John 13:18-30

This will be the last post of this week. We will resume on Monday, February 9th.

Jesus Predicts His Betrayal

18 "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 lifted up his heel against me.'

19 "I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am who I am. 20 Very truly I tell you, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me."

21 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."

22 His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. 23 One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. 24 Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, "Ask him which one he means."

25 Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, "Lord, who is it?"

26 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. 27 As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.

So Jesus told him, "What you are about to do, do quickly." 28 But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. 29 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. 30 As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.



Dig Deeper

"You’re going to fall behind. It’s going to happen," our coach told us before the basketball game began. "This team always starts out well and jumps out to a big lead." We were playing a big game in their gym, a rather hostile environment and things were going to get tough, especially early on. He wasn’t trying to frighten us or induce us into playing poorly, he was actually doing quite the opposite. He had a pretty good feeling based on his knowledge of his own team and the team we were about to face that they would jump out on a wave of emotion and energy and sprint out to an early lead. He was preparing us so that when that happened we didn’t begin to think that we were in real trouble and start to doubt ourselves and our coach. Thus, when things happened precisely as he predicted and the team did come out with a great deal of energy and pressure and tore out to an early lead, he could simply call a timeout and calmly remind us that we knew this was going to happen. We didn’t have anything to worry about. We had survived their best shot and now we had seen what they were going to do. We could collect ourselves, follow our game plan, and reel them back in. That’s exactly what happened and we won the game. What made all of the difference, I am convinced, was that warning ahead of time. He was right, we might well have panicked had he not told us that was going to happen. When it did, we could respond to it and not get freaked out.

Jesus was far more wise than any basketball coach and he really did know what was going to happen, he wasn’t just making an educated guess. To top it off, he cared far more about his disciples and the stakes were much bigger than a simple game of basketball. Jesus knew that times were going to get tough. Evil was swirling about them in a level of force that they could never imagine, nor could they stand up to on their own. Not only was Jesus going to be betrayed, it would come from one of his inner circle. The twelve had no inkling that this was gong to happen and Jesus knew that they needed to be prepared. They needed to know what was coming so that when it did, they wouldn’t panic or see it as a sign of God’s approval.

Those who are washed by Jesus and the full expression of his love, as he has just made clear in the previous passage, would be blessed. They would be the first of those who would remain in him, a concept that Jesus will discuss at length in chapter 15. Yet, Jesus was the Good Shepherd, and a wise shepherd at that. The Good Shepherd not only lays down his life for his sheep, but he also knows how to feed, lead, and prepare his sheep (cf. Jn. 21:15-17). This passage is a perfect demonstration of that. Jesus knows that his time has come and that he is about to suffer, die, and return to the Father. Yet, he does not focus on himself. He thinks constantly about what his disciples will need in his absence. He has taught them the importance of the self-giving love of a servant that he will show to them and that they need to emulate if they are truly going to be like him. He will soon tell them of the Counselor that will allow them to be like him, but before he does that, he gives them one more gift. The gift of being prepared. One of them is going to betray Jesus. Jesus knows that this could shatter the faith of his disciples to see the man that they thought was the Messiah, betrayed, killed, and seemingly defeated by the forces of evil. So Jesus prepares them. One of them will not take part in those blessings because the one who has shared his bread has lifted up his heel against Jesus. Commentators are split over the precise origins of the figure of speech of lifting up one’s heel against another, but it is clear that it referred to some sort of betrayal or aggressive act.

The act of dipping bread and giving it to someone next to you to eat was usually a sign of special friendship, but it instead will serve as a sign of Judas’ betrayal. This was, evidently, such a vague reference that the disciples did not understand who he was referring to. Was this going to be someone on the outside that would betray him? Surely it couldn’t be one of them. The fact was that they didn’t really need to know who it was. The vital information was that it was going to happen. Just as John was careful to point out that Isaiah had predicted that most Jews would reject the true Messiah (Jn. 12:39-41) so that believers would not be damaged in their faith by that rejection but see it as something that actually confirmed Jesus as the Messiah, so Jesus lets his followers know that when he is betrayed, they shouldn’t be rocked in their faith, it will confirm it. When it does happen, it will be one more sign that Jesus was who he showed them all along that he was, the Messiah, the Son of God.

