We’re in a little sermon series that we’ve called Divine Encounters, looking at different individuals in the Gospel of John that met with the Lord Jesus.
I wonder which of those characters you most identify with. We’ve met Nicodemus, who knew a lot about God, but what he needed was the gift of new birth, new life that only Jesus could give him. We met the woman that Jesus met at a well in Samaria. Her life in the past was full of shame, but the thing that she most needed to satisfy her deepest longings was to drink the water of eternal life that only Jesus could give her. We met a man who was born blind. He lacked physical sight, but Jesus did something far more wonderful for him. He gave him the gift of spiritual sight. And then last week we met Lazarus, who had the biggest problem of all. He was dead, but Jesus raised him from the grave and he came out as a sign that Jesus himself is the life we need for this life and for all eternity.
I don’t meet many people who read through John’s Gospel, get to chapter 13, and say, “At last, I have found somebody that I can really relate to and identify with. Judas, he is my man.” In John’s Gospel, finally someone like me.
Well, we’re going to meet Judas this morning, and as we do, we’re going to discover that he is more like us than we ever realised. But more importantly than us meeting Judas, Judas meets Jesus. And through that encounter, we will meet Jesus as well.
In case you don’t know the story, Judas was one of Jesus’s 12 disciples, the apprentices that he spent three years with, training, teaching, giving them an example so that after he’s gone, they can represent him and continue his work. Here’s the spoiler alert. Judas Iscariot is the one who goes on to identify Jesus to his enemies so that Jesus can be arrested, tried, and then killed. And so the story of Judas is the story of the student turned snake, the story of the novice turned nemesis, the story of the disciple turned demonic. He is not a character you would want to identify with too easily.
Well, as I approach any Bible passage, the question I’m asking is, what does the author of this passage want to say to us? In this case, it’s the Apostle John. What does the Apostle John want to say to us in recording this? And with a passage like this, which is a narrative, the trick is to look at the story really carefully and see which are the details that he chooses to emphasise as he tells the story, perhaps details that we might not have focused on quite as much.
And we will see that John highlights three details in this story, which give us three perspectives on what Judas does to Jesus. So we will see how Scripture sees this, we will see how the other disciples see it, and then we will see how Jesus himself sees it. And each of those perspectives has a lesson for us. And I’m reassured that I’m reading this passage along the right lines because at the end of John’s Gospel, in chapter 20, John himself tells us why he wrote the book, and the three lessons that we get from this passage all align with that. And so I’m reassured that we’re not making this up, but we are seeing what John has put here for us.
Scripture’s Perspective: Be Confident
So the first perspective then is the view of Scripture. Scripture looks at what Judas does and says to us, “Be confident. Be confident.”
The first detail that John draws our attention to is that this incident fulfilled Psalm 41. So here are verses 17 and 18. So just before the passage today started, Jesus says, “Now that you know these things” — read up if you want to know more — “you’ll be blessed if you do them.” He says that to all 12 disciples. But then verse 18: “I’m not referring to all of you. I know those I have chosen, but this is to fulfil the passage of Scripture: ‘He who shared my bread has turned against me.’”
Now, we looked at Psalm 41 as recently ago as five weeks ago. Can you believe it? It feels like a lot’s happened since then. In the weeks before that, we looked at a number of other psalms written by King David. King David lived 1000 years BC, 3000 years ago. And David experienced seasons, multiple seasons, of rejection and opposition as the king. Twice he had to flee his own capital city: once to run from King Saul, the previous king; once to run from one of his own sons. And as he prays Psalm 41, he is voicing the fact, the tragic fact, voicing to God that one of his closest friends, possibly the son Absalom, has turned into a traitor.
Now what happened next is that because of other passages of Scripture, such as 2 Samuel chapter 7 and Psalm 2, we discover that King David’s experiences anticipated a descendant of his. Someone descended from David’s line would rule on his throne, and that’s the Messiah, the anointed king, which we know finds fulfilment in the Lord Jesus. So details like this betrayal in Psalm 41 came to be seen as predictions of what would happen when the Messiah, the anointed king, comes.
Well, now let’s look at why John wrote his Gospel. It’s chapter 20, verses 30 and 31, in which he says, “Jesus did many other miraculous signs that are not recorded in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and by believing may have life in his name.”
So John wrote his book so that we might believe that Jesus is the promised Messiah and the Son of God. Okay? That’s why John wrote the book.
