Betrayal

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Maundy Thursday, the 1st of April, 2021, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  This was an abbreviated service due to constraints put in place due to the pandemic.  The service also included Holy Communion.  Our YouTube streaming channel is:

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDIz4WuP8igQstkEOq1AMTg.  Look for the video of our recorded services on our Vimeo channel:  http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]

At some point or another, we’ve all enjoyed a good meal surrounded by friends and family.  The little snatches of conversation, catching up on the goings on of each other.  The laughter, the clinking of forks and knives against plates.  The warm, cozy feeling as food, fellowship, and love are shared.

How would this all change for you if you knew it was the last meal you would ever again eat?  What if this would be the last time you would see any of these people again in this life?  What if you knew that in mere hours you would die?

The emotions playing in your head right now may be those that Jesus felt on this night long, long ago.  For He did know what was about to happen.  He knew of His upcoming execution.  And worse yet, He knew that one of those with Him, sharing the meal with Him, would betray Him to the authorities, setting everything in motion.  Betrayal cuts like a knife, and Jesus felt the pain.

Listen and follow along as I read from the Gospel account of the beloved Apostle John, chapter 13, verses 18 through 35, from the Living Bible…

18 “I am not saying these things to all of you; I know so well each one of you I chose. The Scripture declares, ‘One who eats supper with Me will betray Me,’ and this will soon come true. 19 I tell you this now so that when it happens, you will believe on Me.

20 “Truly, anyone welcoming My messenger is welcoming Me. And to welcome Me is to welcome the Father who sent Me.”

21 Now Jesus was in great anguish of spirit and exclaimed, “Yes, it is true — one of you will betray Me.” 22 The disciples looked at each other, wondering whom He could mean. 23 Since I was sitting next to Jesus at the table, being His closest friend, 24 Simon Peter motioned to me to ask Him who it was who would do this terrible deed.

25 So I turned and asked Him, “Lord, who is it?”

26 He told me, “It is the one I honor by giving the bread dipped in the sauce.”

And when He had dipped it, He gave it to Judas, son of Simon Iscariot.

27 As soon as Judas had eaten it, Satan entered into him. Then Jesus told him, “Hurry — do it now.”

28 None of the others at the table knew what Jesus meant. 29 Some thought that since Judas was their treasurer, Jesus was telling him to go and pay for the food or to give some money to the poor. 30 Judas left at once, going out into the night.

31 As soon as Judas left the room, Jesus said, “My time has come; the glory of God will soon surround Me — and God shall receive great praise because of all that happens to Me. 32 And God shall give Me His own glory, and this so very soon. 33 Dear, dear children, how brief are these moments before I must go away and leave you! Then, though you search for Me, you cannot come to Me — just as I told the Jewish leaders.

34 “And so I am giving a new commandment to you now — love each other just as much as I love you. 35 Your strong love for each other will prove to the world that you are My disciples.”

--John 13:18-35 (TLB)

Let us pray…  Father God, this evening we step back in time to a night so long ago that may have lost its meaning for many.  Some of us may not see ourselves in this passage.  Speak to us, Father, speak into our hearts, that we might relive that night and understand its meaning and impact on our very lives.  Speak to us that we might know the truth of our ways.  Convict us of our sin and forgive us of our continuing disobedience.  This we pray in the name of Your Son Jesus.  Amen

Tonight is Maundy Thursday.  The word, “Maundy”, comes from the Latin word meaning command or commandment.  On the night of His last supper with His disciples, Jesus gave us a commandment to “Do this in remembrance of Me”.  He also gave us a new commandment: to love each other, just as much as He loves us.

In just a few minutes we will share the elements of our Lord’s body and blood, just as He shared the bread and the wine with His disciples that night.  We will renew the covenant God made with us, sealed by the precious blood of Jesus.  But first, let’s look a little more closely at what took place during that meal.

Family, you’ve probably heard of the unofficial ritual of a condemned prisoner getting whatever they would like to eat as their last meal before being executed.  It can be traced back to medieval times and its exact origin is unknown, but I believe it harkens back to what we call the Last Supper.

Jesus knew He was condemned, even though His closest friends and followers couldn’t quite accept it when He said so.  And He knew His execution was imminent, coming in just a few hours.  So He also knew this would be the last meal He could enjoy while still in mortal flesh.  And in this case, as I mentioned earlier, He also knew who would set the wheels in motion by betraying Him - and with a kiss, no less.

