John 13:21-30 Hands of Betrayal

John 13:21-30 (Evangelical Heritage Version)

21After saying this, Jesus was troubled in his spirit and testified, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: One of you will betray me.”

22The disciples were looking at each other, uncertain which of them he meant.

23One of his disciples, the one Jesus loved, was reclining at Jesus’ side. 24So Simon Peter motioned to him to find out which one he was talking about.

25So leaning back against Jesus’ side, he asked, “Lord, who is it?”

26Jesus replied, “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread, after I have dipped it in the dish.” Then he dipped the piece of bread and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. 27As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.

So Jesus told him, “What you are about to do, do more quickly.”

28None of those reclining at the table understood why Jesus said this to him. 29Because Judas kept the money box, some thought that Jesus was telling him, “Buy what we need for the Festival,” or to give something to the poor. 30As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.

Hands of Betrayal

I.

Betrayal. King David of Israel knew a thing or two about it.

Ahithophel was a member of David’s cabinet. He was a close friend and trusted confidant, a man who dined at David’s family table, a man whose counsel David trusted, whose advice was blessed by God and who contributed to the outward success of David’s kingdom. Yet when David’s son Absalom attempted a coup, Ahithophel betrayed David and joined Absalom’s cause. It was a bitter betrayal.

The only man with whom a king would work more closely than his cabinet member is his general. David’s general was Joab. The two of them had been through a lot together. Who can forget Joab’s fierce loyalty when David asked him to be an accessory to Uriah’s murder? Bringing news about the battle in which Uriah had died, Joab matter-of-factly reported: “The archers shot at your troops from the wall. Some of the servants of the king died. And your servant Uriah the Hittite also died ” (2 Samuel 11:24, EHV). Joab’s loyalty to David only went so far, however. Eventually he backed Adonijah instead of Solomon to succeed David as king.

From the time he dropped Goliath until his dying breath, David’s life was filled with this kind of drama. Saul tried to kill him, his sons schemed to steal his throne, his friends betrayed him; he was constantly on the run from enemies. Although it’s unclear whether he was talking about Ahithophel or Joab, David lamented his betrayal in the prophetic psalm: “Even a man who was at peace with me, a man whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has raised up his heel to step on me” (Psalm 41:9, EHV).

Is there anything more biting than betrayal? We expect unbelievers to persecute us. We’re not surprised when a neighbor slams the door on a canvass. We know corporate life brings office politics. Yet we expect our friends to be loyal. When we’re close with someone, when we share our deepest secrets and trust them completely, and then they betray that trust, that is intensely painful.

II.

David certainly wasn’t the first person to have been betrayed, and he wasn’t the last either. Neither was his lamenting psalm isolated to his own situation; Jesus invokes David’s words in this text from John to predict his own betrayal by Judas. Like Joab, Judas was close with Jesus. Like Ahithophel, Judas was part of the inner circle, one of the Twelve. He was a trusted friend who broke bread at Jesus’ table. And like them, Judas lifted up his hands in betrayal.

Since the 1940s, nobody names their son Adolf. And since Bible times, nobody names their son Judas. The name Judas is synonymous with “betrayer.” It makes people wonder if he was always noticeably evil. Was he especially wicked from the womb? Why would anyone do something like this to Jesus?

It’s true that Judas was sinful when he came out of the womb, but in the same way everyone is born sinful. Judas was just as sinful as Andrew or Philip, just like you or me. And just like those other sinners Andrew or Philip, Jesus called Judas to be a disciple. He heeded to Jesus’ invitation to follow. He went on missionary trips with the Twelve and the 72. He served alongside the others. Earlier in this chapter, Jesus washed his feet, and now he was present on that Holy Thursday as the disciples gathered to celebrate the Passover with Jesus one last time.

The Bible also makes it clear that Judas had a greedy heart that he brought along with him to the Passover table. Do you remember when Mary anointed Jesus’ feet with perfume? Mary’s nard was expensive—worth a year’s wages! Judas argued Mary’s deed was a waste of money. The perfume should have been sold to help the poor. The Holy Spirit lets us in on Judas’ real motives: “He did not say this because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief. He held the money box and used to steal what was put into it” (John 12:6, EHV).

The love of money was a terrible temptation for Judas, and the devil knew it. Satan was determined to wave that sin in Judas’ face like a flag. When you’ve already sold out by dipping your dirty hands into the disciples’ petty cash to use as your personal piggy bank, it’s pretty easy for the devil to suggest: “What exactly would you be willing to do for 30 pieces of silver?” Judas didn’t predetermine his betrayal; he didn’t flip a switch. Garden variety greed, unrepentant and unchecked, was the sin that corroded his soul over time, and eventually put Judas’ betraying hands at the table. “By the time the supper took place, the Devil had already put the idea into the heart of Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus” (John 13:2, EHV).

III.

