EXPLORE THE TEXT
Believers must recognize their own capacity to betray Jesus.
17 On the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus and asked,
“Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?”
18 “Go into the city to a certain man,” he said, “
and tell him, ‘The Teacher says:
My time is near;
I am celebrating the Passover at your place with my disciples.’”
19 So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover.
20 When evening came, he was reclining at the table with the Twelve.
21 While they were eating, he said,
“Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.”22 Deeply distressed, each one began to say to him,
“Surely not I, Lord?”
23 He replied, “The one who dipped his hand with me in the bowl-he will betray me.
24 The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him,
but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed!
It would have been better for him if he had not been born.”
25 Judas, his betrayer, replied,
“Surely not I, Rabbi?”
“You have said it,” he told him.
Explain the background.
Where do you want us to make preparations
implies that Jesus already knew where they would celebrate
the Teacher’s time is near.
This referred to Jesus’s impending death
Prepared the Passover
involved arrangement of the room and the food for the meal.
sacrificing the lamb at the temple and transporting it to the site where it would be roasted and eaten.
The meal included greens, bitter herbs mixed with stewed fruit, wine, and unleavened bread.
Note that the secrecy about the location would keep Jesus and His disciples hidden from the Jewish leaders.
Judas spoke last and he called Jesus “Rabbi,”
while the others called Him “Lord.”
Explain the meaning of verse 24:
While the impending death of Jesus was the fulfillment of
both prophecy and the plan of God,
the actions of Judas arose from his own willful choice.
There is no conflict between God’s sovereign will and Judas’s free will.
Jesus was not a victim of some political process
but the center of God’s plan for the salvation of humanity.
Judas was not merely a pawn in God’s plan
but someone who acted out of his own decisions and perhaps flawed thinking.
Because of this, Judas would suffer the consequences for his decision. (PSG, p. 117)
Jesus knew exactly what was going on.
His response showed that He understood how Judas had given himself over to sin.