SERIES: The Gospel of John
And It Was Night
SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus
Introduction: The Apostle John was a relatively simply man. A fisherman by trade, he was not well-educated. His writing employs simple grammar, short sentences, and elementary vocabulary. But simple though he was, John was not ignorant. The concepts he conveyed were profound and he knew how to use subtle literary devices to impress upon his reader the pathos of a particular moment. Nowhere is this done more skillfully than in John 13, where immediately after Judas leaves the Last Supper on his way to a treacherous betrayal, and immediately before Peter denies three times that he even knows the Lord, John tells us, “and it was night.”
It was night, for the Last Supper occurred late on that evening before Jesus’ crucifixion. But it was night in a much deeper sense as well. It is always night when someone abandons Christ to pursue his own purposes. It is always night when someone allows Satan to control his actions. It is always night when someone turns his back on a friend.
In John 13 there are two tragic characters—Judas and Peter—and in them we see both the darkness of betrayal and the darkness of denial. Strangely, right between these two accounts we find a discourse on love, as Jesus delivers His new commandment. Like a powerful beacon in a black cave, this new commandment cuts through the darkness of betrayal and the darkness of denial, and it gives us hope for true discipleship and faithful service. We begin, then, with …
The darkness of betrayal (18-30)
The entire story of Judas is a tremendous anomaly. How does one explain, or even understand, the dastardly deed this man committed? William Hazlitt wrote a famous essay, “Persons One Would Wish to Have Seen,” and Judas Iscariot is one of the subjects of his essay. “I fain would see the face of him, who having dipped his hand in the same dish with the Son of Man, could afterwards betray him. I have no conception of such a thing.” [i] Strangely, it was no surprise to Jesus, for
Judas’ betrayal is revealed in advance by Jesus. All through this 13th chapter of John—verse 2, 18, 21, and 26—Jesus is presented as fully aware of what Judas is about to do. He knows the cost of redeeming the world includes betrayal by one of His closest associates, and He is ready to pay that price. He reveals the event in advance because He does not want His disciples to think He is caught up in a blind web of circumstances and because He wants their faith to be strengthened. Look at verse 19: “I am telling you now before it happens so that when it does happen you will believe that I am He.”
Jesus knows about Judas’ betrayal in advance, not only because He is God, but because He knows the OT, and the OT predicted the betrayal. Verse 18 quotes Psalm 41:9: “This is to fulfill the Scripture, ‘He who shares my bread has lifted up his heel against me.'” In biblical times accepting an invitation to someone’s table signified close friendship and loyalty, and to turn against the one who gave the invitation was considered a dastardly deed. In Psalm 41 David is speaking of Ahithophel, who joined the conspiracy of Absalom against his father David. When the coup failed, Ahithophel went out and hanged himself. As is often the case, the Psalmist spoke of something in his own day and time, but God intended it prophetically of something in Messiah’s time. The fact that Ahithophel and Judas are the only two individuals in the Bible who hanged themselves shows that the prophetic connection is by no means accidental.
By the way, if you knew in advance that one of your closest friends on earth was about to betray you, how would you respond to him or to her? The philosophy of the world is, “Do it to him before he has a chance to do it to you.” And I suspect that is how many of us would instinctively behave, for the disloyalty of friends may be the sorest of all wounds. Psalm 55:12-14 speaks about it this way:
“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.”
What incredible grief is caused when a friend turns against us, but Jesus suffered betrayal to a degree few of us ever will, and still He treated Judas kindly.
Judas’ deed is inconceivable and incomprehensible to the disciples. One of the fascinating human-interest angles to the Last Supper (and there are many) is that none of the disciples suspect Judas to be the traitor. When Jesus tells them that one of them would betray Him, not one of them responds, “I’ll bet it’s Judas; I’ve been suspicious of him ever since he joined us.” Instead, their unanimous response was, “Lord, is it I?” “Lord, is it I?” Each one suspects himself before he suspects Judas. In fact, the disciples don’t even believe it is Judas when Jesus clearly identifies him.
Let’s begin reading in verse 22 just after Jesus tells them plainly that one of them would betray Him:
“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?'”
Now, it’s important that we understand the setting here. A meal, as we noted last Sunday, was normally arranged around a low table. The guests didn’t sit on chairs but reclined with their heads toward the table and their feet stretched to the side. They leaned on the left elbow, which meant that the right hand was free to secure food. We don’t know for certain how the seating was arranged, but more than likely Jesus is at the center of the U-shaped table, John is to Jesus’ right, Judas is in the place of honor to Jesus’ left, and Peter is next to Judas, across the table from John. Peter catches John’s attention, probably through some kind of sign language, and urges him to ask Jesus who it is who is going to betray Him. So, according to verse 25, John simply leans back his head and speaks confidentially to Jesus:
“’Lord, who is it?’ And Jesus answers, ‘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. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. ‘What you are about to do, do quickly,’ Jesus told him.”
