I speak not of you all. I know those whom I have chosen; but that the scripture might be fulfilled, He that eats bread with me has lifted up his heel against me.
The foot-washing is over. Now the Lord narrows His words: what He has just said does not cover everyone at the table. He quotes an old line of Scripture about a man who shared bread and then turned on his host. He applies it to someone in the room.
The Lord had already hinted at a traitor while washing feet. Now He says something plainer, and it draws a line through the room.
The way the Lord removes Judas shows His tender care for His own. The treachery of Judas, long known to the Lord, is very gently disclosed to His disciples. During the foot-washing the Lord had referred to Judas, and the eleven did not seem to notice. Now He speaks more plainly: "I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen." There was an inner circle of the Lord's chosen companions to whom He was about to disclose the secrets of His heart. But there was one present who had no part in that chosen circle.
Judas held a real appointment. The choice the Lord speaks of here is a different one, and Judas was outside it.
He did not speak of all the disciples then present — a sad sign of what would become far more common in later days. He knew whom He had chosen out: Judas was not among them, though he was called to be an apostle. He had never known the Lord, knew nothing truly of His grace or of His mind, and was not born of God. Why then did he receive that place of honour among the apostles, constantly attending the Lord here below?
The image is harsh: a shared meal, then a lifted heel.
With the sense of what lies before Him, He foretells the defection of Judas. This only fulfils the Scripture. It was written: "He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me." His heel! The most contemptuous rejection possible. Was it not contempt to sell the Lord of glory for the price of a slave? It was as if he would inflict on Christ the serpent's predicted doom.
Kelly weighs Judas against an old picture of Israel, called there by the poetic name Jeshurun.
"Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked" long ago; "he forsook God who made him and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation." Judas went far beyond that. He was guilty of indifference to the Son of God, who had come down in love and humiliation. He was eager to serve himself at any cost, and he betrayed his gracious Master for a pitiful sum. Never was there such love, and never such contempt and abuse of it — and this in a man who had a special duty to be faithful. ... How wonderful the patience which, knowing all from the beginning, bore all to the end, without a frown or any sign of shrinking from the traitor!
A choice like this could have raised doubts about the Master Himself.
If the Lord could foresee what Judas would do, why was he chosen? Would such a question raise a doubt about the Master in any one of the eleven? Earlier in His ministry He had indicated that there was one of them whom He then called a devil. He now spoke of that same man, still unnamed. He showed why this man had a place among the twelve — so that the Scripture might be fulfilled. The coming treachery was no surprise: God knew it beforehand, and Scripture predicted it.
Being foretold did not make Judas a victim of the prediction.
Scripture had foretold this, though the fact does not in the least excuse the guilt of Judas: he was himself responsible for the callous deceit of eating with the Lord while plotting to betray Him.
Notice the order. The betrayal would shake the eleven, so He props up their faith first.
Their faith would be shaken that one of them could do such a thing. So before speaking of His own deep trouble, He first provided for them... Is this not the most marvellous grace? He thinks first of the consequences for them, before speaking of the consequences for Himself.
The very thing that might have wrecked their confidence became evidence for it. They were in danger of stumbling over such a man's betrayal. Instead, Kelly writes, the clear fulfilment of Scripture "was meant to strengthen their faith in every written word of God."
- Chosen. The verse holds two choices. Judas was chosen for the office of apostle, but never among those the Lord chose in grace.
- Bread. Being close to Christ made the crime worse, not better — he ate at the table of the One he sold for the price of a slave.
- Heel. The lifted heel is the most contemptuous rejection possible — treating the Lord of glory as something to kick aside.
- Scripture. God knew the betrayal beforehand and had it written down. That leaves no room for doubt about Christ — and none for excusing Judas.
- Comfort. The same word that exposed the traitor held the eleven steady. He provided for their faith before He spoke of His own sorrow.
I tell you [it] now before it happens, that when it happens, ye may believe that I am [he].
The traitor is still at the table, still unnamed, and the eleven remaining disciples have no idea. Jesus warns them first, and He says why. When the blow falls, their faith in who He is must stand.
The verse turns on timing: He speaks now, and not before. One writer explains why an earlier warning was impossible.
He had not told them before, or they could not have carried on. They could not have carried on with Judas and stayed right before God. It would not have been possible. But now that time was over. The Lord was about to go. Judas was about to be separated from them. Now He may tell them. The example He sets lacks no love; He speaks because their good requires it, in righteousness and truth. How well timed is the Lord's "From this present time"! He could not have told it any earlier than "before it comes to pass." To their faith it would have looked like weakness in Him, as if He could be wrong.
The danger was not only the betrayal itself, but the conclusion the disciples might draw from it. If a traitor sat among them unnoticed, was their Master really who He claimed to be?
This disclosure might well be a shock to the disciples and a test to their faith. Unbelief might have reasoned, "We did not know the traitor was here. But if Jesus did not know either, can He really be the Lord of glory?" The Lord deals with such reasoning in advance. He supports their faith by revealing the coming betrayal before it happens... Through the betrayal of Judas they will have fresh evidence. He is indeed the great I AM, who knows everything, and to whom the future is already present.
