18 “I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’ 19 I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am He. 20 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”
21 After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in His spirit, and testified, “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” 22 The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom He spoke. 23 One of His disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table at Jesus’ side, 24 so Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom He was speaking. 25 So that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to Him, “Lord, who is it?” 26 Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it.” So when He had dipped the morsel, He gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. 27 Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.” 28 Now no one at the table knew why He said this to him. 29 Some thought that, because Judas had the moneybag, Jesus was telling him, “Buy what we need for the feast,” or that he should give something to the poor. 30 So, after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night.
Today we come to a very difficult passage in the Gospel of John, as it is in the account of the darkening of Judas’ heart that we are given a stark reminder of just how depraved the human heart can really be. In love, God created us to glorify Him. That is the purpose of our very existence, yet compare this truth to the words of Romans 3:23 that we know so well: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” It is in Judas Iscariot what we learn just how far short of God’s glory we are capable of falling.
Earlier that evening, Jesus had washed the feet of His disciples, including Judas, but He knew who would betray Him as He quoted from Psalm 41 in verse 18. “The Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’”
He was about to be betrayed, but He was not taken by surprise by all of this. Jesus’ arrest, trial and crucifixion were not a tragic miscarriage of His plans, but rather, their fulfilment. Jesus is both the suffering servant and the perfect sacrifice. He is the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world.
As God in human form, Jesus remained in total control of the situation, yet in His humanity, John makes it clear that Jesus was deeply distressed at His betrayal by one of His closest friends. In the passage of Scripture we’re looking at today, we are given a fascinating insight into some of the events which led to Jesus’ death the following afternoon.
Sometimes we think that because Jesus is and was God, and because He was in full control at all times, that He wasn’t as affected by what was happening as we might have been. He had access to wisdom and power that we can only imagine, so Jesus was able to rise above His current circumstances, but this is not what the Bible teaches. He was fully human, so He went through the full range of human experience, with the one exception of falling into sin. When He was a young man helping Joseph in his carpentry shop, if He hit His thumb with a hammer, it hurt!
Hebrews 4:15 says, “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”
We have all faced discouragement. We have all been distressed and experienced those raw emotions like anguish, pain and sorrow, and so did Jesus. In these last hours in the Upper Room, the night before His death, Jesus was increasingly troubled by all that was coming.
We know that by the time He reached Gethsemane later that night He was so stressed that His sweat fell to the ground like drops of blood. He was troubled by the fact that He was about to go to the cross and would be separated from the Father as He bore the condemnation of our sin. During the Last Supper Jesus was also deeply troubled at the thought of the impending betrayal by someone who had been one of His closest friends for the last three years.
What a tragedy and what a warning to us the story of Judas is. What better example could Judas have had than Jesus? For three years Judas had been taught and ministered to by Him, but it is clear that his heart was never regenerated. Judas heard the teaching of the Beatitudes. He heard the Sermon on the Mount and all of the parables.
He was even given on-the-job training. When Jesus sent out the 72 disciples to heal and teach in Luke 10, Judas was one of them. In Jesus, Judas had seen a perfect example of all Jesus taught for three years. When Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek,” Judas saw perfect meekness in Him. When Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers,” he saw the perfect peacemaker. When Jesus said, “Be holy as your Father in heaven is holy,” he saw that perfect holiness. And above all of that, Jesus was filled with the love of God because He is God. Judas saw all that, and yet He was unsaved.
Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’” (John 3:5-7) Being born again from above is how we are saved.
Going through the motions of religion, throwing ourselves into the ministries of the Church, and being the best people we can possibly be, will not save us. Unless if we are born again and regenerated by the Holy Spirit, we are as lost as Judas was.
It’s also important for us to remember that none of what did happen came as a surprise to Jesus. John opens chapter 13 by telling us that Jesus knew that His hour had come - the hour for which He came into the world in the first place. Our finite minds are simply not capable of fully understanding how Jesus remained in command of all of the events which were to unfold during the next 24 hours, yet the Bible is clear that He was.
Later on, just before His ascension, Jesus said to His disciples, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” (Matthew 28:18) There is absolutely nothing which is beyond the authority and control of God, and included in that are the tragic events we are currently looking at in John’s Gospel. It’s a mystery to us, but it would not be wrong to say that Jesus was, in a sense, directing His own death. Rather than a helpless victim of events over which He had no control, He was Himself determining them as they went along.
