The Traitor
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2021 · 29 August 2021
John 13:18-30 is about Judas Iscariot. There is literature from liberal theologians saying Judas was a good guy and he was doing what he was doing to try to push Jesus into setting up His kingdom and he had noble motives. There are also gnostic teachings about Judas being a noble person. But it is hard to understand how this man could be around Jesus for 3 years and do what he did.
Judas Iscariot betrayed the Son of God with a kiss. The name Judas was a familiar name in Judah. Iscariot means he was from the town of Kerioth. He is the only one of the twelve who was not a Galilean. He is known for betraying the Son of God, and doing it in the most despicable form, with a kiss. He is the most despised traitor in human history. His personality has to be as dark as any human.
The name Judas bears a stigma to the degree that no one would use it. Even in the New Testament lists of apostles, he’s always mentioned last and always with a qualifying statement: the betrayer. Judas is regarded as the most thoroughly despicable and contemptible of persons who ever lived. Judas emerges from the background of the gospel story to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.
And before the crucifixion starts, before even Jesus’ trial before Pilate, Judas is already dead driven to suicide by guilt. He has been a hypocrite, but he’s not very good at handling his own suicide. He can’t even hang himself effectively. Either the rope broke or the branch broke, and Acts 1:18 says he fell on the rocks below the outcropping from which he hanged himself.
We are hours before that horrendous suicide. That will happen before another day dawns. We are still Thursday night at the Passover. And in John 13:18 - 30, Judas and Jesus come face to face and Jesus unmasks the betrayer. Up to this point, Jesus has referred to Judas, but not directly. He has said things like, in John 6, “One of you is a devil,” without identifying who he is.
As they have gathered on Thursday night of Passion Week, the disciples and Jesus in the upper room, Jesus knows in John 13:1, “that His hour had come that He would depart out of the world.” He knows that the next day He’s going to be slain as the true Passover lamb. His death will take place the day that the Passover is celebrated and the animals are slaughtered, and He will die as the true Lamb of God.
Jesus knows what is going on. In verse 2, the devil has already put it “into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him.” Judas protested earlier in the week because expensive perfume was wasted on Jesus. He said that it could’ve been sold, and the money given to the poor. He was the treasurer and held the money box, but he was always stealing from it.
But Judas wanted more than what he could steal from the money box, and so he concocted a plan to sell Jesus out, to betray His presence, to the Pharisees who wanted Him dead. And he would sell Him for the price of a slave, 30 pieces of silver. Our Lord is aware of all of this. He knows that the devil is planning all that through Judas. John 13:11 says, “He knew the one who was betraying Him.”
Judas did not live for another day. Jesus and Judas were the extreme opposites. The perfectly holy one and the utterly wretched one. The sinless Son of God, and the sinning son of Simon. The great lover of sinners, and the sinner who hated the Lord. Judas is the greatest example of a lost opportunity. He was motivated by greed, ambition, material wealth and money.
The purity of Jesus must have been unbearable for his wretched soul. And surely, Judas must’ve known for certain that Jesus knew everything he was. After all, in three years, he had seen Jesus read the hearts and minds of men. He knew that Jesus said at the beginning of the ministry in John 2, that He knew what was in the heart of men, and nobody needed to tell Him anything about that.
So now we are in the upper room, at the last Passover with the disciples. Judas has already made the commitment to betray Him for 30 pieces of silver. He might have done it on Thursday night, but he didn’t know where the Passover would be held. Jesus hid it from him and all the rest. He only sent two disciples to find the room. They didn’t know where it was until they arrived there that night.
And so Judas couldn’t pre-arrange it because he didn’t know where it would be. Jesus set it up so that this night would be just for His disciples and Him. Judas needed to look for another place. And well, he eventually found the place in the Garden of Gethsemane. But on this Thursday night, Jesus unmasks Judas the betrayer and begins really the first step in activating His own death.
But as we look at the scene in our text, Judas still sits among the twelve, without even a hint. But he will be dead before another day dawns. He will commit suicide in the night, even before Jesus gets to trial with Pilate. Jesus has been giving an example to His disciples about humility and telling them that they need to humble themselves and offer selfless service to each other and others.
Then Jesus said in verse 18, “I am not saying these things to all of you; I know the ones I have chosen. But this fulfills the Scripture that says, ‘The one who eats my food has turned against me.” So this treason is anticipated. Jesus is telling them that there is a traitor amongst them who is going to betray Him to the enemy. So, it is important that what is about to happen not be a surprise to them.
Our Lord is in control of everything and that that plan is working out well. Jesus says, “I know the ones I have chosen.” I didn’t make a mistake. I know every one of you, and I have chosen every one of you. He is talking about them being chosen as apostles. And that is validated by John 6:70 where Jesus says, “Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?”
And He meant Judas. I am not a victim of any of you. No one is outside the purposes that God has ordained. Even in this betrayal, I know the man. I know the purpose. I know the reason. I know the timing. And furthermore, “it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled.” When Judas does what he does, this will not somehow provide some detour in the plan. This will not be a barrier in the purposes of God.
Jesus quotes Psalm 41:9, “He who eats My bread has lifted up his heel against Me.” He knows Judas is a traitor. He has always known that. He chose him so that when he did what he chose to do, it would fulfill Scripture. John 17:12, “During my time here, I protected them by the power of the name you gave me. I guarded them so that not one was lost, except the one headed for destruction, Judas.”
