Judas

N.T. Wright

John for Everyone, Part 2: Chapters 11–21 Judas Goes out (John 13:21–30)

A priest working in the villages outside Cambridge reports that when sheep are taken off to be killed, they know instinctively that the slaughterhouse is a bad place. They can smell or sense something which warns of danger. The lorry carrying them will stop, the gangplank will be put down, but they will refuse to move.

The slaughterhouse operators have devised a way of getting round the problem. They keep a sheep on the premises, who is used to the place and doesn’t mind it any more. They take it up the plank on to the lorry, and then it walks down again quite happily. The other sheep, seeing one of their own leading the way, will follow.

The slaughterhouse workers call this sheep ‘Judas’.

Judas. One of their own who leads them to their death. Can you imagine forever being known as the one who betrayed the Jesus?Your name synonymous with betrayal?

John 13:21 ESV

After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and testified, “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”

This had to be the most heartbreaking moment for our Lord. Jesus knew why he was sent to be born as one of us. He knew his mission. He knew he was to die on the cross. In Matthew’s Gospel, at the end of his ministry in Galilee, we read in Matt 15:21

Matthew 16:21 ESV

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.

He also knew he would be betrayed. He is Lord of all - nothing that happens do so outside of His will. The betrayal itself is prophesied in Ps. 41:9...

Psalm 41:9 ESV

Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.

Even with this foreknowledge, we are told that Jesus was “troubled in spirit.” One of his own, one he loved, one he had called into his inner circle, whom he had invested time and attention to teach and guide, he had just washed the man’s feet for goodness sake, decided to betray him and turn him over to his enemies.

I think we can be tempted to picture Judas always sitting apart from the rest of disciples, always conniving, always up to no good. One that everybody had to keep an eye on.

But that is not what we see described here. Judas is right there reclining at the table - close enough to the Lord for Jesus to reach out and give him a morsel of bread. When Jesus said one would betray him - you don’t read of everyone eyeing Judas - quite the opposite, they find someone to ask Jesus who it is. And when Jesus sent Judas on his way - it is clear that no one else knew what was going on. They trusted him with the money - which shows he had some level of trust with the team.

How could one who walked with Lord turn around and betray him?

In this passage, the focus is on Jesus and two disciples. The unnamed disciple referred to as “the One whom Jesus loved” and on Judas - the betrayer. Here we have a disciple who is sitting close to the Lord - sitting is not really the right word. During special dinners, like the Passover celebration we see here, it was custom to recline and eat. There were pillows set out, the disciples lay next to one another, all pointing toward a low table of food, and with their body supported on one elbow, they would eat with the other hand. So “the one whom Jesus loved” apparently was right next to Jesus - so much so that when he rolled his head back, he was right a Jesus’ chest. Traditionally, this disciple has been identified as John - the author of this book. However, I have read compelling reasons why this unnamed disciple is Lazarus - the one Jesus raised from the dead. Either way, this disciple is leaning into Jesus - he is one that Simon Peter entrusted to get more info. He knew he could go to Jesus with anything - that Jesus loved him and would not withhold anything from him.

And then you have Judas. Sitting at the same table, yet his heart turned away. Going back to NT Wright - he explains “Dipping a piece of bread in the dish and passing it to someone was a sign of special friendship. That was the sign Jesus employed to tell the beloved disciple not only that it was Judas who was going to do the awful deed, but what the deepest dimension of that deed would be. It was a betrayal of intimate, close trust and friendship. John has already told us that the devil had put the idea into Judas’ mind to betray Jesus. Now he tells us that when Jesus gave Judas the bread, ‘the satan’ entered into him.

Judas had a choice. Satan is always working to deceive us, to lead us down the wrong path - but we have to agree to it. We can’t get away with saying “the devil made me do it” - we are the one who decides. By making the decision to follow through with the idea - Judas opens the door for Satan to work through him.

In fact, when Jesus tells Judas “What you are going to do, do quickly.”

He is speaking to Satan as much as he is speaking to Judas. Judas immediately went out and John descriptively tells us - “and it was night.” Judas left the light and walked out into the darkness.

Early in John 11 - Jesus said

John 11:9–10 (ESV)

If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”

Jesus is the light of the world. So when John tells us Judas walked out into the darkness - he is saying that Judas had fallen away.

In a Commentary on the gospel of John, Bruce Milne writes...

The Message of John b. The Coming of the Night—Judas (13:18–30)

The most disturbing element in this passage, however, is the awesome warning represented in the figure of Judas. There is, tragically, ‘a road to hell at the very gates of heaven’ in the sense that it is possible to resist even the prolonged, personal appeals of Jesus Christ and turn away at the last into the darkness. There are those whom even Jesus cannot, and will not, save. Not that his grace is insufficient for them. On the contrary, it truly is ‘enough for all, enough for each, enough for evermore’, as Charles Wesley eloquently declared. But they will not come to receive it. The corollary to the stress on the crucial importance of faith in this gospel is the seriousness of unbelief, the refusal of faith. Hell is no mere theoretical possibility. It is an awesome and fearful reality. To refuse the light means to choose the darkness where no light will ever shine again. Judas also eliminates the excuse often expressed or implied, that ‘if only I had been there, when Jesus was on earth, seen his miracles, heard his teaching, and experienced his personal invitation, then of course I would have committed my life to him’. Judas was there, he saw, he heard, he experienced … and went out to hell. ‘Put your trust in the light while you have it’ (12:36).

Now as disturbing as that is to hear - and to contemplate - let’s be clear that there is a way back into grace.

In the student book we are using, you may have read the story told by Thomas Long, preaching professor at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. There is a local connection - for more than a decade, Tom Long has actually called Cambridge home.

Tom says “the more we look at Judas, the more we see the potential for faithlessness in ourselves. Some years ago, a congregation built a small and secluded chapel for prayer and meditation, and they equipped it with 12 chairs, each inscribed with the name of one of the disciples. The chair “marked” Judas is the one most heavily worn with use.”

Why do you think the Judas chair got more use than those representing the other 11 disciples?

(Few get through life with regrets - none without sins)

Is God willing to to forgive anything?

Yes - but that does not mean that there won’t be consequences.

What must we do to receive God’s forgiveness?

(Ask)

Listen to this verse. Micah 7:19

Micah 7:19 ESV

He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

When we repent of whatever we have done wrong, others may or may not remember our past. But as far as God is concerned, we have no reputation to live down. We may have work to do with those we may have hurt, but as far as God is concerned, our sins of the past are not merely forgiven, they are forgotten. This verse tells us that God pitches our sins into the “depths of the sea” - we suspect that God then post a “no fishing” sign.

Let us pray.

Forgiving God, we come humbly before the cross to seek your redemption and forgiveness. Remove the guilt that haunts us and make us whole; in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.