Now why did Jesus take his disciples to Psalm 41 in the night before he was betrayed? Well, he tells them why. It’s in verse 19: “I’m telling you now before it happens so that when it does happen, you will believe that I am who I am.” When Judas betrays Jesus, the disciples will know that Jesus is who he says he is. In fact, the disciples will know at that moment that he is God. Verse 19 literally just says, “So that when it does happen, you will believe that I am.” Full stop.
“I am” was the name of God that God revealed to Moses at the burning bush many centuries even before the time of King David. So the disciples will come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, the great I am.
So John records this story in his Gospel so that we can be confident that Jesus is the promised king.
Now, in the world of politics, it happens pretty much every year that a politician of some kind chooses to resign from the party they are attached to and join a rival political party. It’s happened for as long as I can remember. Winston Churchill did it twice, okay? So it’s not a sign that you’re a poor politician if you do this, but it just happens.
But what’s interesting is then what the media makes of it, because the perception is that if someone leaves their party, they are betraying their former political leader. And so the media will spin this that it’s a great blow to that leader that they’ve just lost so-and-so. They’re probably glad to be rid of them, to be honest. Every betrayal undermines the credibility of the party leader. It suggests that the party leader has made some bad choices. They’ve picked the wrong people. Well, if they pick people that turncoat, well, how can we trust them on any of their other decisions? And if those closest to them don’t believe in their cause any more, why should the rest of us?
So ask the question how Judas betraying Jesus must make Jesus look. It makes him look weak. It suggests he can’t pick his own disciples. A 1 out of 12 failure rate is pretty poor for someone who says he’s the Son of God. And did Judas know something that the rest of us have missed? Has Judas just seen through him? And we should all be wondering if he’s a massive fraud.
In the world of modern media, Jesus would be expected to spin his way out of this, announce it at 5.00 p.m. on Christmas Eve, or bury it under some good news somewhere. But actually, the reverse is true. Jesus can pick his team. In fact, he intentionally picked one who would fulfil Psalm 41. So in this precise detail, Jesus is fulfilling the ancient expectations for the Son of David.
When Jesus is betrayed, arrested, killed, he won’t look like a divine Messiah to the untrained eye. So Jesus gets in ahead and says, “I’m going to make sure that my disciples do not have an untrained eye. I’m going to train their eye so that when this all happens, I look exactly like the Messiah and the Son of God that I am.”
So be confident. This story should build your confidence in who the Lord Jesus is, the promised king, the Son of God.
The Disciples’ Perspective: Be Warned
Second perspective on what Judas does is the view from the other disciples. They would tell us to be warned.
John draws great attention to how confused the other disciples were. So they didn’t understand, verse 18, the prediction from Psalm 41. So then Jesus just spells it out in black and white so they can’t miss it. Verse 21: “After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, ‘Very truly, I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.’”
Still, they don’t get it. Verse 22: “His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant.” They’re just looking at one another. None of this makes any sense. Surely none of them would do this.
So Peter gives the nod to the Apostle John, the disciple Jesus loves, who is right next to Jesus. Go on, ask him, who is it? And then after giving the bread to Judas, well, you would have thought by this point the disciples have got it, wouldn’t you? Pretty clear. Here we go. It’s the one I give this piece of bread to.
Well, verse 27: as Jesus told Judas, “What you’re about to do, do quickly.” But guess what? No one at the meal understood why Jesus had said this to him. Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the festival, or to give something to the poor. They just assumed Judas was on some highly trusted ministry expedition. They still don’t get it.
And you get this quite a lot in John’s Gospel, where some of the other characters in John just do not understand what Jesus is saying. For example, last week we looked at the raising of Lazarus. Now, you remember the story. Lazarus becomes seriously sick. Jesus hears of this but does not go to Lazarus. He stays where he is, some distance away. Then the news arrives that Lazarus has died. So Jesus tells the disciples, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep.”
Now, that is an ancient Jewish, hope-filled way of saying that someone has died. They’ve fallen asleep because one day they will rise again. Death is not the end. That’s why we say someone has fallen asleep.
What do the disciples say to the news that Lazarus has fallen asleep? Jesus, “I’m going to go to him now.” They say, “No, no, no, Jesus. If he’s that sick that he’s having a nap, I think you should leave him alone because that will help him to get better.” They just miss the point. And it’s the same here.
