John 13:18-30
Betrayed
Introduction:
Have you ever been betrayed? Do you know the sting of finding out someone you once thought loyal has stabbed you in the back? A business partner, a spouse, a family member or friend, an employee or an employer.
In chapter 13 we see the betrayal of Jesus by Judas. We have seen so far the disciples demonstrate some admirable loyalty. They left everything to follow Jesus. And when the thousands of false disciples abandoned Jesus in chapter 6, the 12 remained with Him. In chapter 11 when Jesus told the disciples that they needed to go back to Judea so He could raise Lazarus from the dead, the disciples were afraid because the Jews were trying to kill him back there. But, they were loyal and went back with him anyway.
And now in chapter 13 we see an interesting contrast. In verses 11-17 Jesus showed humble, loving loyalty to His disciples. He showed them the full extent of His love. This loyalty that He demonstrated for them was to be the loyalty they show to one another. In essence, their humble, loving loyalty to each other would be their act of loyalty to Him.
But, then the theme moves from loyalty to betrayal in verses 18-30. Jesus teaches His disciples that there is a traitor among them. We’re going to divide the passage up into 3 sections.
The Anticipation of the Betrayal (18-21)
First of all, we see the Anticipation of the Betrayal. Notice verses 18-21, “’I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen. But this is to fulfill the scripture: ‘He who shares my bread has lifted up his heel against me.’ I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am He. I tell you the truth, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.’ After He had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, ‘I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray Me.’”
Jesus anticipates being betrayed because of His Divine Perception. “I know those I have chosen” He says. One of the attributes of God is that He is all-knowing. He knows everything that can be known. Jesus knows those whom He has chosen to be real genuine believing disciples of His. He knows each one of them entirely inside and out. He knows who Judas is. That’s why He says “I am not referring to all of you.” There is nothing about any of them that He does not know.
That’s true for us as well. Jesus sees everything there is about us. As God He is all-knowing. We can’t hide anything from Him.
Jesus also knows He’s going to be betrayed not only because of His Divine Perception, but, because it is the Divine Plan. He says In verse 18 “this is to fulfill the Scriptures”, and then He quotes Psalm 41:9, “He who shares my bread has lifted up his heel against me.”
David wrote this Psalm and he was writing about a man named Ahithophel. Ahithophel was a close friend of David’s. And when David’s son Absalom rebelled against David and overthrew him and took over the throne, Ahithophel joined the rebellion. And so David writes, “Even my close friend, whom I’ve trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.” That psalm was based on historical events on David and Ahithophel. But, as Jesus says here, it was a prophetic picture of what was going to happen between Jesus and Judas.
To eat bread with someone was an act of close fellowship. It signified that there was loyalty and friendship between the two people. “It was a most cruel and bitter act to betray someone you ate bread with.” (Barclay). And so the pain and the shock is brought out in David’s Psalm when he says this betrayer “has lifted up his heel against me.”
We see the same pain and shock in Psalm 55 as well, “If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were raising himself against me, I could hide from him. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship as we walked with the throng at the house of God.” Then in verse 20 we see a picture of Judas, “My companion attacks his friends; he violates his covenant. His speech is smooth as butter, yet war is in his heart; his words are more soothing than oil, yet they are drawn swords.”
One of the most clear OT prophecies of the betrayal of Christ is found in Zechariah 11:12-13. “If you think it best, give me my pay, but if not, keep it.” This is a prophetic conversation between Judas and the Jewish leaders where he is striking the deal to betray Jesus for a price. It goes on to say, “So they paid me 30 pieces. And the Lord said to me, ‘Throw it to the potter” – the handsome price at which they priced me! So I took the 30 pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord to the potter.”
Do you know what Judas did after the death of Jesus? He took those 30 silver coins they paid him and according to Matthew 27 he went back to the house of the Lord and threw them down. And then do you remember what they did with those 30 silver coins? It says they went and bought a potter’s field….everything happening exactly as the prophecy explained in Zechariah 11.
Why was Jesus telling them this? Why was He giving them the heads up? To strengthen their faith. “I am telling you now so that when it happens you will believe that I am He.” Always the ministry of Jesus to His disciples is to strengthen their faith. They believed that He was the Christ, the Son of God. They believed that He had the words of eternal life. They believed that believing in Him was the only way to have their sins forgiven.
