And when the evening was come he lay down at table with the twelve.
The Passover meal is ready. As the sun goes down, Jesus takes His place at the table with the twelve men He has trained. One of them has already sold Him. Commentators read this short verse for its hour, its setting, and above all for who sat there.
One writer traces the hour and the place back to God's own instructions, and fixes the moment on the clock.
If we turn to Deuteronomy 16, we have the spiritual instruction about the Passover — the month, the day, and the place. It was not to be in just any place. The instruction reads, "but at the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make His name dwell in it, there you shall offer the Passover sacrifice, in the evening at sunset, at the time you came out of Egypt." So Jesus was at the place God had chosen for the Passover sacrifice. The month, the day, and the hour had come: the going down of the sun. The appointed hour had come. As for the chief priests and scribes, they were looking for a way to kill Him. They did not know that He was the true Passover Lamb. Thirteen people sat down together, within the number Jewish history says was allowed. It was our Thursday, about six o'clock, at sunset. By Jewish time, their Friday had just begun.
The posture behind "reclined at table" is that of guests at a feast, not people perched on chairs.
"And when the evening had come (v. 20), the time for eating the Passover, He reclined at table with the twelve."
One writer notes who shared that meal, and how soon the feast was overtaken.
For many centuries Israel had kept the Passover with more or less faithfulness. Now they would keep it in its full meaning for the last time. Within twenty-four hours its light grew pale in the shining of the reality it pictured, when the true Lamb of God died on the cross. Remarkably, at the last celebration of its full meaning, the One who set up the feast was there to share in it. He was the perfect, holy Man, the LORD's Fellow. He ordered the Passover to be prepared, and He decided the very place where they should eat it. The time, the manner, the place, were all His appointment.
"The twelve" is a title, not just a headcount. These were men chosen for a nearness no one else had.
The company was Jesus and the twelve. They were twelve distinguished men, but distinguished in a special way. He had called them out to be His apostles, His beloved followers and His witnesses. He chose them to see more of His face than anyone else in the world, and to hear more of His words than others. He brought them into scenes of closest intimacy.
The twelve at that table included the traitor. One writer states the fact plainly, then refuses the wrong conclusion drawn from it.
The record mentions Judas taking part in the feast and asking a question. Then, at the supper as well as at the Passover, our Lord says, "Behold, the hand of him who betrays Me is with Me on the table." We do not see how anyone can question that Judas was present at the supper. His character was known only to the Lord. His fellow apostles did not seem to suspect him. But to argue from this case that we ought to allow known evil at the Lord's table is simply wicked.
Another writer places that evening before the church existed.
Now the church — the body of Christ — is made up only of believers, members of Christ. When they gather together as such in His name to eat the Lord's Supper, it does not allow for the thought of unbelievers sharing in the supper among them... If Judas did share in it, it was before the church had any existence, and before certain features were later added to the supper through the apostle Paul.
Some argue that evening is the proper hour for the Lord's Supper. One writer replies that Scripture records the hour without commanding it.
It does not appear that the Lord has given us any direction about the hour of the day at which we should break bread. The inspired history tells us that the Supper was first instituted in the evening. (See Matt. 26:20)... But to us it makes no difference — it is quite an open question. If anyone lays down rules, they are going beyond the bounds of Scripture. The word is, "As often as you eat."
- Appointed — He fixed the month, the day, the hour and the house. The leaders plotting His death did not know the true Passover Lamb had already taken His seat.
- Last — this was the final Passover kept while it still pointed forward. Within a day the true Lamb died, and the picture faded.
- Chosen — "the twelve" saw more of His face and heard more of His words than anyone else alive.
- Betrayed — Judas sat inside that same circle, his hand on the table with Christ. Being close to Him is not the same as being His.
- Open — the evening hour is history, not law. Commentators warn against turning a recorded detail into a rule Scripture never gave.
And as they were eating he said, Verily I say to you, that one of you shall deliver me up.
It is the last evening before the cross. The Lord is at the table with His twelve disciples, and He tells them that His betrayer is one of them — without naming him.
Everything is closing in on Him, yet He stays calm. During the meal, He lets the disciples hear the grief in His heart.
Still, in the face of it all, the Lord goes on in His path of love and holy calm. As the twelve were eating, He tells out the grief of His heart: "Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me" (v. 21) — and this draws out the reality of their affections and their deep grief.
What made this hurt so much? One writer, commenting on Mark's record of the same words, points to the love that was thrown away.
The Lord's love was perfect. He felt deeply that one of those who had lived in His holy presence, heard His words of grace, and seen His infinite love and patience, should act like this. His words, "One of you who eats with me will betray me," came out of the anguish of His heart. The greater and more perfect the love, the greater the anguish when someone betrays that love. Never had love in all its perfection been so expressed as in Christ, and never had anyone lived outwardly so near to Christ as Judas. Yet it was all in vain, for even if he had any appreciation of that love, he loved money more.
The words search every man at the table. They land hardest on the one who already knew the answer.
At once we see Him at the table with the twelve. While they were eating, He announces that one of them is the traitor. We may well take what follows in that conversation as a last warning to Judas. The Lord had seen him turning to the chief priests and knew of his bargaining with them. He read the whole dark story in that heart, which lay before Him, the One who knows all things, like an open book. "Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me." These words must have aimed at the conscience of Judas Iscariot.
They did not defend themselves or hunt for the guilty man. They turned the question inward.
The Lord knew well who the traitor would be, but He expresses the anguish of His heart when He says, "one of you will betray me." He wanted to test their hearts again and bring to light what was inside them. They believed the Lord's words, and each one, full of trust in Him and of holy distrust of himself, said, "Lord, is it I?" Here is a fine testimony of upright and tested hearts. They weighed the fact and the possibility of such a crime, trusting Jesus' word more than themselves.
One writer turns the same question on the reader:
"They looked at one another, uncertain of whom He spoke." Can you understand that? Before your conscience wakes up, you look at other people... Have you ever, as a sinner, asked yourself the question — Is it I? Oh, but you say, I could never betray Christ. Well, I am perfectly sure I could, knowing my own heart. And, my dear friends, the person who is certain he can never do it is the very person who will go and do it.
The betrayal did not catch God off guard. That does not clear the man who carried it out.
But the betrayal of Judas was long foretold: it was all taking place "as it is written." But woe to the betrayer, for it has been said, "The carrying out of God's purposes does not take away the guilt of those who fulfil them; otherwise how could God judge the world?"
When Paul tells how the Lord's Supper began, he dates it by the betrayal, not by the crucifixion.
Left to his own wisdom, Paul would most likely have connected the account of the Supper, as we would have, with the crucifixion... But that was not the way he received it from the Lord... It was on the night of the betrayal. The betrayal is the background that makes the love shine out — the love that moved the Lord to give us the Supper. He gave it so that we might keep it as a memorial of His death until He comes.
- Nearness — no stranger sold Him. The betrayer had lived closest to Him and heard His words of grace.
- Love — the deeper the love, the deeper the wound; the anguish measures the perfection of the heart that felt it.
- Warning — the unnamed "one of you" was a final appeal to a conscience the Lord could read like an open book.
- Self-distrust — the disciples trusted His word more than their own hearts. They asked "Is it I?" instead of pointing at anyone else.
- Memorial — God chose that same night of betrayal for the Supper, so love shines out against the darkest background.
And being exceedingly grieved they began to say to him, each of them, Is it *I*, Lord?
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.