Jesus Heralds His Gospel
Who Is It? It is interesting that the disciples were perplexed. Apparently Jesus had treated Judas the same as the other disciples. For three years the Lord had been gentle, loving, and kind to Judas — exactly as He had been to the other eleven. Any rebukes from Jesus for Judas’s unbelief had been private and personal. Publicly He had treated him like one of the group. All the disciples would have known if Jesus had treated Judas any differently. If Judas had in any way been thought of as the black sheep of the group, someone would surely have suggested his name as the betrayer. But no one did. In fact, Judas was the treasurer of the group. The disciples all trusted him. Contrast the hatred Judas harbored for Jesus with the love John had for the Savior. John reclined at the table next to Jesus. This was normal posture for a banquet. The table was a low platform, and all the guests reclined on the floor, resting on their left elbows, using their right hands to eat. John, reclining to the right of Jesus, had his head at chest level to Jesus. When he turned to speak with Him, Christ’s head would be just above his. Because of his great love for the Savior, John loved to be there, near the Lord’s heart. Peter signaled to John to ask Jesus who would betray Him. “He, leaning back thus on Jesus’ breast, said to Him, ‘Lord, who is it?’ ” (John 13:24 – 25). Peter and John may be the only ones who heard the answer. Verse 26 says, “Jesus therefore 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.”
The Guest of Honor This was not only an answer to John’s question; it was yet another loving appeal to Judas. The morsel was a piece of unleavened bread, broken from the cakes prepared for the meal. On the table during the Passover feast was a dish filled with bitter herbs, vinegar, salt, dates, figs, and raisins. Those ingredients were mashed into a paste with a little water, and it made a kind of dip. The host would put a piece of unleavened bread in the dip and give it to the guest of honor. Jesus, in a gesture of love toward Judas, dipped the morsel and handed it to Judas on His left, as if Judas were the guest of honor. Jesus had already washed Judas’s feet; now He treated him as an honored friend. That should have broken Judas’s heart, but it didn’t. His heart was like granite; he had made his final decision. John 13:27 portrays the sinister nature of Judas’s final rejection: “After the morsel, Satan then entered into him.” There’s an eternity in that verse. Judas
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