After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and testified, “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”
22 The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke.
23 One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table at Jesus’ side,
24 so Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking.
25 So that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to him, “Lord, who is it?”
26 Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it.” So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.
27 Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.”
28 Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him.
29 Some thought that, because Judas had the moneybag, Jesus was telling him, “Buy what we need for the feast,” or that he should give something to the poor.30
So, after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night. 31
When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.
32 If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once.
33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” 36
Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered him, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.”37
Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”
38 Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.
This morning our reading and devotion is a bit longer than usual but I wanted to set side by side two prominent men in the history of redemption, Judas and Peter.
Judas’ betrayal and departure was the last thing that needed to happen to set in motion the events of the next hours in the life of Jesus and the most brilliant display
that could ever be imagined of love, mercy and yes, even justice. There is a must comparison between Judas and his betrayal and Peter and his, following as it does so close on the heels of Judas’ departure. Both of these men fail greatly but one of them goes
to hell and the other to heaven. One of them would never see the face of Jesus again and would be overcome with grief and would die at his own hand…
…while the other, would be brought to repentance and service to the Lord and be killed by the hands of others. One would prove his devotion to be completely false,
nothing but lies, while the other would actually fulfill the words he speaks here in this room but only when pride had turned to humility and self, had been lost altogether. One of these men would become infamous, his name being forever linked in religious
and non- religious circles alike, for treason…being a Judas is a phrase known to almost everyone…While the other, would be one of the most highly regarded men in the history of the world, one of the most celebrated followers of Jesus.
How could there be such a world of difference between two men, who lived at the same time and who even acted in similar fashion? And a world of difference there is!
The irony in the literature is so powerful. Judas leaves before Jesus will speak about love, the kind of love that He is about to demonstrate, the kind of love that He is saying we have to live as well…Judas must be gone to speak to this love that makes us
very different from the world, so different in fact, that the world will sit up and take notice, so different that the world will wonder where did this kind of love come from…how different these Christians are!!!
And yet, those words barely leave Jesus’ mouth and we find our Lord having to rebuke Peter for his proud, untested boasting regarding his own loyalty to Jesus, telling
the impetuous disciple, that he will disown Jesus, not once, or twice, but three times, and the last will not be in the face of sword wielding soldier, but at the accusations of a terrifying little servant girl! This certainly isn’t the kind of action we would
think to commend Xnty to the world!
Cowardice, vain boasting and disloyalty to save one’s own neck, this is pretty common fare both then and now and has never commended itself to anyone. No one hopes
to be a coward…no one pines to make empty boasts that prove false and humiliate one’s self. And yet, isn’t there something so personal about Peter, something that strikes us to the bone. How many times do you read of Peter’s blunders in word and action and
think, “I do that…”
Look at 13:31: When he was gone, (speaking of Judas) Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him.” Notice that Jesus does not say, now
is the Son of man humiliated, but glorified. He knows what is ahead, and yet Jesus sees the glory! Humiliation comes first, for it is through death that life comes, through death the glorification will follow. It has to be humility and then it is glory, death
and then resurrection. Peter did not understand this. Peter boasts, what he wants to be true, what he wishes would be true, when it cost him nothing and there was no threat! Peter says that he is willing to die for Jesus, but does he understand dying?
Many Christians today make promises their faith can in no way cash. We boast about our faith, about how foolish everyone else is who don’t know all that we know…We
pontificate about our commitment to Jesus saying what we wish were true and maybe what we believe is true…when it costs nothing…when the pressure is not on…where there are no people to mock us, to ridicule us…no cost to our words. We profess God is sovereign
when there is nothing difficult to embrace…We proclaim Him provider, when we are living in abundance…We say we would never deny him, when no one is asking us to.
But Jesus knows the truth of our hearts and so He is going to get us to the place where our faith makes no boasts but clings to the Crucified one because then and
only then, will any of what we wish to be true, actually BE true. The question for Peter and for us is therefore: Are we willing to see an end to self, an end of thinking to be strong in self, will we chose the life of dying and the cross, not once, not in
one solitary blaze of glory, but the death to self and the life of the cross…daily, of being emptied…of surrendering everything to him, who has surrendered everything for us? Will we embrace humility that resurrection might follow?
