21 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."
I read this one verse over and over. Each time I read it; the same thought came to my mind. I am the one. But it isn’t the future, it is my past. My life before Christ was one of betrayal to the one who, before time eternal elected me for salvation. At the time Jesus spoke these words, it was in his future, and he could have as easily been saying that I would betray him, and it would have been as true as the fact that Judas was going to betray him.
This troubled Jesus. It isn’t just Judas’ betrayal but the betrayal of every human being from Adam and Eve to the future when every betrayal will be stopped and sin will be no more. But Jesus is God. Why would he be troubled in his spirit? Just to make sure that this is what is really said, I looked at some of the other translations and they all agree until I looked at the less literal translations or even paraphrased versions and they only said he was upset even though the Greek says it was in his spirit. Maybe these versions didn’t want to make it look like Jesus had real emotions whether they were in his human or divine nature. Perhaps, Jesus is troubled because he knows that this betrayal without reconciliation in this life will end in eternal condemnation for the betrayers. This is what the Lord told Ezekiel to the rebellious Israelites in captivity, “Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?” (Ezek 33:11 ESV). Clearly our betrayal and rebellion does cause grief to God.
What does it mean for us to betray Jesus? I’ll get around to Judas when he is mentioned. But the concept of betrayal, especially in reference to Jesu is something I want to explore. The first closely resembles what Judas did. Should we not be born again but have enjoyed the fellowship of Christians and even thought of ourselves as real Christian, then utterly turn our backs on Christ, John explained the betrayal in this sense.
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. (1 John 2:19 ESV)
It is clear from this description that anyone who leaves Christ in this way never knew Jesus. It is a fundamental promise of God that those who belong to Jesus will be kept by him. We’ve already seen that in John 10:27-29. No one can snatch us out of God’s hand. Judas walked with Jesus for about three years. He heard his teaching and watched the miracles. But in the end, Jesus didn’t live up to his expectations of a Messiah and betrayed him. People who betray Jesus today do so for the same reasons. They don’t know him personally and when he doesn’t meet their expectations, either because of social, economic, or other circumstantial failure (he doesn’t do what they want), they fall away. They betray Jesus and often end up slandering the name of Jesus. If they persist in this until death, it will prove that they never knew Jesus. However, they could still find salvation. We present the gospel to them with the hopes that they will be saved. With God all things are possible (Matt 19:26).
The second way someone can betray Jesus is by not living the way they should as a Christian. This is when a born-again person lives an immoral life. Immoral can mean anything from licentiousness to gossip with theft, anger, and a litany of sinful behaviors in between. The betray in this case doesn’t mean the person isn’t saved, it means they have temporarily abandoned all that Jesus has done for them by dying for their sins. These people are indistinguishable from the first case, with the exception that they still claim to know Jesus and believe their sins are forgiven. They haven’t rejected Jesus, but their lifestyle betrays him. Are they really saved? Only the Lord knows that, but it is quite possible that they know all too well that they need to repent. We warn these and teach godly living. The already know the gospel and may even be able to tell it to others.
22 The disciples began looking at one another, at a loss to know of which one He was speaking.
When there is a betrayer in the fellowship, one who is of the first class mentioned above, who has not yet gone out. It is nearly impossible to know who they are. They look like Christians, the talk like Christians, they even smell like Christians. They may even be teaching theology classes on five-point Calvinism. Most likely though they are simply going through the motions. Jesus said we would know them by their fruit (Luke 6:44), but these have learned to hide their fruit to most of the world. It will eventually come out and then they will be known.
The disciples looked at each other. Translation: which one of you is going to do this because I know it isn’t me. If we were to look back at some of the things the disciples had done, like arguing who was greatest, we would rightly say that they didn’t really have a very good idea of what was inside of themselves. We should take a cue from this and stop to think, “Why not me?” We are all tempted and sometimes we fail miserably. This is when Jesus is speaking about us, when we betray him.
23 There was reclining on Jesus' bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved.
This is an amazing picture of what it really means to abide in Jesus. When John wrote this about himself, he didn’t identify himself. He had learned to be humble but recalled the closeness he had felt to Jesus during this memorable time. When we examine ourselves to see if we’ve betrayed or are betraying Jesus, we should also remember what it is to abide in Jesus. If Jesus didn’t love us, we wouldn’t be able to recline on his bosom – to abide in him.