But everything that night happened for a reason.  Prophecy has to be fulfilled, both that spoken of by the prophets of old as well as what Jesus was saying to His followers.  King David foretold this night in verse 9 of Psalm 41 when he noted that, “Even my best friend has turned against me — a man I completely trusted; how often we ate together.”  And Jesus noted that He was telling His friends all of this so that they would believe Him and everything He says once this happened.  We know from other readings that they did finally understand, they did eventually grasp the truth, because they remembered what He said and the old prophecies as they saw them all come true.

I mentioned the emotions that might have been at work within Jesus that evening.  Just the thought of being betrayed by one He had personally chosen to follow Him, one He trusted, one who had been with Him for years, this alone would make an emotional wreck of one of us.

So how did Jesus feel?  John gives us a glimmer when he says that our Lord was in great anguish of spirit.  Jesus was heartbroken!  Who wouldn’t be?  We just don’t expect someone we count as a friend to betray us, even if it does happen all too often.  It shocks us, saddens us to our core when it happens.  But even though Jesus knew what was going on, it still brought great anguish to His spirit.  One He had chosen, one He loved, one He had hoped to save, betrayed Him.

I wonder… does Jesus still suffer great anguish?  Sure, He can no longer feel physical pain, nor be tortured nor hung on a cross to bleed and die.  But can He not still be humiliated and ridiculed?  Can He not still feel the sting of rejection?  Does it not hurt when someone specifically chosen to follow and serve Him, someone He loves dearly, someone He gave up His own life’s blood for, willfully betrays Him?

Sadly, we who have accepted Jesus as our Lord, we who promised to follow and serve Him, we who are called by His name, we too often are guilty of betrayal.  We betray Jesus when we don’t fully trust in Him, when we let fear rule us, when we place more priority on the things of this world and this life than the life to come.  We betray Jesus when we fail to love unconditionally, sacrificially, when we speak badly of those not like us, when we treat others in a way we would never want to be treated ourselves, when we won’t give without expecting to receive.

We betray Jesus when we are too afraid, ashamed, or timid to talk to other people about Him, people that we know don’t believe in Him or have not accepted Him as Lord, when we’re more worried about what they might think of us than we are about their eternal souls.  We betray Jesus when we don’t do as He asks us, as He commands us.  And we cause Him to feel great anguish of spirit.

In just a few moments we will come to the table of our Lord to share His last meal with Him.  The Apostle Paul warns that we must be right with God before doing so, otherwise we share the guilt of His execution, of His death.  In other words, we betray Him once again.

Now is the time to get right with God.  If you are feeling the guilt of betrayal, if you are weighed down by the knowledge of your disobedience, if you are holding a grudge against a fellow believer, if there is anything in your life that God would see as sinful, lay it all at the foot of our Lord’s cross, repent, and seek forgiveness.  

Get right with God.  Stay true to Jesus and stop betraying Him.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Father God, on this night we reflect back on a time when mankind saddened You yet again.  For on that night long ago we betrayed Your Son, Your only Son, whom You sent to offer us salvation.  Instead of receiving Him, we rejected Him.  And even today, instead of testifying for Him, we betray Him by our temerity and refusal to do so.  Forgive us, Father, for we do not know what we are doing.

But now, Father, we pray that we do know and understand the impact of our actions and words.  Thank You for saving all this for us in our Holy Bible so that we might know the error of our ways and not keep on making the same mistakes over and over again.  Help us understand how the things we do and say put us in a position of betraying Your Son.

Lord Jesus, You gave so much of Yourself on our behalf.  You took our punishment, You bore our stripes, You died so we could avoid the final and permanent death just by believing in You and accepting You as Lord.  But even greater suffering You bear comes from our continued betrayal of You, in a real way, just as Judas betrayed You so long ago.  

Forgive us, Lord, our times of doubt and confusion.  Forgive us when we refuse to believe, when we reject Your authority.  Forgive us when we could stand up for You against the doubters and disbelievers, but we are just too timid, too afraid, to do so.  Forgive us when we can’t let go of the world, refusing to put all our faith and trust in You and our Father God.  Help us, please Jesus, to not be so concerned with what others may think about us.  Give us the strength of our convictions, the fullness of our faith, so that we will no longer betray You.  This we pray in Your sweet name, Lord Jesus, the one true Son of God.  Amen.