“What you are going to do, do quickly.”
These are pretty disturbing words from Jesus. Satan himself has just entered into Judas and Jesus doesn’t say, “Come out of him!” or any of the things He ever said to demons. There was a time and a place for casting out evil and liberating individuals, but now the Father wanted Him to liberate people in a different way. If it was hard for Jesus to keep it together as He washed their feet, it must have been 100x more difficult when Satan was now there at the table, in their midst.
Even a bigger deal than His words, Jesus’ actions are amazing.
v. 30 “So, after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night. “
To share bread with someone was fellowship, communion. Communion was a precious thing. To share in a piece of bread with someone else was fellowship, acceptance, and peace. That’s why the Pharisees got so mad about Jesus BREAKING BREAD with sinners and tax collectors. It was like wearing the same gang colors, or wearing orange in Lexington.
Jesus, in all of His trust in the Father and compassion towards Judas, is not affected by the ultimate leader of all enemies sitting with Him at the table. He knows what is to be done, and He knows that it must come via betrayal by a friend.
John 13:26-28 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.
The more I look at this the more interesting things pop out of it. It seems like Jesus is really obvious about who is going to betray Him, right? “He to whom I will give this morsel to bread when I have dipped it.” and then Jesus hands it over to Judas. So why didn’t they get it? I wonder if they couldn’t believe it. Or if they had pegged somebody else as the one in their heads, and none of them had pegged Judas. I wonder if the news that Judas would betray Jesus fell on their ears like Jesus’ words that He would die fell on Peter’s ears and caused Peter to rebuke Jesus. So foreign, so far out from what they conceived about the Messiah and about Judas, that they couldn’t even understand when it was told to them clearly.
All of this just shows off how merciful and amazing Jesus is. How often do we not say something or tell someone something because we think “They wouldn’t understand.” or “They’re not ready for that.” Jesus told the disciples stuff they weren’t ready for all of the time. He seems like He lived in a constant state of being around people that “didn’t get it” and He never flipped out or belittled them for it. (Once he was angry at the hardness of heart of the Pharisees, but never at His disciples. He was angered at the unwillingness to learn, not the inability to learn.)
Many times, in fact, Jesus told people something that confused them until something significant happened hours, days, or even years later.
I was at the ECLC today and realized that if you pray for God to put you into a community of people, you had better check to make sure you are humble enough to be a part of whatever community He puts you in.
I’m not sure I’m ready for Him to answer me, honestly.
Are you too proud to associate with homeless people? What about African-americans or Latinos or Whites or Chinese? What about crazy people? If you find that you’d rather not be around those kinds of people, then don’t pray and ask God to put you in community somewhere. Just find people you like to be around; people that will mirror your ideas, thoughts, and beliefs.
Go find them and die.