Another writer names the enemy who stood to gain from the arrest and the cross.
At this point the Lord told them what lay ahead of Him. He foretold it so that when it happened, their faith in Him would not be shaken. How the enemy would have used the fact of the Lord's arrest and death to shake their faith in the truth of His person! He knew it well, for all hearts, even the devil's, lie open to Him. So He foretold His betrayal here. Their faith in Him would then grow stronger instead of weaker.
Commentators differ on how much weight this short phrase carries. Hamilton Smith, above, hears in it the great I AM. Another writer ties the phrase to the psalm Jesus has just quoted.
In John 13:19 the translators rightly give it as "I am he." He is identifying Himself with the One spoken of in Psalm 41 — the One whose own table companion would lift up his heel against Him.
Jesus quoted an old text and announced its fulfilment before it happened. That did two things at once.
So the Lord proved His perfect and divine knowledge of what still lay in the future. At the same time He taught the priceless worth of Scripture, and not least of prophecy still unfulfilled. He met unbelief in every form, in believers as well as in unbelievers... Jesus is never so clearly the Messiah as when He points ahead to the word of Scripture, soon to be fulfilled in His own rejection and death on the cross.
One writer draws a wider rule from this way of speaking.
This testimony beforehand was evidence of truth... In the same way, every sorrow that seems to disprove faith ends up confirming it. What seems to discredit our hope in the Lord proves its truth and strength instead... He tells the disciples beforehand, as something owed to them, so their faith would not be shaken. That is the blessing of being close to Him. The world learned it in the accomplished fact.
Notice the order in the chapter. The warning to the eleven comes out before Jesus says a word about His own inward trouble.
Their faith would be shaken that one of them could do such a thing. So before He spoke of His own deep trouble, He first provided for them... Is this not the most marvellous grace? He thinks first about what this means for them, and only then speaks of what it means for Himself.
- Timing. Told any earlier, the disciples could not have carried on beside Judas. Their faith would also have read the warning as weakness in Him.
- Purpose. He does not speak to inform them. He speaks so their trust in who He is survives the betrayal.
- Person. "I am he" is what they must believe. Writers differ: some hear the great I AM, others the One foretold in Psalm 41.
- Proof. The disaster turns into evidence. His word came true, which proves His divine knowledge and the worth of Scripture.
- Pattern. The enemy's weapon strengthened their faith instead. He arranged that for them before He spoke of His own sorrow.
Verily, verily, I say to you, He who receives whomsoever I shall send receives me; and he that receives me receives him who has sent me.
The Lord has just named a betrayer among His own disciples, and He is about to leave them all behind. So what happens to everyone else He sends — and to those who welcome them?
The words come right after the Lord exposes Judas. Their first work is to protect what the betrayer has not damaged.
The Lord will not allow the presence and treachery of the betrayer to stain His glory. Nor will the complete collapse of one of the twelve cancel the commission of the remaining eleven. That commission would remain in all its force... Judas's sin was terrible, yet the glory of the Lord shines undimmed, and the commission of the eleven stands untouched.
A messenger's standing, backing, and reputation are not what count. Christ's sending is. (The writer quotes an older translation here; where he reads "whomever I send," the ESV has "the one I send.")
The Lord's statement is, "He who receives whomever I send." Here is the principle: "whomever I send" — no matter who the messenger is, the one who receives him receives Christ. The Lord sent Judas, and whoever received Judas received Christ. How blessed for that man! Christ may send someone who is poor and carries no other approval. If the Lord sent him, that is all we have to look to. We receive Christ. The one point we look at is Christ's sending.
The same writer says the principle matters most where confusion has spread among Christians.
That "whomever I shall send" is of vast moral importance, especially in the present confusion of the Church. It is the keystone of holy grace and the destroyer of confusion in the Church. We receive the Sender in receiving the messenger. Let us keep this always in mind. It is a "Truly, truly" of Christ's; and by it we receive God, even the Father, the Sender.
The Lord speaks this promise just as He is about to leave the work in other hands.
He adds to this an absolute confirmation. When He sends a messenger, that sending carries such authority that receiving the messenger is receiving Himself. More than that, receiving Himself is receiving the Father who sent Him (v. 20). For He Himself was leaving, and in this whole age of grace, others would now carry His message.
If God ties Himself to His messenger, then turning that messenger away is no small thing. The same writer also sets a limit on the principle.
When God sends a messenger He is pleased to identify Himself with His servant... This is a solemn thought for the people of God, because the reverse is also true. Refuse a servant the Lord has truly sent, and you refuse the Lord in the person of His servant. Not that we should receive everyone who claims to be sent by God. The test is this: do they speak the words of God?
People often welcome a truth and then turn away from the person who brought it.
How often people openly hold and even enjoy certain truths, while they condemn and shut out the very people who carry those truths. Sometimes they even use the light they have received to heap reproach on the vessels through whom that light has shone. Such conduct may satisfy man, but it can never please the Lord. His witnesses are as sacred in His eyes as the testimony they bear.
That leaves the question of Judas himself.