An amazing thing is revealed in verse 28: “but no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him.” Some of them believe Judas leaves to buy food; others that he leaves to give alms to the poor. But they find it inconceivable that Judas is the betrayer. After all, isn’t he their trusted treasurer and destined to be Chancellor of the Exchequer in the coming Kingdom? Isn’t he the one Judean among them, and therefore, most likely, the best educated and cultured of the Twelve? Hasn’t he shared their ministry for 3 1/2 years, healing the sick, casting out demons, and preaching the Gospel? They know him to be a good disciple. In fact, they are more sure of him than even of themselves!
There is a lesson here for all of us. The lesson is not that we should be suspicious of everyone around us, but rather that we must not put our ultimate confidence in people. People will disappoint us, sooner or later. They will fail. Occasionally even a very trusted man or woman of God will turn out to be a complete phony. Our confidence must be in the Lord.
Judas’ deed is memorialized in infamy. There is no one in all human history whose character and action are remembered with greater disdain than that of Judas. Mothers still occasionally name their children Adolph and Benedict, though Hitler and Benedict Arnold have dragged those good names through the mud. But no mother would ever name her son Judas. Jesus said of Judas one of the most tragic things ever spoken of any human being: “It would have been good for that man if he had never been born.” It would have been good because this man’s heart became a home for Satan himself. There are demon-possessed individuals in the Bible, but who other than Judas is called Satan-possessed?
The portion of our text that deals with Judas ends with the statement, “And soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.” But as soon as Judas leaves, it’s as though a light is turned on, and with the little company purged of its evil element, Jesus feels a new freedom to share the deepest concerns of His heart with His disciples. For the next four chapters He will deliver His great Upper Room Discourse, but here in verses 31-35 He offers just a preview.
The light of a new commandment (31-35)
Let’s read verses 31-35:
“When he was gone, Jesus said, ‘Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once. My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come. A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.'”
We do not have time this morning to exhaust this brief discourse. But one thing is clear: Jesus is about to leave, and He offers them a farewell gift in the form of a new commandment. Why does He call it “new”? After all, didn’t Moses tell the children of Israel nearly 1500 years earlier, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and your neighbor as yourself”? Yes, and Jesus Himself quoted that verse several times during His ministry. But this commandment is different.
It is new in that it is directed to “one another,” not just one’s neighbor. It is clear in Moses’ writings that a “neighbor” is any other Jew. But Jesus puts no racial parameters on His commandment, nor gender, nor class, nor any other distinction. He tells His followers that they must love one another no matter who that other person is.
It is new in that it is measureless. In the OT the measure of one’s love for one’s neighbor was to be one’s love for oneself. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But the measure of love in the new commandment is so much higher as to be virtually measureless: “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” Well, how did Jesus love? He loved selflessly. He loved sacrificially. He loved individually, not just corporately. Sometimes we get into a mode of loving everyone in general and no one in particular. That’s not how Jesus loved. And He loved unconditionally. So often we condition our love on popularity or likability or performance. I must share a very moving illustration of conditional love I heard recently.
A young man returned from the Viet Nam war, and from San Francisco he called his parents, who were living in a fashionable area of Boston. “Mom,” he said, “I have a war buddy I’d like to bring home with me.” “Sure son,” said his socialite mother. “But mom, I want you to know that he has no right leg or right eye or right arm.” “Well, son, it’ll be OK to bring him home for a few days.” “No mom, I want him to live with us permanently. He desperately needs the love and support of a family like ours.” “Son, I’m afraid that just won’t be possible. We simply don’t have the time to take care of an invalid. But come home quickly—we’re anxious to see you.” A few hours later a San Francisco police sergeant called that same Boston home. “Ma’am, we have a young man here who is missing an arm and a leg. His identification papers show that he’s your son. He just took his life. I’m sorry.”
Her love was conditional, and it wasn’t what he needed. When Jesus commanded us to love one another as He loved us, He was asking us to love selflessly, sacrificially, individually, and unconditionally.
It is new regarding the promise attached. “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” The promise is that the world will sit up and take notice when God’s people love one another. Love is the strongest evangelism method there is. If Christians loved one another as they should, one would have to put a moat around the church to keep people from breaking down the doors to get in. On the negative side, when Christians don’t love one another, almost no combination of beautiful facilities, great preaching, relevant programming, or evangelistic technique will make any significant difference.