But, they needed to see that as the Christ, as the Son of God, it was necessary for Him to suffer. It was necessary for Him to be betrayed into the hands of the chief priests and elders. They needed to see that that was a part of who the Christ is.
And so when the Scriptures talk about the Christ’s sufferings and betrayal, and when they see these things happening to the Teacher and their Lord, their faith will be more full and based more fully on the knowledge that Scriptures give concerning the Christ.
Just as the Scriptures were essential to the building up of the disciple’s faith, so too are they essential for us. Romans 15:4 says, “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” Then in Acts 20:32, “Now I commit you to God and to the WORD of His grace, which can build you up…”
So Jesus is telling them now, before He is betrayed, before He is arrested, before He is crucified, so that when they saw one of their own closest members betray Him their faith and faithfulness would not be shaken.
…they would not think that Jesus became a victim and that what was happening to Him was totally thwarting His plans to bring in the kingdom.
On the contrary, what was happening is exactly what God planned and exactly as God foretold in Scripture. The Scriptures anticipated the Betrayal. Jesus anticipated the betrayal. And now, the disciples needed to begin to anticipate the betrayal. The Betrayal by Judas is anticipated in the upper room that night.
….“And so we conclude that even though Judas' treachery fit into the plan of God, God did not design him as a treacherous man. That he became by his own choice. God merely designed his treachery into His plan. He didn't design the treachery.” –John MacArthur
The Astonishment at the Betrayal (22-25)
So first we see the Anticipation of the Betrayal. Second, we see the Astonishment at the Betrayal. Notice the disciples in verses 22-25, “His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, ‘Ask him which one he means.’ Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, ‘Lord, who is it?’”
As if seeing their Master get down on His knees and wash their feet like a common slave wasn’t shocking enough, now Jesus drops another bomb on them and says that one of them was going to betray Him. We can imagine the shock on their faces and the immediate murmuring in room as they all began to stare at each other. The Greek here means they were searching each other’s faces. In other words, they were looking intentionally at one another to see if they could find any indication as to who it was. They weren’t staring blankly at each other, they were hunting for the traitor.
Can you imagine Judas? This guy deserves an Oscar. He’s right there with them acting like he’s looking for the Betrayer. He has to – otherwise he would give himself away. He has to act shocked. He has to act faithful. And as Matthew tells it, when all the other disciples say, “Surely not I, Lord”, Judas, having already conspired and received the 30 silver coins says, “Surely not I, Lord”. He was a master fake. He had become so skilled at deception throughout their ministry.
But something even more important about the disciple’s confusion was what it said about Jesus. The disciples didn’t have any clue from Jesus who the betrayer was because Jesus never loved Judas any less than the rest of them. He never showed any resentment or bitterness towards the one who was going to stab him in the back. You know what Jesus did with Judas? He chose Him to be part of the Twelve. He revealed Himself to Judas over and over again through miracles and teachings. He gave Judas every opportunity to repent for 3 years. He washed Judas’s feet just like the rest of them. He shared bread with him. He even gave Judas the place of honor at the table that night, the seat directly to his left. Doesn’t that say something? Jesus put the most vile man in the group that night, and in history for that matter, and sat him right next to him in the place where you put your most honored guest.
That was probably a pattern. Judas was probably very respected by the other disciples. After all he handled the money. He was the one who “looked out for the poor” according to chapter 12 verses 3-4. He was responsible, mature, faithful and dependable. In the eyes of the disciples Judas was probably one of – if not ‘the’ – last one they would have thought to betray Jesus.
So since they couldn’t figure out who it was, and while the commotion was going on, Peter leans over to “the disciple whom Jesus loved” – that is, John the author here - and Peter asks him to ask Jesus who the betrayer is.
In that culture, the dinner would be served on a low, U-Shaped table. There would be couches around the table. Rather than sitting, the guests would lie down and recline on these couches. They would have their heads towards the table and lean on their left elbows, which would leave their right arms free to take food from the table. Leaning on your left elbow would put you in the chest area of the person to your left. John says that he leaned back against Jesus, which meant he would have leaned to his left, indicating that he was to the right of Jesus. He would have leaned back and when he asked Jesus, “Lord, who is it?” his head would have been right in the chest of Jesus.