The Lord made no mistake in sending the guilty Judas, and those who received Judas made no mistake either. He was one sent by the Lord. People heard a divine message from his lips, though he himself had neither saving faith nor eternal life. He was the son of destruction. Judas stands as the sad witness of this: the greatest outward and official nearness to Christ, without eternal life, only exposes a person to the worst sin and ruin.
- Sent, not selected. The verse turns on Christ's act of sending. What counts is not the messenger's quality but the One who sent him.
- Sent despite failure. Judas betrayed his Master. The Lord's glory stayed undimmed, the eleven kept their commission, and those who had welcomed Judas still received Christ.
- Sent reaches the Father. The chain does not stop at the messenger, or even at Christ. Welcome the one He sends and you welcome the Father who sent Him.
- Sent, therefore refusable. The principle runs both ways. Refuse a true servant and you refuse the Lord in him. One test guards it: do they speak the words of God?
- Sent men carry the truth. The message and the messenger belong together. To prize the testimony while despising those who carry it may satisfy people. It never pleases the Lord.
Having said these things, Jesus was troubled in spirit, and testified and said, Verily, verily, I say to you, that one of you shall deliver me up.
At the table in the upper room, after washing the disciples' feet, Jesus is troubled in spirit and speaks of a traitor among His own. The words raise two questions the commentators press — why was the Lord troubled, and why does He say "one of you"?
The weight of the announcement does not fall on Judas by name. It falls on the phrase "one of you" — one of the circle He had chosen and kept close.
It would be good to gather all these sentences marked "Truly, truly." They are the expressions of the great principles our Lord revealed. This was one of the great principles on which the Church hung: "One of you will betray Me." It was not only, I know who will, I know Judas. That was not the point. One of you, you who are so joined to Me — this was what troubled His spirit. Is Jesus, our blessed Master, wronged by us, any less grieved and troubled at evil and falling away in the Church?
The trouble was not injured pride. One writer traces it to holiness and love, and finds His grief reaching even to the guilty man.
It was holiness, it was love, which took the coming wickedness of Judas so to heart. The Lord felt it from every side. He felt sin itself, in its opposition to God. He felt its effect on others as well as on Himself. And He felt how dreadful it was for the wretched guilty man. It is not self, but love, that goes together with the truest feeling. The Lord says it as a testimony too. They were all faulty. But one, and only one, was about to become Satan's prey and the tool of his malice against the Lord.
Why could He feel it so far past our own measure? Because sin had never blunted anything in Him.
It is beyond wonderful that the Son of God became man and entered into the sufferings of mankind. His heart felt as men feel. Yet His feelings were perfectly holy, untouched by the sin that dulls all true natural feeling. As a divine Person, the Son of God could also know what sin is in man as no other man could. And He could grieve as no man could.
One writer follows the word "troubled" through John's account and shows what always follows it.
This expression, "He was troubled," comes three times. In chapter 12:27 He says, "Now is my soul troubled." … Then in chapter 13:18 He had said, "He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me." There too He was troubled in spirit. In each of those passages it was soul-trouble in Christ. And in each passage glory from God is the answer. "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him."
When He spoke of the betrayal, He thought of the disciples before Himself.
Their faith would be shaken that one of them could do such a thing. So before speaking of His own deep trouble, He first provided for them: "I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. … I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he." … Is this not the most marvellous grace? He thinks first of what it will mean for them, before speaking of what it means for Himself.
The eleven had no idea who was meant. One writer sees our own habit in their confusion.
The way to be intelligent and know the Lord's mind is to be near Him. By what he does, John says in effect, "I will show you the way." No one except Judas knew who was going to betray the Lord… How like ourselves! When things are low in an assembly, and we know something is wrong, how we look at one another. Are things very cold, dull and flat where you live, and are you looking at one another? Do not do it.
On the same night He announced the treachery, He gave the Supper. One writer asks what that timing meant.
No tongue can tell how the Lord felt that! He felt it keenly; but, feeling it, He took the bread and there and then instituted the Supper. What did that mean? It seems to me it meant this. You may not be able to trust anyone else, but you may trust Me. If treachery springs up in this inner circle, who can you look to? My love will not fail you… In days of darkness and nights of treachery and betrayal you will find Me always the same.
- Nearness wounds. The grief is not "someone" but "one of you" — treachery from inside the chosen circle, the friend who shared His bread.
- Nearness explains the feeling. He was troubled because holiness and love met sin in a nature sin had never dulled. He felt it toward God, toward others, and for Judas himself.
- Nearness is guarded. He announced it in advance, so their faith would stand when it happened. He put them before Himself.
- Nearness is the cure. The eleven looked at each other and learned nothing. Nearness to Him is the way to know His mind.
- Nearness is pledged. On the night of betrayal He gave the Supper. It is the standing sign that His love never fails.
The disciples therefore looked one on another, doubting of whom he spoke.
Jesus has just told His twelve disciples that one of them would hand Him over. Two questions now hang over the confused room: why could none of them tell who it was, and who found out in the end?
None of them could point out the traitor, because Christ had never treated him as one.
The announcement of a traitor among the twelve troubled the disciples and led to anxious thought, as they looked one on another. What a testimony to His perfect grace Who had known it all along, and had given no sign of distrust or aversion! How solemn for the saints who deal with the same unchanging Christ day by day!