By the way, this verse does not say that we become Jesus’ disciples by loving well, but rather it is by our love that the world recognizes us as such. May God help us to really love one another.
It was night when Judas left, but then for a few moments the light shined on that little group as Jesus spoke of the need for love among them. And then, just as quickly, the darkness closes in again as we are informed of …
The darkness of denial (36-38)
Look at verses 36-38:
“Simon Peter asked him, ‘Lord, where are you going?‘ (It’s as though Peter hasn’t heard anything Jesus speaks about the new commandment, for his mind is back on the fact that Jesus is leaving, and he can’t wait to butt in). Jesus replied, ‘Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.’ Peter asked, ‘Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.’ Then Jesus answered, ‘Will you really lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!'”
Of all the four Gospels, John offers the most abbreviated account of Peter’s denial (and, interestingly, the most elaborate account of Peter’s later restoration!). Perhaps that shouldn’t surprise us since they were both part of the inner circle of three among the disciples. But to get a fuller picture of the steps to Peter’s defection I want us to turn to Mark 14, where we learn that Peter gets into trouble because he boasts too much, prays too little, acts too soon, and remembers too late.[ii]
Peter boasts too much. (37, Mark 14:29-31) A hint of Peter’s boastfulness is found in verse 37, where he says, “I will lay down my life for you.” But the extent of the problem is more obvious in Mark 14:29-31, where Peter responds to Jesus’ warning that all of them would fall away by claiming, “Even if all fall away, I will not.” And then when Jesus tells Peter that he would disown Him three times that very night, Peter insists emphatically, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” Just to be fair we should point out that the passage adds, “And all the others said the same.” Peter was not alone in his boastfulness.
He prays too little. (Mark 14:37-38) The setting is a visit to Gethsemane to pray following the Last Supper. And as you recall, Jesus left 8 of the disciples in one place, took Peter, James, and John a little further, and then left them to pray, while He went a bit further yet to pour out His heart to His Father. In verse 37 we read, “Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. ‘Simon,’ he said to Peter, ‘are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” We are told this happened three times.
He acts too soon. (Mark 14:47) Shortly after Jesus finds the disciples sleeping for the third time, Judas appears in the Garden of Gethsemane, leading the armed enemies of Jesus. He kisses Jesus as a signal (so that they don’t arrest the wrong man in the dark), and as they seize Jesus, we read in verse 47: “Then one of those standing near drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear.” Mark doesn’t identify the one who wields the sword, nor does Matthew or Luke, but John does—in chapter 18 of his Gospel. It was Peter, and Jesus chides him for using physical weapons in a spiritual battle.
He remembers too late. (Mark 14:72) After Jesus is arrested, Peter follows Him incognito into the courtyard of the High Priest. There he sits with the guards and warms himself at the fire, while he observes from a safe distance the kangaroo trial of his Master. Then a little servant girl of the high priest comes by, studies his features, and says, “You were with that Nazarene, weren’t you?” He denies it, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” But she won’t give up. She says to those standing around, “This fellow is one of them.” But again, he denies it. After a little while some others also identify him by his Galilean accent, but he begins to call down curses on himself and swears to them, “I don’t know this man you’re talking about.” And “immediately,” the text reveals, “the rooster crowed the second time. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken to him…. And he broke down and wept.”
Friends, these four tendencies Peter exhibited can lead to defection in our lives as well, and often do: boastfulness, prayerlessness, impulsiveness, and forgetfulness.
Boastfulness. How easy it is to verbalize a commitment, especially when things are going well. But how frequently the pride and self-confidence that produced that verbal commitment vanish when the heat is on. That is why Paul wrote, “God forbid that I should boast save in the death of Christ, my God.”
Prayerlessness. I don’t know about you, but I can sort of relate to Peter not being able to pray for even one hour late at night. In fact, I can relate to not being able to pray for a half hour even in the middle of the morning. I have to fight for prayer time, as I’m sure you do. It’s a constant spiritual battle, but it’s one we cannot afford to abandon. Prayer is so critical to our spiritual well-being, so critical to our health as families, so critical to our ministry as a church, so critical to the moral fabric of our nation.
Are you a praying Christian? Are we a praying church? This Thursday is the National Day of Prayer. As noted in your bulletin, we will have the church open all day for individual prayer, and there will be times for corporate prayer from 6:30 to 7:30 a.m. and from 11:30 to 12:30 over the noon hour. In the evening we invite you to join with other believers from around the city at Memorial Presbyterian Church for a concert of prayer.