Judas’s betrayal makes no sense to any of them. The idea that any of them would betray Jesus is unthinkable. They look around the room. They look in the eyes, each of them, at the other 11 and go, “Not a traitor. Nope. Nope. Nope. Can’t be.”
Now, as I talk to people about this passage, one very common reaction is to hear this story and their response is to say, “I would never do what Judas did. I love Jesus.” As I said at the start, few people would find Judas as someone within John’s Gospel that they can relate to.
And yet John’s message for us here is, be warned. Remember in chapter 20, John wants us to believe that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God, but not just come to know it as a fact, but to believe him, to trust him, and so to receive the eternal life that flows from trusting Jesus in that way.
Part of our problem is that we are so used to the idea that Judas is the villain that we imagine it’s obvious to somebody. If there was a Netflix series of the life of Jesus, or if instead of showing Sleeping Beauty or Cinderella the Stephen Joseph Theatre decided for its pantomime one year to have the story of Jesus, you would expect Judas Iscariot to be wearing a costume that is either black or red, really obviously the scary villain of the piece.
But that’s not how it works. Nobody saw it coming. Well, nobody except Jesus. And therefore John says to us, “Be warned. This could be any of us, and it would likely be those you least expect.”
Now, at this point let me just caution us against misunderstanding something. Don’t confuse Judas with Peter. Judas betrays Jesus. Later in John’s Gospel, Peter denies knowing Jesus. Those are very different things. So please don’t, at this point, panic and become paranoid. That is not what I’m saying.
Put it this way. Now, again, don’t misunderstand, okay? I know there’s no such thing as a little sin. I’ve got that. But I am not saying that every little sin turns you into Judas. It doesn’t. This is a warning of something much bigger than that. This is a warning of turning your back on Jesus, of walking away from him so that you are no longer on his team.
People arrive at this church and people leave this church. It happens every week. Sometimes people don’t come for a while because their shifts don’t allow them to get here. Well, if that’s you, we love you and we understand, and we want to get alongside and see how we can support you in that demanding schedule.
Some people leave this church to join another church. Well, provided they’ve picked wisely and joined a healthy church, of which there are a great number, we’re just thrilled that you’re still following Jesus. We can’t be the right church for everybody. We don’t take it personally. Follow Jesus.
The tragedy is when people stop coming to go nowhere. Jesus and his people no longer feature. They’ve just walked away and they are no longer part of his team.
John says, “Be warned. Make sure it’s not you.” And let’s pray for one another, because any of us, even the most unlikely, could do this. And if it does happen, I can guarantee you would be surprised at who it is.
There’s the perspective from Scripture, the perspective from the other disciples. Lastly, let’s hear Jesus’s view of this. And the message here for us is, be restored. Be restored.
Jesus’ Perspective: Be Restored
See, the third detail John gives us is how Jesus relates to Judas. And I believe Jesus is aiming for restoration. Given what Judas is about to do, Jesus is surprisingly gentle with Judas. We notice this in two ways.
So firstly, look at verse 25. “Leaning back against Jesus, John asked him, ‘Lord, who is it?’” Jesus knows who will betray him. All the other disciples, they want to know who it is. How does Jesus answer John’s question? He does not stand on a chair and point with a great flourish — and I have to try not to point at anybody in particular at this point, and say, “It’s you.” There’s nobody at that point at the wall, so I’m safe, okay? He doesn’t do that.
When I grew up, it was with two of the characters from the novelist Agatha Christie, two of her detective characters, being made into television at the highest standard. One was Miss Jane Marple, an utterly disarming old woman who thoroughly was on top of everything and missed nothing. And then the great Belgian detective Hercule Poirot who, if you watch the entire corpus of Poirot television, you will discover, amongst other things, he will train you in how to prepare a mango into a beautiful hedgehog. Now, you probably know that already, how to do that trick, but Poirot will teach you. He does not miss a skill.
But his method of investigating a murder was to bumble about unobtrusively, shuffling about with all the different people who were involved and close to the person who got killed for a couple of weeks, or whatever it is. But then what does he do when he’s worked it out? He sits everybody down in one room and he talks them through what he’s discovered and who it is. And always there is a huge moment of shock as the disclosure comes out. Nobody can believe that this was the person, including the TV audience. Agatha Christie is a good enough writer that she knows how to tell the story so that you didn’t see it coming either. Although for some of us it becomes a little game that’s quite fun, to see if you can get it right.
