Wednesday in the Word...John 13:21-30...a dipped morsel

The order of the disciples around the table of the Last Supper has always fascinated me and with more information about how they assembled themselves it makes for a possible interesting scenario.   

Today's Wednesday in the Word will cover John chapter 13 and verses 21 through 30, which read,

v.21 - When Jesus had said this, He became troubled in spirit, and testified and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, that one of you will betray Me.” 

What had Jesus just said that troubled Him so?  Jesus had let His disciples know that one of them was going to betray Him.  One of them was going to be used to fulfill the Scriptures that He would be turned over and ultimately crucified.  This was the plan.  Not the Jewish authorities' plan but God's plan from the beginning to provide a Promise to the problem of sin.  

A perfect, sinless sacrifice would be willfully given for others to stand justified before the all mighty holy God.  Those Christ would die for, who have faith in Him as the Son of God, would receive His righteousness as He took the penalty, the wrath of God, for their sins.  The wrath of man that was going to be inflicted upon Jesus through the night and the next day was nothing compared to the wrath of God endured for the sake of His sheep.  This jarring news needed to be said over and over again for it to register with His disciples that it really was going to happen.  Jesus is testifying, in a court of law kind of way, to this near future event.

v.22, 23 - The disciples began looking at one another, at a loss to know of which one He was speaking. There was reclining on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved. 

It registers enough for the disciples to start to question Jesus on this statement.  They were also questioning each other and themselves about who Jesus was talking about.  A certain disciple is identified here as the one whom Jesus loved.  Through other passages, we find out that this is John the disciple, the writer of the Gospel of John, speaking of himself.  He never says his name.  He just refers to himself as the disciple that Jesus loved.  

John chapter 19 and verse 26 says,

When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, "Woman, behold, your son!"

John chapter 20 and verse 2 says,

So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him."

John chapter 21 and verse 20 says,

Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; the one who also had leaned back on His bosom at the supper and said, "Lord, who is the one who betrays You."

John chapter 21 and verse 24 gives the connecting point that John is speaking of himself with this phrase when he writes,

This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true.

v.24, 25 - So Simon Peter gestured to him, and said to him, “Tell us who it is of whom He is speaking.” He, leaning back thus on Jesus’ bosom, said to Him, “Lord, who is it?” 

The question is relayed from Peter to John to Jesus.  These verses and the next will give us a hint on the position of some of the disciples around the table in relationship to Jesus.  We know from history and the custom of the day that they are not sitting upright on chairs at this table as we do today.  They would have been laying down, propped up on one elbow with maybe with a pillow underneath and feet extended away from the table.  They would have the use of a free hand to eat and pass the food along.  

For John to lay his head on the breast or bosom of Jesus would make John immediately to that side of Jesus.  The dominant hand to use is the right, so let's say they are leaning on their left elbows.  John would be to Jesus' right and would lean back to ask Jesus this question.  The disciples would be using their right hands to place the bread and other food from person to person in a clockwise pattern.  The food or drink would come to you from the back of the person you see and you would pass it along, with your right hand to the person you cannot fully see.  

John laying back would put his head in a position to see Jesus to ask this question.  I know this throws a wrench in all those pictures we grew up with of the Last Supper at a table long and linear but the Scriptures and historical books paint a different picture of how the people conducted themselves around a table at meal time.

v.26, 27 - Jesus then answered, “That is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him.” So when He had dipped the morsel, He took and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.  After the morsel, Satan then entered into him. Therefore Jesus said to him, “What you do, do quickly.” 

John leans back and asks the question that Peter wanted answered.  The answer comes from Jesus that it would be the one who received the dipped morsel of bread from.  Jesus dips the bread morsel, probably in olive oil and hands it to Judas Iscariot.  Let's think this through logically.

If they are leaning on their left elbow and using their right hands to eat and pass things along and John leans back onto the breast or bosom of Jesus to ask the question and this puts John to Jesus right then unless Jesus gets up to give Judas this morsel, Judas would be immediately on Jesus' left.  John would dip the bread into the olive oil and hand it to Jesus so He could have a bite.  Then John would pass the olive oil and bread to Jesus.  Jesus would then to the same for the next in line.  Jesus, while chewing on His morsel would receive the olive oil and bread from John and break a piece off and dip it in the olive oil and hand it to Judas.  Judas would eat it while Jesus is passing the olive oil and bread to Judas to do for the next one in line.

If John is on one side of Jesus and Judas Iscariot is on the other, then you have the disciple described as the disciple whom Jesus loved on one side and the disciple whom Satan had entered on the other.  If we have the picture right, we have Jesus perched between good and evil.  In verse 2 Satan had put it into Judas Iscariot's heart to betray Jesus and now in verse 26 Satan actually enters him.  But notice, it is the order from Jesus to go.  Who is in charge of what is going on here?  Remember back that Satan couldn't touch Job of the Old Testament until God said he could.

v.28, 29 - Now no one of those reclining at the table knew for what purpose He had said this to him.  For some were supposing, because Judas had the money box, that Jesus was saying to him, “Buy the things we have need of for the feast”; or else, that he should give something to the poor. 

How snowed did Judas Iscariot have the rest of the disciples?  They thought he left the feast to get more food or to give some money to the poor when he was leaving to get make some money by betraying their teacher.  The Apostle Paul and other New Testament writers would warn their readers and us about wolves in amongst the flock that seek to destroy God's family.  They look like another sheep but really they are a wolf.  God is the one who knows the heart and we can be dubbed by the best of them.  

v.30 - So after receiving the morsel he went out immediately; and it was night.

Judas receives the morsel from the hand of Jesus and obeys the command to leave.  The last thing John gives us is the detail that it was night.  When I read that phrase I could help but think of Jesus' words earlier to His disciples in chapter 9 and verse 4 which reads,

"We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work."

John tells us it is now night.  It is physically night but it is also spiritually night.  It is the beginning of the night when Jesus' disciples would stop their feasting because Jesus was with them and turn to fasting because He would be gone for 3 days.  What was coming was going to be purely evil and every rule made by the Jewish authorities was going to be broken to get what they wanted.  It was going to be a dark night for all.  We will wait until next Wednesday to see how Jesus initially responses to His disciples about what is to come.

Adam