The choice will be clear, however. If someone accepts Jesus, they accept God. If they reject or betray Jesus they reject God. The disciples should not see any betrayal as some sort of sign that God disapproved of or did not protect Jesus. No, if anyone turned against Jesus, it wasn’t because they were serving God, quite the opposite.

As Jesus continues to prepare his disciples for what is to come much sooner than any of them can imagine, they are at a complete loss. We can easily look on this situation with some degree of indignation and wonder how the disciples could not figure out what was going on, but we must remember a few things. One is that Jesus is speaking somewhat cryptically of things that would only become clearer after they happened. Jesus had loved Judas as much as he loved any of the rest and Judas had apparently covered up his duplicity quite well in the eyes of the others. They had no way of suspecting Judas.

The next thing we need to remember is that verse 26 seems to make things as obvious as they could be, but it appears that Jesus’ statement was not a public declaration, but was, most likely, a quiet reply to John alone. To understand this fully, we have to recall that it seems likely that Jesus was on one end of a u-shaped collection of couches around a central table. To the right of Jesus was John, while Judas appears to have been on his left. All the way around on the other end of the u-shaped configuration was Peter. When the men reclined at the table, they would have laid on their stomachs or sides and rested their weight on their left forearm, making it difficult to look behind them over their right shoulder. Thus, when John talks to Jesus, he would have leaned back against him, which, assuming that he was speaking somewhat quietly, means that no one else would have heard his request. But why did the youngest disciple ask Jesus about who would betray him? Because Peter, who was quite possibly the oldest disciple (cf. Matt. 17:26) had motioned to John across the table from his end of the "u" to the other, asking him to inquire of Jesus as to who was the betrayer. Could it possibly be someone in the room? It is likely then that Jesus’ response was heard by John alone and John does not tell us whether he immediately understood that Jesus was speaking of Judas at the moment or whether he only understood that later. It’s quite possible that John took Jesus’ words that the betrayer would be one with whom he would dip and give the bread to as a metaphor of some type and still didn’t put two and two together that he was referring to Judas Iscariot.

John has already told us that Judas was already being prompted by Satan (Jn. 13:2) and he doesn’t say exactly what he means by noting that Satan entered into him, but the point is clear enough. Jesus’ sign of friendship and brotherhood, the passing of the bread, did not sway Judas. If anything, it cemented his resolve. Jesus is under no delusion that he might be able to change Judas’ mind. The die has been cast. Judas will be the one that betrays Jesus, so Jesus tells him to go about his work. There is no point in delaying. Jesus knows that his time has come and that the will of the Father must be done. I wonder how many of us, even knowing the will of the Father, would be so quick to urge someone on to hurry on with their persecution of us. It seems to me that most of us might try to delay the inevitable even if we knew that it was God’s will that we were delaying.

Verses 28-30 seem to affirm the theory that Jesus quietly pointed to Judas so that only John heard him (and we still cannot know whether John even understood things at the time that Judas left). Judas held the spot of honor, the holder of the money bag, in the eyes of the world. He was the one who was always concerned with the poor, and it would have been quite normal during a feast to go out and give a donation to the poor on behalf of the group. Jesus had warned them that it was Judas but not so that they could stop him. He didn’t warn them for his good but for their own. Only after the deed was done would they all fully understand what had happened.

John gives us one final detail of a master storyteller in verse 30. In chapter 3, John tells us that Nicodemus had come to Jesus in chapter 3 in literal and spiritual darkness and was unable to see the light of the world. In a similar brilliant stroke of symbolism, he tells us that Judas has gone out into the night. He has entered the darkness and completely rejected the light.



Devotional Thought

John tells us that Jesus was troubled in Spirit at the prospect of being betrayed by Judas and his impending death, yet he still acted in a way that put the interests of his disciples ahead of his own. What can you learn from that? In what ways does that challenge you? When you are troubled by things, do you tend to become consumed with your own problems and issues or do you stand firm in putting the interests of others first, even in those challenging times?