The Action of the Betrayal (26-30)
Lastly, I want us to quickly see the Action of the Betrayal. Vereses 26-30 say, “Jesus answered, ‘It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.’ Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon.”….
Pause there. On the table would have been cakes of unleavened bread. And there was a dish for dipping the bread into. It was an honorary gesture if the host dipped a piece of bread and gave it to someone whom he considered the guest of honor…
Continuing on in verses 27-28, “As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. ‘What you are about to do, do quickly,’ Jesus told him, but no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him.”
That’s because no one heard the question John asked and the reply Jesus gave. All they saw was Jesus honoring Judas and then telling him to do something quickly. For all they knew he was according to verse 29 “going to buy what was needed for the Feast or to give something to the poor.” Charity was a custom during the Passover Feast. But notice that Judas left and no one suspected him. No one but Jesus knew what Judas was and what he was going to do. Nobody knew that in that very room Satan was also present, and, had just entered into one of them.
Conclusion (v30)
I want to conclude with verse 30. “As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.”
As soon as Judas took the bread, that one last kind gesture from Jesus, Satan entered him, Jesus commanded him, and he left. He left into the night. It’s not just night time physically, but spiritually as well for Judas. John is always touching on the spiritual themes of light and darkness. Judas was leaving the Light of the world and has finally and ultimately rejected the light of Jesus Christ. This same author would say in his first letter, 1 John 2:19, “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.”
Judas went out from them for good. And by doing so he showed that he never truly belonged to Christ or the other disciples.
I wonder over the course of the life of this church how many will go out from among us. Are there any of us here today who someday will prove they never really belonged to us; more importantly they never belonged to Christ. Are you one of them?
Maybe you’ve lived like Judas. You’ve always been around the Light, but, you’ve never come into the Light. Maybe you’ve tasted of the many good things Christ has to offer. Maybe you’ve always looked like you really believe. And maybe other people are fooled but you know you’re not real. You know you are putting on a mask of Christianity.
Jesus knows. And just like with Judas, He is still offering the opportunity for you to truly believe in Him and become someone who truly belongs to Him. Don’t live a lie any longer. Don’t continue to masquerade with the name of Christ only to be a mockery of His name. Don’t share bread with Him only to lift your heel against Him.
Betrayed
Introduction:
Have you ever been betrayed? Do you know the sting of finding out someone you once thought loyal has stabbed you in the back? A business partner, a spouse, a family member or friend, an employee or an employer.
In chapter 13 we see the betrayal of Jesus by Judas. We have seen so far the disciples demonstrate some admirable loyalty. They left everything to follow Jesus. And when the thousands of false disciples abandoned Jesus in chapter 6, the 12 remained with Him. In chapter 11 when Jesus told the disciples that they needed to go back to Judea so He could raise Lazarus from the dead, the disciples were afraid because the Jews were trying to kill him back there. But, they were loyal and went back with him anyway.
And now in chapter 13 we see an interesting contrast. In verses 11-17 Jesus showed humble, loving loyalty to His disciples. He showed them the full extent of His love. This loyalty that He demonstrated for them was to be the loyalty they show to one another. In essence, their humble, loving loyalty to each other would be their act of loyalty to Him.
But, then the theme moves from loyalty to betrayal in verses 18-30. Jesus teaches His disciples that there is a traitor among them. We’re going to divide the passage up into 3 sections.
The Anticipation of the Betrayal (18-21)
First of all, we see the Anticipation of the Betrayal. Notice verses 18-21, “’I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen. But this is to fulfill the scripture: ‘He who shares my bread has lifted up his heel against me.’ I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am He. I tell you the truth, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.’ After He had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, ‘I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray Me.’”
Jesus anticipates being betrayed because of His Divine Perception. “I know those I have chosen” He says. One of the attributes of God is that He is all-knowing. He knows everything that can be known. Jesus knows those whom He has chosen to be real genuine believing disciples of His. He knows each one of them entirely inside and out. He knows who Judas is. That’s why He says “I am not referring to all of you.” There is nothing about any of them that He does not know.
That’s true for us as well. Jesus sees everything there is about us. As God He is all-knowing. We can’t hide anything from Him.
Jesus also knows He’s going to be betrayed not only because of His Divine Perception, but, because it is the Divine Plan. He says In verse 18 “this is to fulfill the Scriptures”, and then He quotes Psalm 41:9, “He who shares my bread has lifted up his heel against me.”
