SUNDAY’S LAST WORD

JOHN 13:21-32

SUNDAY’S LAST WORD

“After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified,‘Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me . . . ’ Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, ‘Lord, who is it?’                                                                                                                John 13:21, 23

Jesus likely could not have uttered words that were anymore fear-inducing than these. If you're like me, you thank God and your lucky stars that you weren't in that room at that terrifying moment as the words hung in the air, trying to remember if there was something you could have done that might implicate you in some way.

Of course, while Judas committed the specific act of betrayal that Jesus is speaking of, all of us are responsible for his death in our own lives when we too reject God's great gift of himself.  Sometimes we do it in small ways and sometimes in quite large ones, but the simple truth is that our self serving nature tends to rule and we send Christ to the gallows again and again and again.

"Lord, who is it not?" might have been the better question.

It has been said that Judas' great sin was not so much his betrayal of Jesus, as it was his inability to accept his forgiveness. The great lesson for us, of course, is that "there is nothing that can separate us from the Love of God" as the apostle Paul would later write. Are there any more comforting words than these?

Gracious God - help us to remember that Thursday's betrayal is always met with Friday's forgiveness and Sunday's eternal promise of New Life in the resurrection - Amen.

~ Stuart Revercomb