31 Mar 26 | Before the Rooster Crows
Jesus Knew What Both Men Were About to Do and Stayed at the Table With Both of Them
The Gospel: John 13:21-33, 36-38
Reclining at table with his disciples, Jesus was deeply troubled and testified,
"Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me."
The disciples looked at one another, at a loss as to whom he meant.
One of his disciples, the one whom Jesus loved,
was reclining at Jesus' side.
So Simon Peter nodded to him to find out whom he meant.
He leaned back against Jesus' chest and said to him,
"Master, who is it?"
Jesus answered,
"It is the one to whom I hand the morsel after I have dipped it."
So he dipped the morsel and took it and handed it to Judas,
son of Simon the Iscariot.
After Judas took the morsel, Satan entered him.
So Jesus said to him, "What you are going to do, do quickly."
Now none of those reclining at table realized why he said this to him.
Some thought that since Judas kept the money bag, Jesus had told him,
"Buy what we need for the feast,"
or to give something to the poor.
So Judas took the morsel and left at once. And it was night.
When he had left, Jesus said,
"Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.
If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself,
and he will glorify him at once.
My children, I will be with you only a little while longer.
You will look for me, and as I told the Jews,
'Where I go you cannot come,' so now I say it to you."
Simon Peter said to him, "Master, where are you going?"
Jesus answered him,
"Where I am going, you cannot follow me now,
though you will follow later."
Peter said to him,
"Master, why can I not follow you now?
I will lay down my life for you."
Jesus answered, "Will you lay down your life for me?
Amen, amen, I say to you, the cock will not crow
before you deny me three times."
Today’s Focus
Judas leaves into the dark and Peter declares he will lay down his life. Jesus knows both outcomes before either man moves. He stays at the table with both of them until the moment each one goes. He calls them his children. He washes their feet. He hands the morsel to the one who will hand him over. This is not a story about the failure of two men. It is a portrait of a love that does not withdraw when it knows what is coming. Peter’s denial is not the end of his story. But it begins with a man who had not yet learned the difference between what he felt capable of and what he actually was without the grace that would come later. The question this passage puts to every reader is not whether your intentions are sincere. It is whether you are honest about your need.
In the Margins
Jesus is at table with the people closest to Him in the world and He is deeply troubled. The Greek word used here, etarachthe, is the same word used when He stood at the tomb of Lazarus and when He spoke of His coming death earlier in John. It is not mild discomfort, rather a profound interior disturbance. He knows what is coming and He knows it is coming through someone sitting at that table with Him. He fully understands what He is about to endure and it is clearly unsettling, as it would be to anyone.
Jesus announces that “one of you will betray me.” The disciples look at one another, unable to land on an answer. The beloved disciple, reclining closest to Jesus, is the one Peter gestures to for help. When he asks, Jesus identifies the betrayer through the dipped morsel. At a Jewish meal, the host dipping a piece of bread and handing it to a guest was an act of honor. Jesus extends that gesture to Judas at the moment of identification. Even here, at the edge of betrayal, the offer is not withheld.
John tells us that after Judas took the morsel, Satan entered him. This is not a figure of speech in John’s telling. Judas has been moving toward this moment across the whole Gospel. John already told us he was a thief. The Adversary does not typically seize a person without a long preparation of smaller surrenders. What happens at the table is the completion of something that began much earlier.
Jesus sends him out with words that carry full knowledge of what Judas is about to do. What you are going to do, do quickly. The disciples hear errand instructions, but Jesus is speaking the language of sovereign purpose. The betrayal is not outside His control; He is not a victim of Judas. He is walking into what the Father has determined, and He is doing so with open eyes.
The moment Judas leaves, Jesus says now is the Son of Man glorified. The glorification of the Son of Man is a phrase rooted in Daniel 7, where the prophet sees a figure like a son of man approaching the Ancient of Days and receiving dominion and glory and a kingdom that will not pass away. Jesus is claiming that title and saying its fulfillment begins at this moment, set in motion by a betrayer walking into the dark.
He calls the remaining disciples “my children”, a tenderness that stands in sharp contrast to what has just happened. He tells them He is going somewhere they cannot follow, not yet. Peter pushes back immediately, as Peter does. Peter’s declaration is genuine and it is also completely uninformed by what Peter actually knows about himself. Jesus does not mock the intention, He simply tells Peter the truth. Before the night is over, before the rooster crows, Peter will deny Him three times.
There is something worth sitting with in the way this passage holds both Judas and Peter in the same frame and that is what it means to love like Jesus. One leaves to betray Him and the other declares he will die for Him. Jesus loves these two the same, up to the very end. He knows both outcomes and remains at the table with both men until the moment each one moves. Even as Judas leaves, no one is seen chasing him down to stop him. Jesus received Judas with such love that the disciples were unaware of the deception to come. Also, we see that He does not turn away from Peter after the prediction. Though the level of betrayal is not the same, Jesus knows that the one who loves him the most will also deny Him. He loves him still.
The application this passage presses toward is honest self-examination rather than general resolve. Peter’s problem was not lack of sincerity, it was that he had not yet learned the difference between what he felt capable of and what he was actually capable of without the grace that would come later. The cock crowing before morning is not the end of Peter’s story, as the rest of the Gospel makes clear. But it begins with a man who spoke before he knew himself. The question this passage puts to us is not whether we are loyal in our intentions. It is whether we are honest about our need.
Reflection Question
Where are you trusting your own loyalty more than you are trusting the grace that actually sustains it?
A Small Invitation
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