s feet, and now he offers him the honored piece of food. Judas could see the loving service for what
it is — a kindness calling him to turn from sin. This is how our Lord chose to confront Judas
— by getting to the heart.
And, it does seem that it stirs something
within Judas. It is at this point,
according to Matthew 26:25, that Judas finally asks if he is the betrayer. Neither he nor Jesus seem to be speaking
loudly enough for the others to hear.
Jesus simply says, “You have said it yourself.” Jesus doesn’t
yell, or rant, but rather answers with an economy of words which confront
Judas.
Judas
now knows Jesus knows. Of course, this
gives Judas yet one more moment to decide whether he will continue down this
path. That brings us to our last point.
IV.
Third, Jesus Lovingly Allows His Betrayal (vv.
27–30)
After the morsel, Satan then entered into
him. Therefore Jesus said to him, “What
you do, do quickly.” Now no one of those
reclining at the table knew for what purpose He had said this to him. For some were supposing, because Judas had the
money box, that Jesus was saying to him, “Buy the things we have need of for
the feast”; or else, that he should give something to the poor. So after receiving the morsel he went out
immediately; and it was night.
This
is one of the saddest moments in Scripture.
Some wonder if Judas was a puppet, being controlled by our Lord and then
by Satan. The devil had put this notion
into Judas’s mind (v. 2). However, Judas
had his moment of decision and obviously chose an evil intent. It was the fact that his heart turned so
firmly toward darkness that it was open to possession by Satan. As the Reformation Study Bible says
here, “Judas’s refusal to respond to Jesus’ appeal opened up his heart to the
control of Satan. He was still a responsible agent, but had surrendered to the
dominion of evil (cf. 8:34).”
This
was the signal for Jesus. Our Lord who
had delivered the demoniac and so many people oppressed by evil spirits could
perceive that He had just witnessed the possession of His friend. Further, since Jesus knew what was in the
heart of man (John 2:25), He knew that Judas had chosen finally to reject
Him. So, Jesus says, “What you do, do
quickly.”
Thus,
we have a picture of Jesus’s permissive judgement; as Romans 1 would say, He
gave Judas over to the desire of his heart which had invited possession (v.
24). This judgement also reflects
Revelation 22:11a, which says, “Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and
the one who is filthy, still be filthy.”
There comes a point when the Lord just allows someone embracing his sin
to remain filthy and unrighteous, on into an eternity of punishment.
There
was apparently a difference in volume in our Lord’s voice, though, for v. 28
implies that they had all heard Him say this.
Of course, no one knew the tense moment that had just transpired, that
their fellow disciple had just failed the valley of decision. Instead, as v. 29 says, they suspected Jesus
was sending His treasurer off for some purpose related to the feast — either to
get supplies or to honor the tradition of giving alms to the poor. How sad that they still had a sterling view
of Judas, a man who had just chosen to reject their Messiah and friend forever.
Judas,
of course, was likely now operating on pure adrenaline. Jesus knew of his treachery, and, for all he
knew, was about to tell Peter the hothead and the others. We read that he left immediately. Of course, that would have been one more
chance to stop, but he went out to prove he was never truly one of them.
John
adds an interesting note — “and it was night.”
Paul later confirms that this was night (1 Cor. 11:23). This is a picturesque description of Judas’s
soul. When the people arrest Jesus, He
will say they can only do so because the power of darkness is upon them (Luke
22:53), and that is certainly the case for Judas in this moment.
But,
Jesus lovingly allows it. It’s not so
much love for Judas at this point, of course, but love for the rest of His
disciples. He allows the betrayal to
happen so it’ll set the final events in motion for His sacrifice. He allows the betrayal out of love for all
those He came to save, including you, if you are a believer.
V.
Conclusion
Our
Lord gives us an example of how to deal with a betrayal in progress. He showed a supernatural level of patience
and love, right until the point of no return.
While this is no guarantee that this will halt a traitor in his or her
tracks, this is exactly how Christians should treat their enemies. Of course, we are always in need of God’s
grace to overcome our emotions and to accomplish such a feat!
The
sad reality is our love may not stop our adversaries from their attacks, who
may take us to court or elsewhere.
Still, as Scripture commands, “so far as it depends on you, be at peace
with all men” (Rom. 12:18), and avoid court actions if we can (1 Cor.
6:1–11). It’s not that self-defense is
wrong, or that the Lord always calls us to sacrifice. But, sometimes, we can’t convince the traitor
to stop. So, it’s up to us to determine
to remain faithful, to keep the gospel and the love of Christ central as we
craft strategies for dealing with such individuals. We mustn’t allow our emotions to rule the
day.
Judas
himself represents more than just betrayal, though. John MacArthur lists several other points
about him besides his treachery, and to summarize them: Judas embodies lost
opportunity and wasted privilege, demonstrates the danger of loving money and
the need for self-examination, serves as a reminder of the devil’s presence
among God’s people and the deadliness of hypocrisy — yet, also demonstrates
that nothing thwarts the sovereign plans of God.[7] God
knew this treachery from eternity past and used this to accomplish His work of
salvation in Christ.
Judas
demonstrates one other point. He shows
us just how many openings the Lord leaves us so we will repent. Unbeliever, I hope you don’t think any action
you’ve taken so far is too far for God’s redemption. He can forgive you in Jesus Christ, and you
can begin the long road of reconciliation by His grace. Don’t embrace wickedness — come out of the
darkness and step into the light of the Savior’s love.
[1] John F. MacArthur Jr., John 12–21, MacArthur New Testament Commentary, (Chicago, IL: Moody
Publishers, 2008), 72.
[2] Gerald L. Borchert, John 12–21, The New American Commentary, (Nashville: Broadman &
Holman Publishers, 2002), 25B:88–89.
[3] Edwin A. Blum, The
Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, 1985, 2, 321.
[4] Ronald L. Trail, An
Exegetical Summary of John 10–21, Exegetical Summaries, (Dallas, TX: SIL
International, 2018), 188.
[5] Blum, 321.
[6] Borchert, 25B:93.
[7] MacArthur, 82.