The eleven glanced around honestly. Judas glanced with them, and nothing in his face gave him away.
They were all faulty. But one, and only one, was about to become Satan's prey and the tool of his hatred against the Lord. Their doubts were as honest as his presence among them was now a lie against the truth. If he joined the rest in looking at one another, it was hypocrisy, for he could not truly doubt whom Jesus meant. Yet no blush and no pale face gave Judas away. The disciples had to learn the sad truth some other way.
The first instinct of every man at that table was to search someone else's face. One writer reads this as a picture of how the human conscience works before it wakes up.
Can you understand that? Oh, man, before your conscience wakes up, you look at other people. Sinner, when you are accused of your godlessness and guilt before God, you think of other people. When you hear of men going to hell, you look for other men going there — not yourself... So it was then. "The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke." Soon after, the Holy Spirit tells us, conscience began to work, and each one says, "Lord, is it I?"
Two other Gospel accounts record that question. It came from men who trusted Christ's word but did not trust themselves.
They did not doubt the truth of the Saviour's words, and they were not over-confident about their own faithfulness. So they asked Him one by one, "Lord, is it I?" Matthew and Mark both record their question. Mark adds that "they began to be sorrowful," and Matthew tells us they were "very sorrowful."
One disciple's place at the table ends the confusion in the next verse. Peter wanted to know, but he sent his question through John. John was not there by strategy.
John was near the Lord; Peter was not. Peter lacked what John had: a focused spirit, and a heart always taken up with Jesus, which kept him close to His beloved Person. John did not place himself near the Lord to get this message. He received it because he was near Jesus at the very moment when such nearness was needed to learn the secrets of the Lord's mind — and he was near because that was the settled habit of his heart.
What John received, he did not keep to himself.
It is closeness to Jesus that gathers secrets, but passes them on for the good of others.
That one room held three sights at once: Christ, John, and Judas.
In Jesus we see how very near His love has brought Him to men like ourselves: John can lay his head on the breast of the One who was in the bosom of the Father. In John we see what the heart of the Saviour can do for a sinner, bringing him to perfect rest in perfect love. In Judas we see what the heart of the sinner can do with the Saviour — betray Him for thirty pieces of silver, while claiming all along to love Him.
- Look around — the disciples first studied each other's faces, and got nowhere. Their confusion proved Christ had never once singled Judas out with distrust.
- Look convincing — Judas looked around with the rest, and nothing in his face gave him away. The eleven had to learn the truth some other way.
- Look within — the question that changed the room was not "who is it?" but "Lord, is it I?" It came from men who were not over-confident about their own faithfulness.
- Look to Him — Peter wanted the answer, but had to send his question through John. John was already close, by the settled habit of his heart.
- Look outward again — what nearness to Christ gathers in secret, it passes on for the good of others.
Now there was at table one of his disciples in the bosom of Jesus, whom Jesus loved.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Simon Peter makes a sign therefore to him to ask who it might be of whom he spoke.
Jesus has just said that one of His twelve closest followers will hand Him over, and no one at the table knows who it is. Peter wants the name, but he does not ask for it himself — he signals to another disciple, the one nearest to Jesus.
One writer traces what the disciples tried first, and why Peter, eager as he was, passed his question to someone else.
After the disciples had looked at one another, their consciences began to work. They looked at themselves, and each one asked, "Is it I?" But that did not bring the answer. Peter, though a warm-hearted man, lacked spiritual understanding. He longed to know who the traitor was, but could not frame the right question. Why did he not ask the Lord Himself who would betray Him? Because he felt and knew, in the presence of the Lord, what we have often felt — that another was nearer to Him than himself. Peter had not freedom and liberty. So he beckoned to another to ask. Intimacy grows out of affection, and it is the source of real understanding.
John's nearness was not a tactic adopted for that moment. He was in position before anyone knew a question would need asking.
John did not place himself near the Lord to get this message. He received it because he was near Jesus at the moment when only such nearness could draw out the secrets of the Lord's mind, and he was there because that was the habit of his heart... Nothing else put him so near the Lord — a nearness others could have had, but did not take.
What Peter could not draw out at a distance, John drew out by leaning back.
Peter wanted to know; he was eager to know. It is only leaning on Jesus' breast that we know these things. There we learn everything. He is not in the habit of holding anything back, for He truly deals with us as a friend. From one leaning on His bosom He has no secrets... And what brought John there? Habits of affection for Jesus lead us into such a place.
One disciple asks another for help, and one writer lingers on how free of rivalry the exchange is.
Peter, at a distance, signals to John. John, being near, leans on his Lord's breast again, and so together they draw out the secret of that heart. There is no jealousy here, and no rivalry. It is hard to say which is the greater delight — Peter signalling to John, or John leaning on the breast of Jesus; Peter using his brother, or John using his Lord.
The disciple Peter signals to never names himself in this Gospel. William Kelly notes how he does describe himself, and what such closeness is for.
It is a mark of the Spirit that the disciple who enjoyed such favour describes himself, not as loving Jesus — though he truly did — but as loved by Him: the disciple whom Jesus loved, holding back his own name as a thing of small account. It is intimacy with Jesus that gathers secrets, but imparts them for others' good.