Here is Timothy Willard from his book, Veneer, Living Deeply
in a Surface Society: Because of a bitter and often misguided religious experience…we disregard God in favor of self. And once self is seated upon the throne of our souls, veneer lingers close. Selfless living seems too painful, we think. So, we retreat into
our own faith of self. But when we back away from selflessness, we also back away from our relationship with God. They are connected. By
understanding one (relationship with God), we are able to live the other (God’s language of love). Christ’s crucifixion model represents the essence of God’s language for living. But we cannot learn the language of sacrifice with comfortable ease. We must
approach first through the narrow pathway of humility…to truly find ourselves, we must lose ourselves to Christ…”
In the context in the upper room, Jesus institutes the Lord’s Supper, in the midst of all of this is the mystery of bread and wine. And what is Jesus telling us when
He says, This is my body?
Jesus is saying, this is the bread of my affliction, the bread of my suffering and through this, through your participation with me, pictured when YOU eat the bread
and YOU drink from the cup, is your embracing the life that I give. When we take the Eucharist, we are identifying with Jesus, we are embracing His sacrifice AND, we are embracing the life that He sets forth and models for us to live. As though you are with
him in that upper room, ready to commit yourself to Him who changes the course of everything. Peter will learn all of this, he HAS to learn all of this and so do you, and so do I, it is the way of Jesus, this
and nothing else IS Christianity.
Every one of us is Peter. We have all denied our association with Him, some of us countless times…we have all made proud arrogant boasts that our faith cannot cash, because we are consumed
with self. We are always, you and I, underestimating the power of sin, and grossly overestimating ourselves. The difference between Peter and Judas is not that one was a sinner and the other a saint, or that one was a traitor and the other always faithful.
No, as hard as it might be for some to swallow, the difference isn’t seen in Peter or Judas at all, the difference is seen in God, in grace…in the undeserved kindness of the Almighty to redeem one unworthy sinner and not the other.
I believe Peter understood this and grew in his understanding of it. His life demonstrates that God made clear that He owes his life to grace and nothing but grace. He learns the art
of dying to self and experiences the joy of living. He sees what grace means and what the Lordship of Jesus looks like and how the two can never be separated. In other words, anyone who thinks they know Grace but doesn’t know abandonment to Jesus Xp, is fooling
himself. Peter learns that there is but one boast to make and that is in the grace of God made manifest in Xp, or else, all of us are Judas.
This is the point with which the entire section was introduced in 13:1: “Having loved his own, who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.” I can only
imagine the pain on that day when the rooster crowed and as the text of scripture says, Jesus and Peter’s eyes met…but then again, it seems I have come quite close to feeling the gaze of the Holy One, in my denial of his love. But what will his grace work
in us? I think I understand the author who in speaking to such painful things said:
This is why we can look back on pain in our lives and call it beautiful. It wasn’t beautiful then; it was hell. But from that hell grew a shoot, and from that shoot
a leaf, and life sprang up where hell resided; that’s beautiful. God makes it so…
Brothers and sisters, that is grace and that is what grace works…the difference is Jesus and grace is a beauty that we marvel in…today and forever.
Prayer: Father, I do not sit in judgement upon others whose faith is weak and stumbles, for I know the frailty of my own weak and timid trust in You and Your promises.
I know that I am forgiven, I know Your grace and mercy have made me clean in Christ Jesus, but Father, I want to be more for You. I want to live in that grace, finding obedience, and a fullness of faith to be mine! Grant this to me Lord that I might be ever
pleasing in Your sight, in Jesus name, Amen.
Hymn: Ubi Caritas
English Translation
Where charity and love are, God is there.
Love of Christ has gathered us into one.
Let us rejoice in Him and be glad.
Let us fear, and let us love the living God.
And from a sincere heart let us love one.
Where charity and love are, God is there.
At the same time, therefore, are gathered into one:
Lest we be divided in mind, let us beware.
Let evil impulses stop, let controversy cease.
And in the midst of us be Christ our God.
Where charity and love are, God is there.
At the same time we see that with the saints also,
Thy face in glory, O Christ our God:
The joy that is immense and good, Unto the
World without end. Amen.