Lord’s Supper Meditation – Judas Takes the Bread
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The Last Supper; Christ Washing the Apostles’ Feet, about 1400–10, Unknown. Tempera colors, gold, silver paint, and ink on parchment; 13 3/16 x 9 1/4 in. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Ms. 33, fol. 286v
A Twilight Musing
As we learn from the portrayal of Judas in the account of the Last Supper in John 13, there is spiritual peril in being formally a part of fellowship with Christ without being truly connected with Him. The very beginning of this chapter (vv. 2-3) highlights Jesus’s acute awareness of Judas’s immanent betrayal: “During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that . . . he had come from God and was going back to God,” arose to wash the disciples’ feet. We assume that Jesus washed Judas’s feet along with all of the others, but Jesus explicitly excludes Judas from the benefit of being made clean (sanctified): “For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, ‘Not all of you are clean’” (Jn. 13:11). He reinforces this exclusion of His betrayer from the spiritual benefit of the foot washing when He tells them, “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’”
The point of all of this veiled anticipation is made clear in the account of Judas being identified by receiving a piece of bread from the hand of Jesus.
After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and testified, “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke. One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table at Jesus' side, so Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. So that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to him, “Lord, who is it?” Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it.” So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. Then Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.” Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. Some thought that, because Judas had the moneybag, Jesus was telling him, “Buy what we need for the feast,” or that he should give something to the poor. So, after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night. When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.” (Jn. 13:21-31)
There are several observations to be made about this passage. First, Jesus is “troubled in spirit” concerning the upcoming betrayal, and He shares His concern with the disciples. Why? It seems unlikely that He is troubled only about the suffering and death that this act will bring about. It is plausible that He is also concerned about the impact of the betrayal on both Judas and the rest of the disciples. Satan’s work has disturbingly infiltrated this close-knit group; Satan has already “put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray” Jesus, and when the Master reveals it, the disciples respond with “Who is it?” and “Is it I?” Immediately, their ability to assume solidarity in this small, intimate band is compromised. We are told that the one “whom Jesus loved” (John) was seated next to Jesus, “leaning back against” Him, and therefore was ideally situated to ask the Master, “Lord, who is it?”
It is symbolically significant that Jesus’ answer to this question is sharing a piece of the Passover bread with Judas. Judas’s receipt of the bread from Jesus, far from being an act of sharing and communion, marked the point at which “Satan entered into him” and he was completely possessed by the Enemy. Thus, the bread of communion becomes for him a kind of “Devil’s Mass,” and in taking it from Jesus’ hand he commits self-condemning sacrilege. One is reminded of the warning of Paul in I Cor. 11:27-29: “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.” The fact that Judas goes out immediately to execute the betrayal, perhaps with the bread still in his hand, indicates how thoroughly under the control of the Enemy he was.
So it is that we can recognize in the portrayal of Judas in this passage the danger of only maintaining appearances when we participate in the intimate fellowship of Communion together with Christ. May we humbly receive His cleansing and His sharing of Himself in such a way that it is a blessing to our souls and not a curse to a hard heart.
Dr. Elton Higgs was a faculty member in the English department of the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1965-2001. Having retired from UM-D as Prof. of English in 2001, he now lives with his wife in Jackson, MI. He has published scholarly articles on Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl Poet, Shakespeare, and Milton. Recently, Dr. Higgs has self-published a collection of his poetry called Probing Eyes: Poems of a Lifetime, 1959-2019, as well as a book inspired by The Screwtape Letters, called The Ichabod Letters, available as an e-book from Moral Apologetics. (Ed.: Dr. Higgs was the most important mentor during undergrad for the creator of this website, and his influence was inestimable.