Peter asked for a name. One writer finds love behind both the warning and the guarded way the answer came.
The love that would not openly name the traitor made him known to hearts that cared and asked. To know the intimacy of that love you must be near, and the Lord revealed His burden so that He might draw them near... To know the place John took is to know an intimacy that gives simple boldness. He enjoyed the intimacy that kept nothing back. How readily love answered him! The token given to Judas made the answer known only to the one who asked, while not revealing his name to all. The love that confided in His own was as perfect as the love that bore with Judas.
One writer turns the scene into a test for anyone looking for direction in confusing times.
If, like John, we live day by day in the enjoyment of the Lord's presence and love, we will never lack the knowledge of God's mind in any difficulty... Absorbed in His love, we will hear His faintest whisper, and His path will be plain before our face. But if we are unspiritual or worldly, acting from our own desires or preferences, we will not be able to discern the Lord's way.
- Distance — Peter loved the Lord and wanted the answer. But he was not near enough to ask. Longing is not nearness.
- Habit — John was already in the right place. Staying close to Jesus was his habit, not a move made for that one moment.
- Confidence — the one leaning on His breast learns what others cannot. Christ keeps no secrets from a friend.
- Sharing — what nearness gathers, it passes on. Peter used his brother; John used his Lord. No jealousy spoiled it.
- Guidance — the same nearness is open to us. It decides whether we hear His faintest whisper or miss His path.
But he, leaning on the breast of Jesus, says to him, Lord, who is it?
Jesus has just said that one of His own disciples will betray Him. The man lying closest to Him asks who it is, and where he was lying explains why the question came from him.
The wording is strange to modern ears because the seating was nothing like ours. One writer explains how people ate at that time, and what it meant to lie in another man's bosom.
We must not think of people at meals in those days as being like us today, all sitting on chairs around a table. Rather they were lying at table. They had cushions on the ground. They would lie side by side, with their heads towards the table and their legs away from it. The one who lay in front of the Lord Jesus lay "in His bosom". He would also lean on His breast. So this one was not only sure of the wonderful love of the Lord Jesus, he also wanted His nearness. These two things go together. He was nearest of all to the heart of His Master. It was no matter of doctrine that he knew Jesus loved him; he felt it, and he wanted to enjoy being close to the Lord. This nearness to his Lord is the source of his teaching. He learnt, as it were, through the heartbeat of his Master, leaning on His breast.
Peter wanted the answer, yet he passed the question to another man. One writer reads that as an admission.
Peter, though a hearty man, was not perceptive. He longed to know who the traitor was, but could not frame the right question. Why did he not ask the Lord Himself who would betray Him? Because in the presence of the Lord he felt and knew what we have often felt — that another was nearer to Him than himself. Peter did not have freedom and liberty. So he beckoned to another to ask... Intimacy is the outcome of affection, and the source of real understanding.
Earlier in the same chapter Jesus washed the disciples' feet. One commentator links the two scenes as cause and effect.
The disciple who asks the Lord must be one who is near to the Lord. The one who is nearest can describe himself as "one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved." He is conscious of the Lord's love to him, and he trusts that love. So John leans on the bosom of Jesus. The man whose feet, a little before, had been in the hands of Jesus, now reclines with his head on the bosom of Jesus. May we not say that this position of intimate communion is the proper outcome of feet-washing?
The question was blunt, and the reply came in a way that told the asker everything and the room nothing.
How wonderful a place this one had taken, who was nearer than Peter. He lay on Jesus' bosom as one whom Jesus loved, content to be there and to rest in what he was to Jesus and in His thoughts about him. To know such a place is to know an intimacy that gives simple boldness. He leaned on His breast and asked, "Lord, who is it?" He enjoyed the intimacy that keeps nothing back. How readily love answered him! The sign given to Judas made the answer known only to the one who asked, without revealing his name to everyone. The love that confided in His own was as perfect as the love that bore with Judas.
The same room held the full range of response to Christ.
Jesus is there with a love that can never break down, for "having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end." John is there delighting himself in the love of Christ. He rests his head on the bosom of Jesus, and calls himself the disciple whom Jesus loved. Peter is there with real and warm love for the Lord. But he trusts in his own love to the Lord instead of resting in the Lord's love to him. Last, Judas is there, with no love to the Lord. He has the money bag at his side and the devil in his heart, ready to betray the Lord and pass into the long dark night.
John's place was no accident. One writer says what put him there, and what it gave him.
Peter wanted to know; he was eager to know. It is only by leaning on Jesus' breast that we know these things. There we learn everything. He is not in the habit of holding anything back, for surely He deals with us as a friend. From one who leans on His bosom like this He has no secrets... And what brought John there? Habits of affection for Jesus lead us into such a place. We do not know what we will receive there, but we find love (it was "the disciple whom Jesus loved").
Notice when this closeness appears. Betrayal was in the room.
In John 13:23-25 we find the apostle pillowing his head on the breast of divine love. He does this in the presence of the spirit of betrayal, and of the activities of Satan, who had entered into the heart of Judas.
- Washed, then welcomed. The hands that washed the feet make room for the head. Nearness is the outcome of what Christ has already done for us.