24 So Simon Peter gestured to him, and said to him, "Tell us who it is of whom He is speaking." 25 He, leaning back thus on Jesus' bosom, said to Him, "Lord, who is it?"
Peter needs to know who is going to betray Jesus. He is the bold one, the one who will not betray or desert Jesus. Little does he know what will happen in just a few hours. However, this is also the nature of the flesh. If someone is sinning in the congregation, we want to know who it is. It isn’t enough for us to know that there is sin. What would I do with the information?
26 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.
Jesus identified Judas with a piece of bread. In doing this, Jesus identified himself with the prophecy about the Messiah given in Ps 41:9, “Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me” (ESV). Jesus also identified himself with the bread of life. “Man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deut 8:3 ESV). Here, in a symbolic gesture, Jesus gives Judas what he wants, material goals instead of the very Word of God.
We need to be careful with what we want in life. If we want a Jesus who will do our bidding, solve our political problems, provide wealth and health, we are very likely be given what we want, but it will not end well. A Jesus who does this is an idol and not the Lord and sovereign of our lives. Dr. Graydon Cress stated it this way:
But idolatry can also happen when we have an unbiblical view of God. A prosperity gospel filled with promises of health, wealth, and happiness points to a different god than the God in the Bible, so that’s idolatry. A god who looks like an angry old, bearded man with a magnifying glass who is just looking for you to stumble and then he’ll smite you is not the God of the Bible, so that’s idolatry.[1]
It will not go well when we have an unbiblical view of Jesus. It doesn’t go well for Judas.
27 After the morsel, Satan then entered into him. Therefore Jesus said to him, "What you do, do quickly."
How will it not go well with us when we have a Jesus idol instead of submitting to the Jesus of the Bible? If we are actually Christians and we are worshiping ourselves instead of Jesus, we will be vulnerable to Satan’s attacks. We won’t be as bad off as Judas because there is no precedence in Scripture for Satan to be able to enter a Christian. However, we are warned to make sure Satan doesn’t have a foothold though our anger (Eph 4:26-27). I don’t know about you, but the image of Satan clinging to me with even perhaps one claw is not something I want to do.
Did Jesus give Judas permission to or even command him to betray him? Without carefully reading the passage, we could conclude that this is what Jesus did. If this were true, then there should be no guilt in what Judas did but exalted Judas. In fact, this is exactly what the heretical Gospel of Judas appears to propose.[2]However, the word “therefore” precedes Jesus’ statement to Judas. To be fair, the word could also be translated, “then.” However, the meaning is still clear. It wasn’t until Satan had entered Judas that Jesus told him to go. This is a prime example of God letting a person fall to their lowest point in the downward spiral of sin. At this point, Judas was beyond redemption. While we all follow Satan before we are saved (Eph 2:2-3), this is the ultimate surrender to darkness and evil.
While John doesn’t record Jesus’ instituting the New Covenant with the bread and wine, Matthew does in Matthew 26:20-29. It isn’t clear in Matthew’s account when Judas left, but reading this account in John and Matthew’s, it certainly appears that Judas left before this crucial part of the Last Supper. Since none of the other Gospel writers included this, I believe John added it so that we would know that the gift of eternal life in the New Covenant was not extended to Judas and this is the most important reason Jesus told him to get out.
28 Now no one of those reclining at the table knew for what purpose He had said this to him. 29 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. 30 So after receiving the morsel he went out immediately; and it was night.
No one knew what Judas was going to do. Even though John and Peter presumably understood that Judas would betray Jesus, they didn’t understand the gravity of what that meant. Peter was so adamant that he would never deny Jesus that I’m sure he would have followed Judas out and done him bodily harm had he know what Judas was doing.
This is also a demonstration of God’s grace and his sovereignty. Grace in that the disciples were made unaware of the situation so that they would not be tempted to try to prevent God’s plan from unfolding. Sovereignty in that this is what had to happen to bring about the events. Looking back at this Peter was later able to explain it, “This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross” (Acts 2:23 NIV).
We should be thankful that God doesn’t reveal everything to us. If we did, it would be too much for us to fathom. We don’t always get to see how God works everything together afterwards either.
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