from WL Worcester (H Blackmer, ed.), 
The Sower.  Helps to the Study of the Bible in Home and Sunday School
 
(Boston: Massachusetts New-Church Union, n.d.)

Table of Contents
 

 

Lesson 21

John 13:18-38  "Who is It?"

The Story

Primary

While they were still at the table, the Lord sadly told the disciples that one of them would betray Him, would give Him into the hands of His enemies. We know from verse 2 of this chapter that it was Judas Iscariot, and it appears from other Gospels that Judas had already bargained with the priests for thirty pieces of silver to betray the Lord to them. (Luke 22:1-6) The disciples were startled at the thought that one of them would betray the Lord. You have seen a picture in which they are asking, "Who is it? Is it I?" The disciples were reclining at the table. The disciple John was next before the Lord. At a sign from Peter, he asked Him quietly, "Lord, who is it?" The Lord answered by handing to Judas a "sop," perhaps a piece of bread dipped in some dish on the table. Judas took it, but his heart was set upon his evil purpose, and he went out into the night. Read verses 21-30. After Judas had gone out, the Lord spoke loving words to the disciples who were still with Him at the table. Especially He charged them to love one another, and said, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."

Junior

In our last lesson the Lord and His disciples were keeping the Passover together in the large upper room in Jerusalem. The Lord had given them an example in kindly service to one another by washing their feet.

They were all together for the last time. This the Lord knew so well, and the disciples realized so little. Some of the disciples we have learned a good deal about, and some very little. We feel from the study of his Gospel, that we know something of John, the disciple whom Jesus loved. Peter, another fisherman, was the one who said, "Thou art the Christ"; the one who wanted the Lord to wash also his hands and his head. His home was at Bethsaida, and afterwards at Capernaum. Peter and John had been sent to prepare the Passover for the Lord; and they with James, John's brother, were the ones chosen to be with the Lord on some of the most holy times. We shall learn more about these disciples in the lessons which follow. Thomas was a twin (Didymus). It was he who said to the other disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with Him." We also learn that he found it hard to believe that the Lord had risen. Andrew and Philip we remember in connection with the feeding of the five thousand. Then we know something about Judas Iscariot, who was "a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein." He murmured against Mary for anointing the Lord's feet with the precious ointment. There were many different kinds of men in this little group, who had been through much with the Lord, and whom He had chosen to preach His gospel to the whole world.

And now the disciples sat together with the Lord, at the Passover feast. We know how the feast was kept: the story of the Lord's bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt was told; the unleavened bread and the bitter herbs were dipped in the sauce of fruits and passed to each one in turn - the "sop" it was called; the Passover lamb was eaten and the wine was drunk in an order exactly followed by the Jews. We know also from the other Gospels how the Lord gave to the disciples the bread and wine and taught them to keep His Holy Supper.

Verse 18: The Scripture referred to is probably Psalm 41:9. See also Psalm 55:12, 13. The betrayal of a friend whose favors one is accepting seems even more contemptible than open opposition. Verses 21-30: Imagine the surprise and horror of the disciples as they hear the Lord's words and begin to ask, "Who is it? Is it I?" Leonardo da Vinci has chosen this moment for his picture of the disciples at the table with the Lord. If you have the picture, what disciples can you identify?

The Lord knew all that was to happen, the disciples did not; and yet they knew that their Master must soon leave them, for He had tried to prepare them for the changes that must come. Think of them then as the Lord said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray Me." And each one of them in terror said, "Lord, is it I?" Then Peter motioned to John who was nearest the Lord "lying on Jesus' bosom," to ask who it was. And Jesus answered, "He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot." And He said to him, "That thou doest, do quickly." The other disciples did not understand this. But Judas being full of his evil purpose went out into the night.

Then the Lord spoke most tenderly to the eleven, calling them "little children," and telling them that in a little while He must leave them. And He gave them a commandment, to love one another, and said, "By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another." And this He also says to us if we would be His disciples; we must love one another.

Peter could not bear the idea of the Lord's leaving them, and said he was willing to die for the Lord's sake. But the Lord said, "Wilt thou lay down thy life for My sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, the cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied Me thrice." That is, this very night before the morning should come, Peter would deny that he was the Lord's disciple. In our lessons which follow we shall see how this sad thing came true, as the Lord said.