- Nearness is felt. John did not know the Lord's love as doctrine only. He felt it, and he wanted to be close enough to enjoy it.
- Nearness gives understanding. Peter's eagerness could not reach what John's closeness received. The Lord keeps no secrets from the one at His breast.
- Nearness holds in the dark. With betrayal at the same table, this disciple rested his head on divine love itself.
- One table, four hearts. Love that never fails. Love resting in that love. Love trusting itself. And no love at all. Where each man lay showed the difference.
Jesus answers, He it is to whom I, after I have dipped the morsel, give it. And having dipped the morsel, he gives it to Judas [son] of Simon, Iscariote.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And, after the morsel, then entered Satan into him. Jesus therefore says to him, What thou doest, do quickly.
Judas has just taken the morsel from the hand of the One he is about to sell, and at that exact point the enemy stops suggesting and takes possession. Two things follow. Satan himself enters a man. And the Lord, knowing it, tells him to get on with it.
What happens here is not where the enemy's work began. Satan had already worked on Judas through his desires. Now he moves in himself, at a moment of outward closeness to Christ.
Here is an important statement: after the morsel, Satan entered into Judas. There is much in that. A person can be familiar with Christ in an outward way, and where the heart is wrong that familiarity is a deadly way in for Satan's power. Satan had already won Judas's desires and suggested the evil. But here he takes possession of him in a personal way — Satan enters into him. He hardens his heart against every natural feeling.
Luke 22:3 reports the same fact without saying when it happened, and readers have often placed it too early.
The English translation misleads us if we take Luke's verse 3 to mean that Satan entered into Judas at that moment. From John 13:27 we know it was only after the morsel. John also keeps this full work of the enemy separate from the earlier occasion, when the enemy had put the betrayal into the betrayer's heart. Luke gives no marker of time here. He uses only a linking word, and is content with the broad fact without going into its stages one by one.
One phrase here stands alone in Scripture.
We read that after the morsel Satan entered into him. That is a remarkable word. We read of many cases of men possessed by demons, but this is the only time we hear of Satan himself entering into a man. Two people are called "the son of perdition" — Judas, and the Antichrist, or the man of sin.
The order matters: the command follows the possession. Once the enemy is inside, the last restraints are gone.
Lust had already opened the heart of Judas to the devil's suggestion. Now Satan himself takes possession of Judas. Any stirring of conscience left in Judas, any sense of shame, any shrinking back from the sin he was about to commit — the entrance of Satan silences it all. Satan does not hesitate. From now on Judas is the helpless instrument of his plans. For Judas there is now no turning back, and so the Lord can say to him, "What you are going to do, do quickly."
The same command opens a window on what Jesus was feeling that night.
It was all over with Judas when Satan entered into him. Nothing could stop him on his headlong course to destruction. But the feelings of the heart of Jesus come out when He said to the betrayer, "What you are going to do, do quickly." Not one of the disciples understood at the time why Jesus said this (John 13:28). Yet we can see the terrible pressure that lay on the spirit of Jesus, longing that what lay ahead of Him should be delayed no longer.
The scene looks like the enemy's victory. Look again: the enemy could not move at all without permission.
The Lord accepted the situation and told him to act quickly. It seems that even Satan could not move freely in this matter without God's permission. Once God granted it, Judas rose and left under Satan's controlling power. He went out into the night, in more senses than one.
John records that it was night. That is a fact about the hour, and more.
In the first place John is stating a plain fact: it really was night when Judas took the morsel and went out from the presence of his Lord. But think of the solemn character of the moment, and of his terrible moral condition — Satan had by then entered into him (v. 27). There can be no doubt that the statement is meant to stop us with its moral meaning… when Judas turned his back on Him and went out under the power of Satan, it was indeed night in his soul.
- Suggestion first. The devil had already won Judas' desires and put the betrayal into his heart. Verse 27 is the later, fuller stage: possession.
- Nearness is no safety. Outward familiarity with Christ, where the heart is wrong, became the very opening through which Satan came in.
- Satan himself. Demons entered many people. Scripture names only one man that Satan himself entered — one of two called "the son of perdition."
- No turning back. With the enemy inside, conscience, shame and hesitation fell silent. Only then does the Lord say, "do quickly."
- Still under permission. Satan could not move without God's permission. Judas rose at Christ's word and walked into a night that was around him and inside him at once.
But none of those at table knew why he said this to him;
Judas has just taken the piece of bread from Jesus' hand and heard the words, "What you are going to do, do quickly." The whole table hears it too, yet no one understands — so how did eleven close friends miss a betrayal announced in front of them?
Their blank reaction says something about Judas' reputation. He was no outsider they tolerated — they trusted him with the money.
The Lord's clear statement that one of the chosen twelve was about to show himself a traitor also brought trouble into the minds of the disciples. Verse 22 shows that no suspicion of Judas was lurking in their minds. He appeared perfectly sincere in their eyes, so much so that they had entrusted the common purse to him. The craft of Satan's camouflage is almost perfect.
