Interesting stuff in this chapter.
John 13:3 & 4
Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.
The use of the word "so" here is very interesting. "So" is a word that indicates a logical conclusion to a circumstance. For example, "I was hungry, so I ate." "I wanted a good job, so I went to college." "I needed to lose weight, so I started dieting." The circumstance presented in these verses and the conclusion doesn't make sense to me. Jesus has all power, came from God and is returning to God, and is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being (Hebrews 1:3), so he washed His disciples' feet. I'll have to let this marinate in my head a while.
John 13:25 - 29
Leaning back against Jesus, [John] 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. "What you are about to do, do quickly," Jesus told him, but no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the Feast, or to give something to the poor.
This is the "last supper." Jesus has announced one of His disciples will betray him. John, leaning on Jesus, asks Him, "who is it?" It doesn't say it in the scripture, but it seems to me that Jesus whispered his reply to John; nobody else could hear Him. "It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish." If all of the disciples had heard this, there would not have been any question of what Judas was leaving to do. Instead they assumed he was going to buy more food for the meal, or give to someone in need. So why did Jesus tell John and none of the other disciples?
2 comments:
Steven, Good look at the Scripture, and this is something I haven't really thought about before till now.
I would say that John was including this into his Gospel due to help with validation of his relationship with Christ. By stating this small converstaion with Christ, it shows the strong bond between Christ and that of the author. Thus, the author is more reliable in the events to occur.
We know that John and Jesus had a very close relationship. John was to take over the duties of caring for Mary upon the death of Christ. He is described as the disciple in which Christ loved. I believe this is just another way that John shows the closeness between he and Christ to help develop the validation for his authorship. Just a thought though.
I was always confused why the disciples knew that Judas was going to betray Jesus, but they just let him walk away and do his deed. With the possibility that He whispered this to only John, this makes more sense. Peter was willing to strike down anyone coming for Jesus (e.g., when he cut off the temple servant's ear), but he didn't lift a finger when Judas left to betray Jesus.
Post a Comment