And he also is clearly depicted in Zechariah 11:12-13, “Then I said to them, “If it is agreeable to you, give me my wages; and if not, refrain.” So they weighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver. 13 And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—that price they set on me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord for the potter.”
That’s exactly what Judas did. He betrayed Christ for 30 pieces of silver. Under guilt, took the 30 pieces of silver back, threw them down on the temple floor, and then went out and he hanged himself. The Jews took the money, and purchased a potter’s field, fulfilling Zechariah’s prophecy in detail. Judas is not a surprise to Jesus. This does not undermine His authority. It validates Scripture.
This is so important that the disciples know this, because Jesus said to them in verse 19, “I tell you this beforehand, so that when it happens you will believe that I am the Messiah.” I don’t want you having any doubts that when you see this unfold, all of a sudden you question whether I am actually God. The opposite should be true, since I told you every detail. It is all in God’s plan.
Jesus is announcing it in verse 20, “I tell you the truth, anyone who welcomes my messenger is welcoming me, and anyone who welcomes me is welcoming the Father who sent me.” There is the announcement. So Jesus says, remember whoever receives them receives Christ and the Father. He says this because He wants the disciples to know that even with this defection, the integrity of their commission is not compromised.
Look, whenever the world can find phony Christians, they will parade that far and wide. Whenever ministers who profess Christ bring reproach on the name of Christ and scandalize the church – when missionaries do that, Christian leaders do that – the world loves that because they love any justification for their unbelief. But that doesn’t change the commission of the faithful and true.
Verse 21, “Now Jesus was deeply troubled, and He exclaimed, “I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me!” Troubled in His own soul about the eternal damnation of Judas. Troubled because He knew He was heading to the cross to engage the heinousness of sin on a personal level and feel the fury of God and isolation from His Father. These were some of the reasons of the Lord’s troubled spirit.
Well, the disciples are stunned. Verse 22, “The disciples looked at each other, wondering whom He could mean.” Silence. I don’t know how long that silence last, but were just complete shocked. Matthew says that they all began to say, “Is it I? Is it I?” Judas was the artful hypocrite, aided by the master of all deception, the one who disguises himself as an angel of light, Satan himself.
There are always hypocrites in the church. There are hypocrites in the ministry. There are hypocrites on the mission field. Satan makes certain of that. But Christ knows, and it’s all in the plan, and God will judge. So they were leaning toward one another and Jesus, as you reconstruct the scene, is in one place. Verse 23, “The disciple Jesus loved was sitting next to Jesus at the table.”
John is on the right close to Jesus, and Judas is on the left. Verse 24, “Simon Peter motioned to him to ask, “Who’s He talking about?” And there is conversation, there is food, and all of this is going on. So they don’t all hear this. So verse 25, “So that disciple leaned over to Jesus and asked, “Lord, who is it?” They have no clue. And again, this is the amazing hypocrisy of Judas.
Now the traitor is addressed. Verse 26, “Jesus responded, “It is the one to whom I give the bread I dip in the bowl.” And when He had dipped it, He gave it to Judas, son of Simon Iscariot.” This is the unmasking of the betrayer. But only Peter and John may have known. The rest don’t seem to know what’s going on. They had unleavened bread which they would dip and give to the person on the left.
Judas had been allowed by our Lord to be on His left side where the honored guest would sit, and so our Lord, in a gesture of honor to Judas, gives him the morsel, as if he were a honored guest. Verse 27-28, “When Judas had eaten the bread, Satan entered into him. Then Jesus told him, “Hurry and do what you’re going to do. 28 None of the others at the table knew what Jesus meant.”
Only Jesus would know that. “What you do, do quickly.” Now you go do what you must do, because time is short. Judas would never see another day. And by the dawning of the next day, Jesus’ trial would be essentially over, and He would be on His way to the cross. Jesus would come out the other side of the grave to eternal glory. Judas would be in hell being damned forever.
Verse 29-30, “Since Judas was their treasurer, some thought Jesus was telling him to go and pay for the food or to give some money to the poor. 30 So Judas left at once, going out into the night.” Jesus wanted him gone. He needed these hours to make promises that will begin to unfold immediately in verse 31, and all the way through the rest of the time together, and will be offered as prayer in John 17.
Satan had entered Judas to carry out the greatest efforts of hell. But he was actually going to carry out the greatest effort heaven ever made to rescue sinners. Judas acted in verse 30. He was glad to get out, now that he was exposed. So after receiving the morsel, he went out immediately, and it was night. Judas would never see another daylight, and has never seen light since.
His life in this world was over. But it will never be over in the world that he went to. Weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth forever. If there’s anybody in hell who has extreme remorse, it has to be him. Hell is a place of regret, and the more you have to regret, the more torturous it would be. What are the lessons of this story? Well, we could say the tragedy of lost opportunity.
This is the danger of loving money, power, ambition and all temporal things. The vileness of betrayal, seeing the loving patience and mercy of Christ. When the mob came to arrest Jesus, and Judas came up to kiss Him, do you remember how Jesus addressed Judas? He said to him, “Friend.” That’s the last time Judas ever saw the face of the Son of God. Yudas will be separated from Him forever.
This shows how engaged the devil can be in spiritual hypocrisy, how people can literally descend into the control of Satan. But I want you to learn the overarching lesson that our Lord wanted the disciples and us to learn, which is, nothing that sinful men will ever do can thwart the purposes of God. Absolutely nothing. The seeming tragedy of the cross was actually the triumph of redemption. Let us pray.