No one at that table could share the weight of the moment with Him. Their blankness also had a cause deeper than ignorance:
How little the disciples entered into the sufferings, the sorrow, of the Lord, of the Son of Man. There are certain sorrows kept for the secret of the Lord's heart… If He had anyone to sympathise with Him, His betrayal would in this sense have been easier to bear. There would have been some faithful hearts, a veil over the other man's turning away. But He was alone in it. None understood what it was. They thought it was to buy something, or give to the poor. But this wrong guess came from more than ignorance. Their hearts were full of other things than the one thing that necessarily filled the Lord's heart.
Not even John understood. Their two guesses fell far short of the real business of that hour.
Yet the disciples looked on and listened, not knowing what terrible issues were at stake. Not even John grasped the meaning of words that would soon be clear to all. It was not to buy things needed, but to sell their Lord and Master. It was no preparation for the feast, but the very thing the feast, not they, had always looked forward to… It was not that Judas should give to the poor — the last thing that would occupy his mind. It was that He should give, who though He was rich, yet for our sake became poor, so that we by His poverty might become rich (2 Cor. 8:9). It was a man's, a disciple's, worst sin; it was God's infinite love; both met in the death of the Lord on the cross. But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.
The confusion belonged to the eleven alone. Judas knew what had just passed between him and Jesus.
The eleven, stunned, it seems, by this terrible disclosure, fail to grasp the meaning of the Lord's words. They had entrusted the bag to Judas, so they judge that the Lord's words must refer to meeting the needs of the feast or to relieving the poor. Judas has no misunderstanding. The presence of the Lord has become unbearable to this devil-possessed man. Having received the morsel, he gets up at once and, without a word, passes into the night.
Jesus named no sin out loud and shamed no one at that table. That silence is part of why no one understood:
Others have noted that in this whole solemn scene no one denounces Judas. No reproach is heaped on him, no word of expulsion spoken against him, no demand made that he leave. The Lord reveals that a false one is present. He foretells the sin about to be committed, and points out the man who will commit it. Then, in a silence more terrible than words, Judas leaves the light that was too searching, the holy Presence he could no longer endure. He passes into the night for which no morning will ever dawn. Let us remember that but for the grace of God, and the precious blood of Christ, we should each one follow Judas into the night.
What was unclear in the upper room did not stay unclear for long.
In the upper room the Lord had said to him, "What you are going to do, do quickly." The rest had not understood it then. Now it was plain indeed to every one of the eleven.
- Hidden. Judas was so convincing that the eleven trusted him with their money. Even after Jesus announced the betrayal, they suspected nothing.
- Alone. No one understood, so the Lord carried this sorrow without a shred of human sympathy.
- Distracted. Their mistake came from more than ignorance. Their hearts were full of other things than what filled His.
- Contrast. They pictured shopping and charity. At the cross, a disciple's worst sin met God's infinite love.
- Warning. Jesus named no one and threw no reproach. Yet the man who understood best walked out into the night, and only grace keeps anyone from that road.
for some supposed, because Judas had the bag, that Jesus was saying to him, Buy the things of which we have need for the feast; or that he should give something to the poor.
The eleven had just heard their Master tell one of their own to act quickly. They guessed He meant shopping or charity. Their guess shows how little they suspected the man beside them, and how far their thoughts were from the truth.
The disciples reached for the most ordinary explanation because Judas held the group's money, and nothing about him had ever raised an alarm.
The Lord's clear statement troubled the disciples: one of the chosen twelve was about to show himself a traitor. Verse 22 shows that no suspicion of Judas was lurking in their minds. He appeared perfectly sincere to their eyes, so much so that the common purse had been entrusted to him. The craft of Satan's camouflage is almost perfect.
That trust was misplaced, and one writer asks how it was ever given — pointing out that the choice of a treasurer says something about the men who make it.
How did Judas Iscariot become treasurer for the apostles in the days of the Lord Jesus? It is unthinkable that the Lord Himself chose him for such service… His companions must have chosen him for this job. They chose him for his business ability, not for his spiritual grace. Fatal blunder! It ended in disaster, as we know. Many years after the unhappy Judas had "gone to his own place," the Apostle John wrote of him. He did not care about the poor, but "he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it" (John 12:6).
Set the disciples' two theories beside what Judas actually went out to do, and each one turns inside out.
He went out not to buy the things they needed, but to sell their Lord and Master. This was no preparation for the feast. It was the very thing the feast itself — not the disciples — had always looked forward to: the fulfilment of God's mind and purpose in it. That meant the Jews crucifying their own Messiah by the hand of lawless men. Judas was not going out to give to the poor; that was the last thing on his mind. Instead the Giver was the One Who "though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich" (2 Cor. 8:9). It was a man's, a disciple's, worst sin; it was God's infinite love; both met in the death of the Lord on the cross. But where sin increased, grace increased far more.
Their mistake was not only a lack of information. It also left the Lord alone with what He was facing.
How little the disciples entered into the sufferings, the sorrow, of the Lord. … There are certain sorrows kept for the secret of the Lord's heart. … If He had had anyone to sympathise with Him, His betrayal would in this sense have been easier. … But He was alone in it. No one understood what it was. They thought it was to buy something, or to give to the poor. But there was more than ignorance in this wrong guess. Their hearts were full of other things, while the Lord's heart was full of the one thing it had to be full of.
