John 13:18-30
Verse 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.”
This intimate holiday dinner was about to get a bit awkward. While most of us have lived through our share of awkward family dinners we probably haven’t experienced any like Jesus and His true followers were living that moment. Jesus was seeing the whole picture of the meal and evening with His friends but the disciples didn’t know why this Passover was going to be different than previous festivals.
Jesus knew some would accept Him and other would reject Him. The disciples had already seen that during His ministry years and may not have taken what He was saying as personal as Jesus was meaning it. This line of conversation was hard for Jesus as it was showing just how much He cared for Judas even though He knew the man was going to betray Him to be killed.
When Jesus announced the betrayal they started thinking future tense. The other disciples hadn’t realized Judas was already in the process of selling Jesus out. Just as any of us would have done they wanted to know who it was. It would be so easy to start looking around the table making guesses about who the bad guy was amongst them. Thinking of the various times men in the group had done things they didn’t agree with. And the questions from around the table didn’t clear it up as even Judas asked if Jesus meant him (Mathew 26:25).
Peter got John to ask Jesus to tell the group who He was talking about but Jesus wasn’t going to call Judas out by name. Instead Jesus mentioned to John it was the man He was going to hand the piece of bread to. This act of passing a dipped piece of bread was a sign of special honor or friendship and so the act would look to the rest of the men as if He was pointing out it wasn’t Judas. That may be why they thought Jesus was talking about sending Judas out on an errand when He told Judas to go do what he had to do. By leaving, Judas was showing he wasn’t part of the saved, just as those who would leave the home and miss being saved during the first Passover. As Jesus saw Judas leave it must have hurt. Though the others didn’t realize it, within hours they would see Judas betraying Him with a kiss.
Making It Personal
When have you been betrayed? Have you been able to forgive that person? How does sin in your life act as a betrayal to all God has done for you?
Making It Personal Kids
What do you think betrayal means? Has anyone ever betrayed you? Have you ever betrayed someone else?
Closing Prayer
Father, we know betrayal hurts and that we have sometimes been guilty of it ourselves. Give us wisdom to be trustworthy and faithful. May we reflect You in all we do and say. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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