Jesus Predicts His Betrayal (J51)

“I am telling you this ahead of time,
So that you will know for sure I am He;
I know you; I chose you, and you are mine,
But one of you this night will betray me!”
The one Jesus loved asked, “Lord, who is it?”
“He who takes this dipped bread; he is the one.”
Judas took the dipped bread, and out he lit,
To lead the guards where to arrest God’s Son!
The apostles did not yet understand,
For Judas had the bag, and might be sent
To pay the bill. Jesus’ death was at hand,
And they knew not of this night’s grim events!
Satan entered Judas; he took the bread;
“What you do, do quickly,” the Savior said!

Scripture Quoted: John 13:21-27 (NIV)
“After he said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, ‘I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me.’ His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved [meaning the author himself—John], was reclining next to him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, ‘Ask him which one he meant.’ Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, ‘Lord, who is it?’ 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 Iscariot, son of Simon. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.” [Brackets added]

Commentary on: John 13:18-30 (NIV)
John, the youngest apostle, refers to himself as “the disciple Jesus loved”. Of course, Jesus loved them all, but He did seem to have a special affection for John, the brother of James, and son of Zebedee; he is the author of the gospel we are now studying. We will see in Chapter 21 a bit of jealousy on the part of Simon Peter for John. The other apostles may have felt it, too, for there seemed to be a rumor among them that Jesus favored John and was going to allow him to live until Jesus’ Second Coming to earth. Of course, it was not true, but John did live longer than any of the others. His gospel was circulated first in 90 A. D., 58 years after this Thursday in 32 on the eve of the crucifixion. He died in about 100 A. D., a martyr like all the others, a prisoner of the Romans on the island of Patmos. He wrote his three epistles and the book of Revelation in his last years in prison. He was 95 or older when he died.

Jesus knew Judas was going to betray Him, even when He chose him as an apostle. Like Lucifer, whose pride was necessary to introduce evil into the world so that man would be free to choose between good and evil, Judas was essential to the mission for which Jesus was sent to the earth; how else was Jesus to be arrested and His many followers not know it and riot unless one of the Twelve apostles betray Him by leading the guards to Him at night when He would be alone? Judas was an important link to Jesus’ atonement for sin at the planned time and place; that’s why Jesus chose him in the first place. when you are God, and you know everything and are following a plan conceived before time began, you have to do some seemingly unwise things.

It is amazing that the apostles could not identify the traitor after Jesus had told them what He did. Perhaps He used His divine power to blind them to the actual reality; otherwise, Simon Peter or someone else may have resorted to violence to prevent the betrayal. Judas was the only one who left the meal. He reappeared late that night at the head of a bunch of priests and temple guards to arrest Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus had been praying alone, while the disciples had dozed behind Him.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him would not die, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)