Betrayal hurts intensely because it’s personal. Another part of what makes betrayal so brutal is that it’s done in secret. Judas was living a double life, promoting himself as a disciple but letting his greed run amok in his soul. The rest of the disciples were fooled; they thought of Judas as a friend and ally. They didn’t see the greedy darkness in Judas’ heart. But Jesus knew. Jesus chose the Passover meal, before the institution of the Lord’s Supper to reveal his betrayer. “After saying this, Jesus was troubled in his spirit and testified, ‘Amen, Amen, I tell you: One of you will betray me’” (John 13:21, EHV).

When you sidle up to your seat at the Thanksgiving table, there is an understanding that you check your baggage at the door. Husbands and wives don’t throw barbs at one another, at least not there. The kids are banned from snark and fighting. You’re expected to be civil; it’s a celebration after all! But here is Jesus celebrating with thanksgiving God’s deliverance of the Israelites from slavery with his disciples for last time. His accusation brings instant tension to the room. The disciples react the same way everyone reacts when accused. They are defensive. They deny. They deflect. “The disciples were looking at each other, uncertain which of them he meant” (John 13:22, EHV). Matthew tells us: “They were very sad and began to say to him one after another, ‘Surely, not I, Lord?’” (Matthew 26:22, EHV).

There is more in the disciples’ words than defensiveness and denial. Jesus hadn’t identified the betrayer by name. He said, “One of you will betray me” (John 13:21, EHV). That sent the disciples’ minds spinning into introspection. Was there a disciple who argued in self-righteousness that he’d never, ever do such a thing? Remember, Peter said he’d never deny Jesus—we know how that turned out. Was there a disciple who went soul searching in self-doubt? “Is he talking about me? Could he be talking about me? I know he’s God; he knows everything and can see my soul. He sees something in one of our hearts that nobody else sees. What does he see in my heart? Am I capable of this?”

Well, are you? What secret sins do you have hiding in your heart? Have you ever sold God out for money? Have your secret sins gone unrepented and unchecked for so long that they eat away at your faith and corrode your soul? Is greed the sin that is crouching at your door? What is the secret sin that you fight to hide from everyone else, but the devil waves it in front of your face like a flag because he knows it brings you to your knees? Ask yourself honestly, because tonight’s sermon will do you no good if all you take away is that Judas was a bad guy. Nobody wakes up in the morning determined to fail God. We had better know that we are all sinners, and sinners sin. Anyone is capable of any sin, especially if left unchecked and unaddressed. What does the all-knowing Jesus see when he looks in your heart? Will you still answer, “Surely not I, Lord?”

As the accusation hung in the air and the disciples scrambled to avoid blame, Peter signaled to John who was sitting next to Jesus. “Ask him who’s he talking about!” “Jesus replied, ‘It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread, after I have dipped it in the dish.’ Then he dipped the piece of bread and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. 27As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. So Jesus told him, ‘What you are about to do, do more quickly’” (John 13:26-27, EHV).

The Bible teaches how to deal with someone caught in a sin. “If a person is caught in some trespass, you who are spiritual should restore such a person in a spirit of humility” (Galatians 6:1, EHV). Jesus taught that gentle restoration first requires a private conversation. “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his sin just between the two of you” (Matthew 18:15, EHV). Throughout the years that Judas was a disciple, Jesus exercised pastoral care for Judas with a gentle touch. At this advanced hour, Jesus was trying to jar his conscience and dislodge the greedy grip sin had on his soul by calling Judas out publicly. At least three times Jesus confronted Judas in the hearing of Twelve. At the end of his Bread of Life discourse, Jesus said: “Did I not choose you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!” (John 6:70, EHV). When Jesus washed his disciples’ feet, he said: “You are clean, but not all of you” (John 13:10, EHV).

Now at the Passover table, Jesus dips his hands into the bowl with Judas’ betraying hands. Jesus was still reaching out to Judas. He was telling him, “Resist Satan. Don’t do it.” Even to his own betrayer, Jesus showed love and pastoral concern for Judas’ soul right to the end.

IV.

Judas went ahead with his betrayal by identifying Jesus with a kiss. Jesus went down a path that led to another “betrayal” even more surreal. Jesus went to the cross, where in painful anguish he called out to a faithful friend who had abandoned him. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34, EHV). God treated Christ as though he had committed Judas’ betrayal, as though he had turned traitor like Ahithophel and Joab. God banished Christ to suffer hell’s punishment for our sins of greed, for our idolatrous love of money, for our obtuse self-righteousness, and for every embarrassing secret sin we insist on hiding. They’ve been punished in full, and they’ve been paid in full. As Isaiah says: “By his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5, EHV).

How could Jesus love and forgive traitors like Ahithophel or Joab or Judas? Jesus did love them, and he did forgive them, but at least a couple of those stories have unhappy endings. Ahithophel and Judas were so distraught over their own betrayals that they reasoned God’s only move was to treat them with the same kind of betrayal they had displayed. In an act of unbelieving despair, both men took their own lives.

But the gospel teaches us that God doesn’t betray sinners; instead he turned his back on his own Son. He forsook Christ! He reconciled the world! Banish the thought that God will banish us for our sins, and don’t let Satan or anyone convince you otherwise. God made peace with mankind in Christ. Don’t ask how God could love and forgive a traitor like Judas. Ask “How could God love and forgive a traitor like me?” In Christ alone. Amen.