Later that evening, when the soldiers came to arrest Him, Jesus spoke with such authority that they fell backwards onto the ground. Jesus, not even for a split second, relinquished His absolute authority, even as He was preparing to go to the cross. He was in command throughout all this amazing series of events.
Verses 21-26 read, “After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in His spirit, and testified, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.’ The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom He spoke. One of His disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table at Jesus’ side, so Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom He was speaking. So that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to Him, ‘Lord, who is it?’ Jesus answered, ‘It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it.’ So when He had dipped the morsel, He gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.”
There are a number of points we need to consider here. Firstly, Jesus dipping a piece of bread into a bowl and then giving it to Judas was not a random event, or some hidden sign which only John could understand. In those days the host at a meal (in this case, Jesus) would perform this act much like we would raise a glass to toast a guest of honour today. This is one of the reasons Jesus was so troubled and distressed, especially when we see that Jesus was able to pass the piece of bread directly to Judas. One Da Vinci’s most famous paintings is of the Last Supper. It may well be a priceless work of art, but the way it depicts the Last Supper is completely wrong. In the Middle East people did not sit on chairs around tables in those days. Instead, they would recline at a low table on their left elbows, and eat with their right hands.
The fact that Jesus was able to pass the bread directly to Judas suggests that he was given the seat of honour, despite the fact that Jesus knew what lay ahead. This is seen by most commentators as a final gesture of Jesus’ love for Judas.
John stresses that Jesus was deeply troubled. Going to the cross was not an easy thing for Him to do, and He was particularly grieved by Judas’ treachery, because He knew it was coming. As far back as John 6:70 Jesus said, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” He had known all along that one of His own disciples would betray Him, because the Scriptures had said so. And He knew who it was.
We know from the Biblical record that Judas’ heart was hardened over an extended period. The other disciples clearly trusted him, as he was the appointed treasurer, but Judas had long since begun helping himself to the funds he had access to. His betrayal of Jesus was not a spur of the moment decision, but instead, it was something which had built up over time.
There is no indication in the Gospel accounts that Judas ever repented or came clean with either Jesus or the others. He kept up the pretence of being a faithful disciple, until finally, as we see in verse 27, he reached the point of no return. “After he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him.”
The lesson to us is very clear. With God’s help, we need to guard our hearts, because temptation is so subtle and it is so dangerous.
What is it about the human heart that we think we have it within ourselves to resist temptation? We think we’re so clever, but we’re actually quite dim-witted when you think about it. “Just a little bit more. Just one more time. I can handle this.” But we know that we can’t. James 1:14-16 warns us, “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.”
Paul writes in 1 Timothy 6:11-14, “As for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in His testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
And James 4:7-8, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” The puritan preacher John Owen famously wrote, “Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.”
John 13 opens with John saying Judas was already well down the road of the sin of betrayal. “During supper, the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him.” (John 13:2) Judas’ greed had already given the devil an opportunity. When we resist God’s love and follow an unchecked march towards evil, Satan will take that opportunity to entice us even further away from the grace of God. This is why, with God’s help, we must kill sin before it kills us.
There is another lesson we can learn from the account of Judas, and that is the difficulty we have in knowing the hearts of others. Too often we think that we are able to discern who are among God’s elect and who are not. Judas seemed to tick all the boxes, but it is clear that he was not among the elect of God.
The Bible teaches that it is only God who knows the true state of our hearts. As in the case of Judas, up until the moment Jesus revealed him as the traitor, the other eleven disciples had no clue as to Judas’ true identity.
We see someone who does something that we do not like and that we think is unspiritual, and we say to ourselves, “Well, that person is certainly not saved.” On the other hand, we see someone who measures up to our particular standards of morality, and we say, “There is a fine Christian,” but that is not necessarily true.
We need to be very careful of judging others based on outward appearances. Judas Iscariot is the perfect example of how mistaken we can be.
We are not to judge others. Rather, we are to love with the love of Christ, sharing the hope of the Gospel whenever we have the opportunity, and leave the details with the Lord.
