John 13.18-38

This sermon is also available in MP3 format here.

The feast is near, the devil has put it into the heart of Judas to betray Jesus, the evening meal has been brought to a stop by the strange action of Jesus in washing their feet, and by the command that from now on they were to keep each other's feet clean. Because he has cleansed them all...

Well actually not all of them. One of his close friends is to fulfil the scripture and oppose him. Jesus tells them that one of them, one of the close disciples, will betray him. As he tells them he is obviously troubled. The disciples are also troubled. Once again the meal comes to a stop as they ask each other who it could be. Peter asks the disciple whom Jesus loves to find out. Jesus gives him a sign - the bread dipped in the dish.

He gives the bread to Judas and urges him to act quickly. The other disciples don't understand. That one of them should betray Jesus is a new idea. That it should happen immediately - that night - is too much to imagine.

But why does Jesus say this? Why not look Judas in the eye and say "Don't do this Judas! Change your mind! Don't go!" Why not say that? We are told that as soon as Judas takes the bread Satan enters him. Already the devil has out it into his heart to betray him. Does Jesus speak like this because he knows that Satan is more powerful? Or does the clue John gives us about it being night point to the fact that despite what has been said in John 1, the darkness is actually overcoming the light?

Or is this part of the glorifying of the Son of man? It is in his death (in which Judas will play a part) that he will be glorified. And God will be glorified. Here again we see one of the many allusions in John to the relationship between God and Jesus. God in himself will glorify the Son of Man. The humanity of Jesus, already united to the divinity will be caught up to share the glory of God because of the relationship between the Son and the Father.

The Father and the Son have both a unity of purpose (the cross is their united work), and a unity of being. That is why those who receive the ones Jesus has sent receive not only Jesus but the one who sent him. These disciples will be sent with the authority of the Father and the Son.

They will be sent because they are the ones who have been left behind. They cannot follow Jesus now. Although Peter wants to. He will go anywhere, even die for Jesus. But Jesus wants him to stay. He can follow later. Right now he has the enthusiasm but not the ability to go with Jesus. Before the night is over he will have denied him three times.

Peter and the others have to stay. And these left behind ones are given a new command.

Really it is an old command. But it is new because now there is a new model for loving - the way Jesus loved them. Later (Jn 15.12f) he will explain that it involves giving up one's life for one's friends. That is how they are to love each other.

It is new also because it is a command for a new group. These are disciples of Jesus and in their life together and their relationships with each other they are to show his character. Their behaviour together is to look like him.

It is also new because it is a command for a new time. They will be left behind in a hostile world. The world that killed Jesus will hate them. They will be under pressure and instead of fighting each other, they are to love each other.

For modern western people this is a difficult passage of scripture. It is easily sentimentalised. Easily inverted so that we read it to mean that we should be loved by each other. It is easy to excuse ourselves and think that it doesn't really apply to busy people, or single people, or married people with children, or executives, or shy people or ...

One of its difficulties is that it flies in the face of western individualism and self centredness.

But Jesus wanted his disples to love each other by giving their lives for each other. He wanted them to keep each others feet clean. He thought that it was the brothers and sisters who were left behind together who would encourage each other to be his disciples.

Dale Appleby

Left behind: John 13.18-38

Daniel 7.8-14, Ephesians 3.14-21, John 13.18-38 February 5, 2006