One of You Will Betray Me & A New Commandment

The Gospel of John

John 13:21–35

Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions. Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture. From memory, determine the central points.

  1. The event is a dinner, likely on a Thursday evening, one day prior to the Last Supper/Passover Meal. The place is somewhere in Jerusalem. The 12 disciples are with Jesus and He has competed His washing of their feet.
  2. Jesus announces that one at the table will betray Him. It so happened that John is next to Jesus at the table. Peter gestures to John to find out from Jesus who the betrayer is. And John does and Jesus replies it is the one He will give a morsel of food to.
  3. Judas must have been close to Jesus, so He only has to extend the morsel to him. John sees it, but dose anyone else, including Peter? Probably not. Did Jesus conceal His move?
  4. At the very moment Judas receives the morsel, Satan enters into him. Earlier, verse 2 of chapter 13, we find that the devil had already compromised Judas, and in a way we know not. It is obvious the demonic moves in mysterious ways.
  5. Jesus tells Judas to go do what he will do. The identity of the traitor remains a mystery, of necessity since head strong Peter might have reacted violently if he had known.
  6. Judas left the dinner, and John tells us it “was night.” Some see it as describing the darkness that was soon to descend.
  7. With Judas absent Jesus announces that the Son of Man is to be glorified, a statement that is beyond, at this point, our full comprehension. Glory has to do with the presence of God.
  8. Jesus goes on to say that He will be gone; He offers comforting words regarding their coming loss, then launches into a new commandment: they are to love each other as He has loved them. We struggle with obeying this high command.

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