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.