Impulsiveness is often the by-product of boastfulness and prayerlessness. When we get it in our heads that we have it all together and fail to take our decision-making before the Lord, we invariably end up doing our own thing by our own timetable, and disaster is just a short way off.
And then there’s forgetfulness. The word “remember” is a very common word in the Bible because forgetfulness is a very common problem in our lives. If we would hide the Word of God in our hearts and call it to mind before it’s too late, the difficulty we would spare ourselves is incalculable.
Points to Ponder: There are some important principles that come from this passage today which I want us to examine in closing.
1. Self-confidence can be too strong. We generally view self-confidence as an asset, but it can quickly become a liability, especially when the emphasis is on self. 1 Cor. 10:12 warns us, “Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” I believe that warning applies to both Judas and Peter. Friends, if someone can walk with Jesus for 3 1/2 years, hear all His discourses first-hand, see His miracles with his own eyes, and still deny Him or betray Him within hours after being warned that he would do exactly that, then none of us is exempt from the possibility. What we all need is a humble sense of dependency on God to keep us from falling.
This also leads me to suggest that we shouldn’t be too surprised when professing Christians fail. I simply don’t get bothered anymore when I hear the excuse some people give for not becoming Christians or not going to church, namely “there are too many phonies and too many hypocrites in the Church.” I simply ask, “So what?” One out of 12 of Christ’s own disciples was a phony and one out of 12 was a hypocrite. That’s 16 2/3%! I’d be surprised if any church today had a smaller number of phonies or hypocrites. My point, of course, is not to minimize the tragedy of betrayal or denial, but rather to remove them as excuses for non-commitment.
When we stand in judgment before God and are asked what we did with Jesus Christ or for Jesus Christ, He is not going to be impressed with any excuse regarding phonies or hypocrites in the church. We should get our eyes off others anyway and give attention to whether we are in the faith.
2. Remorse can come too late. It did for both Judas and Peter. The Scriptures tell us in Matt. 27:3 that
“When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders. ‘I have sinned,’ he said, ‘for I have betrayed innocent blood.’ ‘What is that to us?’ they replied. ‘That’s your responsibility.’ So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.”
In Peter’s case, after he heard the cock crow the second time, he remembered the word of the Lord, “and he broke down and wept.” Both men felt remorse. For both, it was too late to reverse their action. For Judas the die had been cast and his eternal destiny sealed. For Peter there was still hope, for while his action could not be reversed, his heart was still warm to Christ and open to His forgiveness.
One can even see the contrast between Judas’ failure and Peter’s failure in the words that follow each account here in John’s Gospel. The next words after Judas’ failure come in that somber phrase, “And it was night.” The next words after Peter’s failure come in that glorious statement of hope in 14:1: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.” The final truth I would like to offer is that …
3. But one cannot have a better friend than Jesus. Who, other than Jesus, would have taken so many pains to warn Judas and attempt to woo him back? Who would have given him the place of honor at the Last Supper? Who would have refused to expose him to his colleagues? And who other than Jesus would have so readily forgiven Peter and made him one of the founders of the Church? No one. The old hymn states that “There’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus,” and then asks and answers several questions:
“Did ever saint find this friend forsake him? No, not one. No, not one.
Or sinner find that He would not take him? No, not one. No, not one.”
Jesus offers satisfaction, not suicide, reward, not remorse, light, not night.
Communion: Returning to Mark 14 we read that just after informing His disciples that one of them would betray Him, and with Judas and Peter both sitting right there, “Jesus took bread….” Friends, let us receive the bread and the cup with joy and thanksgiving, but before we do, let us examine our own hearts, as the Apostle Paul urges us to do in 1 Cor. 11, to make sure that we are partaking in the light of the new commandment to love one another, not in the darkness of betrayal or the darkness of denial.
DATE: May 2, 1993
Tags:
Judas
Betrayal
Self-confidence
Remorse
[i] William Hazlitt, “Persons One Would Wish to Have Seen,” http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/Hazlitt/PersonsWishSeen.htm.
[ii] This outline was shared in a classroom by my professor, Dr. Howard Hendricks in about 1966. By the way, Hendricks also suggests that Peter was a bad swordsman, not surprising for a fisherman. The soldiers and servants who came to arrest Jesus were undoubtedly wearing helmets, which had a seam on top. Peter was aiming to split the helmet and therefore the man’s head but missed and only lopped an ear off, which Jesus promptly put back on after chiding Peter.