This technique of the grand reveal is one that other detective drama writers have since used almost as a parody, but Agatha Christie got there first and does it brilliantly with Poirot.
But that is not what Jesus does with Judas Iscariot. He does not sit the disciples down and go, “Right, here’s what we know. Here’s what’s going to happen. Here’s what Judas has been up to. Here’s where he was last night. We now know.” No. How he does it is in verse 26. Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I’ve dipped it in the dish.” Then dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.
Judas got the message. Jesus knows it’s me. But Jesus said it subtly. The others could have missed it. The others did miss it. When Judas left the room, they had no idea why, and they did not know what Jesus meant, “Do it quickly.”
That’s one way we see Jesus’s gentleness with Judas. The other is to notice the order of events. So Jesus explains what the piece of bread stands for. Then he gives the piece of bread to Judas. Then, separate action, Judas takes the bread. Then Satan enters him.
So let’s be absolutely clear. What Judas does is satanic. It was wicked. And the final four words of this passage are an utterly chilling sentence: “And it was night.” Now, that’s true at a number of levels. It’s just a statement of fact. That’s not why John says it. It’s chilling. It’s as if as Judas opens the door to go out, a freezing cold wind blows in and fills the room, that everybody felt.
Remember, this was during Passover, which means it was during a time of full moon, and in that part of the world at that time of year probably a cloudless sky as well. And yet Judas left the light of Jesus and went out into the dark, a darkness from which he would never return. From this moment on, his future is in the place of outer darkness.
What he does is terrible. It is satanic. But Satan did not make him do it. Satan did not enter Judas when Jesus held out the bread. Satan entered Judas when he then took it. He took it of his own free choice, and then Satan entered him to empower him for the mission he had just chosen to do. He could have said no. “Here Judas, here’s the bread.” “Not eating that.” But that wasn’t what he wanted. And Judas did what he wanted, which is why he is responsible for what he did.
Now, it might be your brain is just slightly struggling to put that together with what I was saying at the beginning of the sermon about this being God’s plan. If this was God’s plan, how was Judas free to do otherwise? Which is it? Judas’s fault or God’s fault? Both. This was God’s plan, but nobody, not God the Father, not Jesus the Son, not Satan himself, nobody made Judas do anything he didn’t want to do. He acted of his own free will.
So Jesus did him a kindness. He held out the choice and he gave him the chance to refuse. But as one writer I read this week said, “Judas took the bread, but not the love that held the bread out.”
Jesus deals with Judas gently. He identifies him so that only he gets the clue. Judas could back down with minimal fuss and no public humiliation. He holds the choice out to Judas. He wants Judas to walk away from the edge, but he doesn’t.
So if you are walking away from Jesus, either today or at another time in your life, then there is a point of no return. There is a point where you step into the night and you’ve turned your back for good. But here’s the thing. You do not know when that point of no return is. So don’t write the script for yourself and assume it’s necessarily in the past and it’s too late. Because until that point, Jesus comes to you gently. He holds out his hand and he urges you to come back, not to walk away.
And if you become aware that a Christian brother or sister is walking away from Jesus in that final, decisive way, Jesus is your model as to how you handle that. Please pursue them. Go after them. Don’t just let them do it. Love them enough to try to bring them back, but gently, so that whatever you can, you do to make it as easy as possible for them to return.
Conclusion
I do not know whether you identify with Judas or not. He’s not as different from us as we might assume. But we do need to know about Judas because Judas points us to Jesus. John wants us to believe that Jesus is God’s Son and God’s promised king. John wants us to trust Jesus and, as we trust him, to enjoy life as it was always meant to be, life in relationship with our maker, life to the full, lasting for all eternity.
And Judas confirms for us that Jesus is who he claimed to be. So believe it and trust him.
But Judas also shows us how to respond to Jesus. He is a warning that rejecting Jesus is a disaster. And he warns us that walking away from Jesus is not just something that other people do. It’s something that any of us could do. So if you haven’t already, please start trusting Jesus. Anyone in this room would highly recommend that to you from personal experience.
But this passage says something slightly more subtle than that. Keep trusting Jesus. And if you’re ever tempted to drift, see the danger of the night, but see also Jesus holding out his hand to quietly call you back.