David wrote this Psalm and he was writing about a man named Ahithophel. Ahithophel was a close friend of David’s. And when David’s son Absalom rebelled against David and overthrew him and took over the throne, Ahithophel joined the rebellion. And so David writes, “Even my close friend, whom I’ve trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.” That psalm was based on historical events on David and Ahithophel. But, as Jesus says here, it was a prophetic picture of what was going to happen between Jesus and Judas.
To eat bread with someone was an act of close fellowship. It signified that there was loyalty and friendship between the two people. “It was a most cruel and bitter act to betray someone you ate bread with.” (Barclay). And so the pain and the shock is brought out in David’s Psalm when he says this betrayer “has lifted up his heel against me.”
We see the same pain and shock in Psalm 55 as well, “If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were raising himself against me, I could hide from him. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship as we walked with the throng at the house of God.” Then in verse 20 we see a picture of Judas, “My companion attacks his friends; he violates his covenant. His speech is smooth as butter, yet war is in his heart; his words are more soothing than oil, yet they are drawn swords.”
One of the most clear OT prophecies of the betrayal of Christ is found in Zechariah 11:12-13. “If you think it best, give me my pay, but if not, keep it.” This is a prophetic conversation between Judas and the Jewish leaders where he is striking the deal to betray Jesus for a price. It goes on to say, “So they paid me 30 pieces. And the Lord said to me, ‘Throw it to the potter” – the handsome price at which they priced me! So I took the 30 pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord to the potter.”
Do you know what Judas did after the death of Jesus? He took those 30 silver coins they paid him and according to Matthew 27 he went back to the house of the Lord and threw them down. And then do you remember what they did with those 30 silver coins? It says they went and bought a potter’s field….everything happening exactly as the prophecy explained in Zechariah 11.
Why was Jesus telling them this? Why was He giving them the heads up? To strengthen their faith. “I am telling you now so that when it happens you will believe that I am He.” Always the ministry of Jesus to His disciples is to strengthen their faith. They believed that He was the Christ, the Son of God. They believed that He had the words of eternal life. They believed that believing in Him was the only way to have their sins forgiven.
But, they needed to see that as the Christ, as the Son of God, it was necessary for Him to suffer. It was necessary for Him to be betrayed into the hands of the chief priests and elders. They needed to see that that was a part of who the Christ is.
And so when the Scriptures talk about the Christ’s sufferings and betrayal, and when they see these things happening to the Teacher and their Lord, their faith will be more full and based more fully on the knowledge that Scriptures give concerning the Christ.
Just as the Scriptures were essential to the building up of the disciple’s faith, so too are they essential for us. Romans 15:4 says, “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” Then in Acts 20:32, “Now I commit you to God and to the WORD of His grace, which can build you up…”
So Jesus is telling them now, before He is betrayed, before He is arrested, before He is crucified, so that when they saw one of their own closest members betray Him their faith and faithfulness would not be shaken.
…they would not think that Jesus became a victim and that what was happening to Him was totally thwarting His plans to bring in the kingdom.
On the contrary, what was happening is exactly what God planned and exactly as God foretold in Scripture. The Scriptures anticipated the Betrayal. Jesus anticipated the betrayal. And now, the disciples needed to begin to anticipate the betrayal. The Betrayal by Judas is anticipated in the upper room that night.
….“And so we conclude that even though Judas' treachery fit into the plan of God, God did not design him as a treacherous man. That he became by his own choice. God merely designed his treachery into His plan. He didn't design the treachery.” –John MacArthur
The Astonishment at the Betrayal (22-25)
So first we see the Anticipation of the Betrayal. Second, we see the Astonishment at the Betrayal. Notice the disciples in verses 22-25, “His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, ‘Ask him which one he means.’ Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, ‘Lord, who is it?’”
As if seeing their Master get down on His knees and wash their feet like a common slave wasn’t shocking enough, now Jesus drops another bomb on them and says that one of them was going to betray Him. We can imagine the shock on their faces and the immediate murmuring in room as they all began to stare at each other. The Greek here means they were searching each other’s faces. In other words, they were looking intentionally at one another to see if they could find any indication as to who it was. They weren’t staring blankly at each other, they were hunting for the traitor.
