Today, we continue in John 13.
I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen. But this is to fulfill this passage of Scripture: ‘He who shared my bread has turned against me.’
19 “I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am who I am. 20 Very truly I tell you, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.”
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.”
22 His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. 23 One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. 24 Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, “Ask him which one he means.”
25 Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, “Lord, who is it?”
26 Jesus answered, “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, the son of Simon Iscariot. 27 As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.
So Jesus told him, “What you are about to do, do quickly.” 28 But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. 29 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. 30 As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.
Jesus and his disciples were having dinner. It was Passover time. It was a holiday. No one wants bad news at a holiday. As a Pastor's wife I have seen a lot of bad news at holidays: deaths, hospitalizations, cancer diagnosis, court battles and arrests. There is never a good time but not over a holiday!! Jesus brings some "downer" news. He begins sharing predictions of things that will come. This started as a nice evening but bad news gets worse in the next .few chapters of John.
It starts with Jesus sharing that one of the disciples will betray him. None of them could even imagine it. Jesus goes further. He points out who it would be. Once that happens, Judas leaves. Can you imagine? What a way to ruin a party or an intimate gathering of friends. The mood is totally different now. The disciples were confused but they knew something was "up."
I know there have been times that I didn't understand fully what was "up." It caused a lot of competing emotion especially anxiety. I had a cancer "scare" a few years ago. My husband has had some scary hospitalizations through the years. One of my daughter's had a stroller fall and fainted where her eyes rolled back into her head. Those were hard and a little scary but life returned to normal after a few days. The one event that was life altering was my son's diagnosis on the autism spectrum. Life changed forever. Yes, we have gotten a handle on his autism and life normalized. It took a couple years to see it somewhat normalize. Two years is a long time to feel out of control. Most events take a lot of effort to pull off. Life has never fully returned to what I envisioned it to be or what my friends had with their children. Some days don't seem too hard but then there are other days that feel like I can't do this for one more hour.
The disciples are getting a glimpse of how hard life will become. They don't understand yet but they see just enough that will help them prepare for the hard road ahead. That's how life is with Jesus. He gives us just enough to help us prepare but not so much that we are overwhelmed for the journey ahead.
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