1. What Scripture is referred, to in verse 18? When had the Lord spoken to the Jews the words quoted in verse 33?

2. What disciple is meant in verse 23? How do you know? (See John 21:20, 24)

3. Where else is the fact of Judas' carrying the bag mentioned? (John 12:6) What do you understand it to mean?

4. What deeper meaning do you see in the last four words of verse 30?

5. Do you know how the Lord's words in verse 38 came true?

Spiritual Study

Intermediate

One who betrays another is worse than an open enemy. He pretends to be a friend; he enjoys confidence and accepts kindness, and uses these to do harm to the one who gives them. "For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: but it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance." (Psalm 55:12, 13) "Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I, trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me." (Psalm 41:9) We are traitors and betray the Lord if we use the knowledge of holy things, or any of the blessings of the church, for selfish advantage to ourselves, to gain money or power, or to be well thought of. The acceptance of holy things from the Lord, which we are about to misuse, is represented by Judas' dipping with the Lord in the dish upon the table, and by his receiving the morsel of food which the Lord dipped. "One of you shall betray Me," the Lord says. We ought to ask with the disciples, "Lord, is it I? " We ought earnestly to consider whether, and in what ways, we are betraying the Lord, perverting His gifts of knowledge and other holy things to evil ends. As Peter and John asked the Lord who it should be, so our faith and love must help us to see and feel in what ways we are guilty of this wrong. (E. 617)

In verse 2 of the chapter, it is said, "The devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray Him"; and in verse 27 it is said, "After the sop Satan entered into him." Evil is called "the devil," and falsity is called "Satan." It seems to say that at the earlier time the evil purpose was in Judas' heart to betray the Lord, and that now the wicked thought came, as to how it should be done. (E. 740)

Does it tell something more than the natural time of day, when it adds that Judas went out, "and it was night"? The words also describe the state of darkness in Judas' mind, now that it was filled with evil thoughts. Also compare verse 38 with Mark 14:30, and consider what it means in regard to the state of Peter's mind. (A. 6000)

The air seems to be brighter after Judas has gone out. His going out, in one sense, represents the complete rejection from the Lord's human heart and mind of that evil, which Judas represents, the willingness to use holy things for selfish ends. When Judas was gone out, Jesus said, "Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in Him." The Lord's glorification was the union of the human with the Divine in Him. He spoke of it as a reciprocal union and glory. The human was glorified by being made one with the Divine, and the Divine was glorified by gaining this new means of accomplishing its purpose for men. Find the same thought expressed more fully in John 17:1, 4, and 5. All this when Judas was gone out. (A.2803)

When the Lord spoke of going away from the world and to the Father, the Jews and the disciples thought of a journey to some distant place. (John 7:33-36; 16:5, 16, 28) In fact He did not go by a change of place, but by a change of state, passing in His glorification beyond the power of their finite minds to comprehend Him. Yet to the disciples the Lord said, that they should follow Him afterwards (He made no such promise to the Jews), meaning that by steps of regeneration, analogous to His glorification, they would come to a fuller apprehension of His Divine perfection. The new commandment, to love one another, standing as it does in the middle of the words about following the Lord, shows the especial means by which we may come near to Him. By exercising the love of the second Great Commandment, loving one another, serving one another, exercising patience and forbearance toward one another, for His sake, we are enabled also to keep the first Great Commandment, to love the Lord, and to come near to Him. Another necessity for gaining this Christian love and following the Lord is expressed in Peter's words, "I will lay down my life for Thy sake." How easy to say, but how hard to do, in the deeper sense of laying down each day our selfish life, giving up at each step of progress our way, to follow the Lord's way. Like Peter, we are weaker than we know. But the Lord will help us and strengthen us. "Thou shalt follow Me afterwards." (A. 1737, 10087; E. 864)

John's Gospel is the only one which does not describe the institution of the Holy Supper. But when we read the wonderful fourteenth to seventeenth chapters of John, we see that this Gospel teaches the same lesson of conjunction with the Lord, but in another way.

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