Can you imagine Judas? This guy deserves an Oscar. He’s right there with them acting like he’s looking for the Betrayer. He has to – otherwise he would give himself away. He has to act shocked. He has to act faithful. And as Matthew tells it, when all the other disciples say, “Surely not I, Lord”, Judas, having already conspired and received the 30 silver coins says, “Surely not I, Lord”. He was a master fake. He had become so skilled at deception throughout their ministry.
But something even more important about the disciple’s confusion was what it said about Jesus. The disciples didn’t have any clue from Jesus who the betrayer was because Jesus never loved Judas any less than the rest of them. He never showed any resentment or bitterness towards the one who was going to stab him in the back. You know what Jesus did with Judas? He chose Him to be part of the Twelve. He revealed Himself to Judas over and over again through miracles and teachings. He gave Judas every opportunity to repent for 3 years. He washed Judas’s feet just like the rest of them. He shared bread with him. He even gave Judas the place of honor at the table that night, the seat directly to his left. Doesn’t that say something? Jesus put the most vile man in the group that night, and in history for that matter, and sat him right next to him in the place where you put your most honored guest.
That was probably a pattern. Judas was probably very respected by the other disciples. After all he handled the money. He was the one who “looked out for the poor” according to chapter 12 verses 3-4. He was responsible, mature, faithful and dependable. In the eyes of the disciples Judas was probably one of – if not ‘the’ – last one they would have thought to betray Jesus.
So since they couldn’t figure out who it was, and while the commotion was going on, Peter leans over to “the disciple whom Jesus loved” – that is, John the author here - and Peter asks him to ask Jesus who the betrayer is.
In that culture, the dinner would be served on a low, U-Shaped table. There would be couches around the table. Rather than sitting, the guests would lie down and recline on these couches. They would have their heads towards the table and lean on their left elbows, which would leave their right arms free to take food from the table. Leaning on your left elbow would put you in the chest area of the person to your left. John says that he leaned back against Jesus, which meant he would have leaned to his left, indicating that he was to the right of Jesus. He would have leaned back and when he asked Jesus, “Lord, who is it?” his head would have been right in the chest of Jesus.
The Action of the Betrayal (26-30)
Lastly, I want us to quickly see the Action of the Betrayal. Vereses 26-30 say, “Jesus answered, ‘It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.’ Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon.”….
Pause there. On the table would have been cakes of unleavened bread. And there was a dish for dipping the bread into. It was an honorary gesture if the host dipped a piece of bread and gave it to someone whom he considered the guest of honor…
Continuing on in verses 27-28, “As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. ‘What you are about to do, do quickly,’ Jesus told him, but no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him.”
That’s because no one heard the question John asked and the reply Jesus gave. All they saw was Jesus honoring Judas and then telling him to do something quickly. For all they knew he was according to verse 29 “going to buy what was needed for the Feast or to give something to the poor.” Charity was a custom during the Passover Feast. But notice that Judas left and no one suspected him. No one but Jesus knew what Judas was and what he was going to do. Nobody knew that in that very room Satan was also present, and, had just entered into one of them.
Conclusion (v30)
I want to conclude with verse 30. “As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.”
As soon as Judas took the bread, that one last kind gesture from Jesus, Satan entered him, Jesus commanded him, and he left. He left into the night. It’s not just night time physically, but spiritually as well for Judas. John is always touching on the spiritual themes of light and darkness. Judas was leaving the Light of the world and has finally and ultimately rejected the light of Jesus Christ. This same author would say in his first letter, 1 John 2:19, “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.”
Judas went out from them for good. And by doing so he showed that he never truly belonged to Christ or the other disciples.
I wonder over the course of the life of this church how many will go out from among us. Are there any of us here today who someday will prove they never really belonged to us; more importantly they never belonged to Christ. Are you one of them?
Maybe you’ve lived like Judas. You’ve always been around the Light, but, you’ve never come into the Light. Maybe you’ve tasted of the many good things Christ has to offer. Maybe you’ve always looked like you really believe. And maybe other people are fooled but you know you’re not real. You know you are putting on a mask of Christianity.
Jesus knows. And just like with Judas, He is still offering the opportunity for you to truly believe in Him and become someone who truly belongs to Him. Don’t live a lie any longer. Don’t continue to masquerade with the name of Christ only to be a mockery of His name. Don’t share bread with Him only to lift your heel against Him.
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