The verse contrasts eleven puzzled men with one who understood perfectly what had just been said to him.
The Eleven, stunned, it seems, by this terrible disclosure, fail to grasp the meaning of the Lord's words. Judas had charge of the bag, so they judge that the Lord's words must refer to meeting the needs of the feast or to relieving the poor. Judas has no such misunderstanding. The presence of the Lord has become unbearable to this devil-possessed man. So he takes the morsel, gets up at once, and passes into the night without a word.
What they could not read that evening became obvious a few hours later in the garden.
What the Lord had said to him in the upper room, not understood by the rest — "What you are going to do, do quickly" — was now plain indeed to every one of the Eleven… Providing for the feast had not been in his thoughts that night. To satisfy his greed had been his desire.
The feast named here raises a question about John's timing.
Could John have meant, by the "feast of the Passover," the feast of Unleavened Bread which directly followed it? The mention of the feast in verse 29 might give some support to such a view. Remember that the Lord was crucified on the fifteenth day of Nisan, the first day of the feast of Unleavened Bread.
- Purse — Judas carried the common fund, and his cover was so complete that no one at the table suspected him.
- Guess — Because of the bag, the eleven assumed an errand: supplies for the feast, or a gift to the poor.
- Opposite — He went out not to buy but to sell his Master. He went not to give to the poor, but to betray the One who became poor to make others rich.
- Blindness — They missed more than a fact. Their hearts were full of other things, while His was full of the cross.
- Warning — A man can be trusted with the money, chosen for skill and not for grace, and still walk out into the night.
Having therefore received the morsel, he went out immediately; and it was night.
Judas has just taken the piece of bread from the Lord's own hand, and he leaves the room without a word. John then adds the hour, which raises two questions: why record the time, and what did Judas walk out on?
The morsel was the Lord's last appeal to Judas. He took the bread and refused the One who gave it.
The Lord appealed to the traitor. He gave him the morsel of bread, and Judas took it, but resisted the appeal. All the love of Christ was thrown away on him. His soul lay devastated and ruined. "What you are going to do, do quickly," the Lord said. Then he got up from the table and went out. Scripture adds, "it was night." He went out into the blackness of night's darkness to do a deed of still blacker darkness. Judas was at the Passover table, but went out from the presence of the Lord, to go to his own place. He was not "clean," as the Lord had said (John 13:10).
Judas moved at once. Even so, he did not move outside God's permission.
The Lord accepted the situation and told him to act quickly. It seems that even Satan could not move freely in this matter without divine permission. Once Satan had it, Judas rose and left under his controlling power. He went out into the night, in more senses than one.
The words state the hour. They also carry a second meaning, because of who sat at that table.
First of all, John points to the plain fact that it really was night when Judas took the morsel of bread and went out from the presence of his Lord. But think of the solemn moment, and of his awful moral condition — Satan had entered into him (v. 27). There can be no doubt at all: the moral meaning of those words is meant to stop us short. Jesus had said, "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world"; for in Him was life, and the life was the light of men. That is surely what He was as He sat at the Passover table among His disciples. So when Judas turned his back on Him and went out under the power of Satan, it was indeed night in his soul.
For Judas the night did not end. It grew darker after he saw what he had done.
What darkness rested on that soul from then on! "It was night," says John. And that night grew more horrible for the faithless man. He saw the evil he could never undo only after he had done it. The night closed on him as he went to his own place.
One writer uses the same word for the world itself, and says what makes a night a night.
Believers are not in darkness. They are "children of light, children of the day." They know God and stand in the light of the day that is coming. "Night" and "darkness" mark the world. The absence of Christ makes the night, and the ignorance of God makes the darkness (compare John 12:35-36, 46; 13:30).
The door shut behind Judas. Only His own were left in the room with the Lord.
Love laid its last service at his feet, he spurned it, and he goes out into the betrayer's night. The contrast is sharp. Outside is the fellowship of the world, with its thoughts and purposes of evil. Inside is the fellowship of this other world, where the thoughts and purposes of love open out. Jesus was alone with His true disciples.
Readers often ask whether Judas shared in the Lord's Supper.
Judas was not present at the Lord's Supper. These verses show that the Lord gave the Supper after the Passover. It was "when He had supped" (verse 25), and Judas went out as soon as he received the morsel of bread from the Lord. The Lord gave him the morsel and said, "What you are going to do, do quickly," and after the traitor left, He founded this ordinance. Can you imagine the Lord asking Judas to do this "in remembrance of me"? No, it is true hearts He wants.
- Offered. The morsel was love's last approach to Judas — grace reaching its limit with a man who took the gift and refused the Giver.
- Refused. "Immediately" marks how fast he went. Satan drove him, yet even Satan moved only by divine permission.
- Night, twice over. The hour was dark, and the man walking away from the Light of the world carried that darkness inside him.
- Deepening. For Judas the night never broke. It thickened until it closed on him going to his own place. For the world, night is the absence of Christ.
- Divided. One door separated two fellowships. Outside, the plotting; inside, the Lord alone with His own — and there He gave the Supper for true hearts.