John 13:18-21 (NIV)
“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 had been very open with His inner circle of followers about what was going to happen in Jerusalem during this trip: He would be arrested, tried, and executed, but would then rise from the dead on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. But the disicples couldn’t or wouldn’t believe it. They saw no way for the terrible things that He was predicting to happen.
But now that they were mere hours away from the first event that would cascade into a complete fulfillment of everything He had foretold, He needed to warn the disicples. And the most stunning revelation of all was that His betrayal would come at the hands of one of the twelve men eating with Him right then.
This turn of events was foretold, for those with eyes to see, in Psalm 41:9, the Scripture quoted by Jesus. This was a Psalm written by David around 1000 years earlier. In it, David talks about the trials and troubles that he was experiencing, as well as his faith in God’s ability to see him through every one of them.
Jesus had known from the very beginning who would betray Him. But even so, at the Father’s direction, He had chosen Judas to be one of His closest followers. Over more than 2 ½ years, Judas had been as close to Jesus as anyone. He had seen Jesus perform thousands of miracles and had even been empowered himself to cast out demons and heal diseases (Luke 9:1-2). He had been privy to every teaching that Jesus had given. In short, he had had more than adequate time and opportunity to surrender his life and heart to Jesus, and every reason to do so. But he had resisted. His heart had grown increasingly hard as the days went by, and his mind was so full of his own agenda that it had pushed commitment to Jesus clear out.
It was no wonder that it broke Jesus’ heart to speak those words out loud: “One of you is going to betray me.”
Father, many of us have experienced betrayal in our own lives. But all of those combined pale in comparison to the heart-rending betrayal of Jesus by Judas. Lord, help keep our hearts soft and committed so that we will never turn away from You, or turn against your plan for our lives, so that we can continue to walk in Your ways forever. Amen.
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