Choices: Betrayal, Denial, or Love

April 6 Maundy Thursday Text: John 13:31-38

Theme: Choices: Betrayal, denial, or love. Big Idea: Love conquers the darkness of the human heart. Notes: C. S. Lewis understood that the most profound human emotions are what linguists call "floating signifiers," words that have no universally agreed-upon meaning. We can't merely experience "love": we must love something or someone specific and real. We don't just feel "pain"; we writhe in a very personal, and almost never describable, sort of suffering. And there's no such thing as "hope," but rather the intimate conviction that a set of particular occurrences will soon come into play.

Text: John 13:31–38 (NRSV): When Judas had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him.

32 If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once.

33 Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’

34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.

35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” 36 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered, “Where I am going, you cannot follow me now; but you will follow afterward.”

37 Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”

38 Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Very truly, I tell you, before the cock crows, you will have denied me three times.

Introduction

Not long ago I read this provocative sentence: Choice is the strongest principle of growth in our quest to follow the way of Jesus. Anonymous

What this means is, the choices we make have the power to build us up or break us down. The choices we make can alter the course of our lives. Wouldn’t you agree?

On any given day, we make insignificant choices that make hardly a ripple on the surface of our lives (paper or plastic? Do you want vanilla or strawberry ice cream? I say both! Salt or pepper?). Those choices are trivial.

But some choices are monumental. They have the power to reshape and affect us and others long into the future.

The choice to marry, divorce, or stay single; the choice to forego higher education; the choice to save instead of spend every dollar; the choice to forgive another or carry resentment, unforgiveness; the choice to speak the truth or speak a lie. The choice to move as we are doing, or to stay.

As people who follow Jesus we must ask constantly for wisdom to choose the right path—because choice is the strongest principle of spiritual growth.

In our Maundy Thursday reading, three choices are present.

Choice #1: Will the disciples choose Betrayal or Allegiance?

Judas chose betrayal over allegiance to Jesus. He betrayed Jesus with a kiss. But I would argue that long before he kissed Jesus, something else or someone else was reshaping his heart.

John 13:2 (NRSV): 2 The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him.

John 13:21–27 (NRSV): 21 After saying this Jesus was troubled in spirit, and declared, “Very truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me.”

22 The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he was speaking.

23 One of his disciples—the one whom Jesus loved—was reclining next to him;

24 Simon Peter therefore motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking.

25 So while reclining next to Jesus, he asked him, “Lord, who is it?”

26 Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” So when he had dipped the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas son of Simon Iscariot.

27 After he received the piece of bread, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “Do quickly what you are going to do.”

Whenever we talk about choice, we must also talk about responsibility. every decision, every choice that we make carries consequences. So who is responsible?

Do we fix the blame on the devil? The devil is always doing the grim work of planting dark, negative thoughts into our minds. But the devil doesn't have the power to compel us to act.

The choice rests with Judas. Judas chose to betray Jesus long before he kissed Him.

Judas’s role in the divine plan was not something apart from his own desire; he was no robot, pre-programmed to betray Jesus against his will. Judas freely chose to do what he did, and was fully accountable for his actions. John F. MacArthur

Judas was on the front row and heard all of Jesus’s sermons; he saw all of Jesus’s miracles; he held a leadership role as chief accountant in Jesus’s ministry.

Judas’s betrayal reveals his true character and shows that standing close to Jesus does not in itself guarantee spiritual success if the heart is not aligned properly to God. Darrell L. Bock

Choice #2: Will the disciples choose Denial or Affirmation?

Have you ever compared Peter’s affirmation of Jesus with his denial of Jesus? Think about that sometime.

How could the same person say such polar opposite statements?

Peter wilted, because of pressure and the threat of death. He never meant to do it; he was swept away by a moment of weakness. In that moment of pressure, his will was too weak, but his heart was always right. William Barclay

What this means is that as disciples, we are complex people. One minute we say and do things that are honoring to God, and the next we say and do things that dishonor our Savior.

In contrasting Peter with Judas, it might be better to speak of denial of nerve versus denial of the heart. Darrell L. Bock

Choice #3 Will the disciples choose Love or apathy?

John 13:34–35 (NRSV): 34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.

Why? If we choose to love, Jesus says, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” Jn 13:35.

How did Jesus love his disciples? This was a question I asked those in attendance at our staff meeting on Tuesday.

Trace the career of the twelve apostles through the Gospels. What do you find?

Rather than a record of exemplary discipleship, they misunderstood Jesus repeatedly, failed in ministry, fearful, forgetful, squabbled amongst themselves, refused to wash one another’s feet, fell asleep as Jesus agonized in prayer in the dark Garden of Gethsemane, and then completely deserted him.

In many ways it is an abject litany of failure.

I have never come across a ‘how-to’ book with a title like ‘Discipleship the Simon Peter Way’ and I am fairly confident it will never be written.

But although the disciples deserted their Lord, their Lord never deserted them, never stopped loving them, never stopped calling them his disciples.

Only Judas, who wilfully refused to return in repentance and faith, is not commissioned by the risen Jesus to go into all the world and make disciples of others.

And then we come to the end of John’s Gospel, the crucifixion and resurrection are past. Some of the disciples returned to the fishing business.

Jesus returns to a familiar spot by the Sea of Galilee.

When a group from our church visited the Holy Land in 2019, we visited the Church of the Primacy of St. Peter at Tabgha on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee.

And it was at this location, Jesus put on his apron, started a fire and cooked breakfast.

Out on the Sea of Galilee, Peter and his friends were coming back from a night of fishing. Peter, because of his denial of Jesus times three, he thought he was finished, a fallen leader with no hope for return.

Jesus came mercifully and tenderly to restore him. If Jesus had said to him, “Peter, after three years together, why did you throw me under the bus? I can’t believe you are so fickle, he would have been justified. But Jesus didn’t say those words.

Instead he asked three times, Peter do you love me? Of all the things Jesus could’ve said to these depleted disciples. He spoke to them about love.

Many decades ago, when I took my ordination vows, one of the questions asked: will you serve the people with energy, imagination, and love? The deacons and elders among us will remember this question. Love.

Why love?

God is love.

To love proves that we know God.

Love is stronger than hate and apathy.

Love covers sin and failure.

Love binds us together.

Love never ends.

Love is the fulfillment of the greatest commandment.

Love bears all things, believes things, hopes all things. Love never dies.

Love sustains passion, faithfulness, and provides the right motivation for prayer, giving, serving, and dwelling in the Word,

Love is from God and everyone loves knows God.

As followers of Jesus, there will come a night, there will come a moment when we will find ourselves in situations where the choices we make will matter. May we choose to love. To love the Lord, our God, with all of our heart, our soul, our mind, and our strength and to love our neighbor ourselves.

It is this kind of love that gives fuel to those of us who seek to practice in the way of Jesus. In the name of the father, the son and the Holy Spirit, amen