There is something else we see in the account of Judas’ long and drawn out rebellion and eventual betrayal, and that is the longsuffering patience of God. David wrote in Psalm 103:8, “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”
Think of the Godly patience Jesus showed as He tolerated Judas’ ongoing deception. He knew one of the disciples would betray Him, and He knew it would be Judas, yet Jesus continued to love Him, even washing his feet only a few hours before his betrayal. Throughout the three years of Jesus’ public ministry, not only was Jesus patient with Judas, but He showed so much patience that the others were completely unaware of what was really going on in the heart of Judas.
There is an important detail in this whole account which is easy to miss. Jesus honoured Judas right up until the end. We know from the Gospel of Luke that just before the Last Supper the disciples had been arguing amongst themselves as to who was the most important. So what does Jesus do? He gives the seat of honour on His left to Judas.
Also, as the host honoured the guest by offering a piece of bread, for the guest to receive it was also full of significance. As the guest received and acknowledged this special honour, he would be making a pledge of loyalty to the host. So at this point in the meal, in spite of the fact that Jesus had both loved and honoured him, Judas hardened his heart and received the bread, basically saying, “Thank you, Master. I am yours.” But he was lying, and Jesus, who knew it, said to him, “What you are about to do, do quickly.” (John 13:27)
It was at this point that Judas knew he’d been found out, so he left immediately. John then writes in verse 30, “And it was night.” As Judas left the Light of the World, he went out into the darkness of sin. As we’ve seen throughout the Gospel of John, light and darkness are important symbols, and none more so than here in chapter 13. John wrote in his introduction about Jesus, “In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.” (John 1:4)
In chapters 8 and 9 he quotes Jesus saying, “I am the light of the world.” The synoptic Gospels Matthew, Mark and Luke, in their accounts of the crucifixion, all record that while Jesus hung on the cross, darkness came over the land from noon until about three in the afternoon. The meaning here is clear. Jesus is the light, so those who reject Him and leave His presence, just as Judas did at the Last Supper, go into darkness. Not just the darkness of a physical night, but spiritual darkness, which means death and damnation. This is what awaits those, who like Judas, go to their graves without repenting of their sins. Believe the Gospel, repent of your sins, embrace the grace God offers you through Christ, believe in Him, and you will be saved.
As we know from the lives of the remaining disciples, they were to go through some very dark times too. Later that evening Jesus told Peter that he would deny he even knew Jesus three times. We are still to come to Peter’s darkest hour and the rest who deserted Jesus as He bore the sins of mankind on Himself, but the darkness they experienced was nothing like the total spiritual darkness which completely engulfed and consumed Judas. The disciples knew darkness just as we do, because we continue to struggle with our sinful natures.
The big difference is that Jesus bore the awful darkness of condemnation on our behalf, and this is why we are able to walk in the light, despite the darkness all around us.
The difference between Peter and Judas was that Peter repented while Judas did not. Peter cried before God for forgiveness when the deed had been done, while Judas kept control. As we know, he tried to retrace his steps, and even tried giving the 30 pieces of silver back. Judas tried to “fix” sin, but he could not. God does not “fix” sin. He punishes sin and He demands payment for sin. The choice is yours - you can pay for your own sin yourself in a place called hell, or you can believe in Christ and turn to Him who paid for your sin, if you believe.
The good news is that for all who still hear the Gospel of Jesus and who respond in faith to the Gospel, need not fear the eternal night, that place of eternal death and damnation. But you must believe in Him in order to escape the second death. Jesus still extends the bread of life from His own table to the most unworthy of sinners. His call to us all, as John writes in John 8:12 is, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Homegroup Study Notes
Read John 13:18-30
Discuss how the betrayal of Jesus by Judas gives us a picture of just how depraved the human heart can be.
We know from the Bible that John was sat to Jesus’ right at the Last Supper, and the text clearly implies that Judas was given the other seat of honour on His left.
Why do you think Jesus did this?
There has been much debate over the years as to whether Judas chose of his own will to betray Jesus, or that he was nothing more than a helpless pawn in series of events over which he had no control.
What do you believe, and why?
What did Jesus mean in verse 27 when He told Judas to do what he was about to do “quickly?”
John tells us that when Judas left, it was night.
How does the physical darkness of the night reflect the spiritual darkness of the unsaved, and how does the Gospel give us hope in our own darkness?