—Jesus, John 13.18-20 NLT
Jesus says this after He demonstrated that slaves are not more important than their master, and their Master is willing to wash feet. But He is fully aware that not everyone in that room considered Him their Master. We read this and immediately think of Judas Iscariot. But this teaching is in John because it doesn’t solely apply to Judas. There are lots of supposed followers of Jesus—people who claim to be Christians, or even think of themselves as Christians, and aren’t. You know, fake Christians. Fans, not followers.
Judas is an example of a fan. A highly-placed fan, too; he was in Jesus’s inner circle. He was one of the Twelve whom Jesus sent out to preach the gospel and perform exorcisms. (Mk 3.14-19) Wait, does that mean he actually performed exorcisms? Lots of Christians have hemmed and hawed when asked this question, and fumbled an answer that presumes he couldn’t have. But I see no reason to say he didn’t. Exorcisms and acts of power don’t guarantee you’re a Christian. (Mt 7.22-23) Maybe the Holy Spirit was involved, but sometimes He does stuff despite a lack of faith in Him, or relationship with Jesus.
Jesus chose the Twelve, (Jn 6.70) but here He suggests that He actually didn’t choose Judas. Is He contradicting Himself? Maybe. Or maybe there’s a fine distinction as to what He chose about Judas. Perhaps He chose him for the Twelve but not for the Kingdom. God chose to use and provoke the stubbornness of the pharaoh of the Exodus, all to achieve the Exodus and glory for Himself. (Ex 7.3) He could have done glorious things with a willing pharaoh, but He wanted to demonstrate that He could accomplish His goals despite the will of the most powerful people on earth. Jesus likewise chose to use Judas’s faithlessness and treachery in order to get Himself arrested. Yes, He could have turned Himself in, but He wanted to demonstrate, again, that He can accomplish His goals despite any monkey-wrenches that flawed folks in His church might throw into its machinery.
The gospels never explain Judas’s motivation for turning Jesus in. John wrote that he had the devil in him; (Jn 13.27) ironic for someone who was sent to throw devils out. Since the devil likes to accuse, one really popular explanation is that Judas concluded that Jesus wasn’t really the Messiah; like most Jews in his culture, he probably expected an ass-kicking Messiah who would drive out the Romans, and Jesus clearly wasn’t that, so Judas figured he may as well get Him killed off. Another—which I prefer, since it seems to fit Judas’s reaction in Matthew 27—is that Judas, still clinging to his false expectation, figured once Jesus actually stood before the Jewish Senate, He’d straighten them out and take them over. But he was shocked to discover that not only did this not happen; the Senate condemned Jesus to death. Either explanation depicts a man who didn’t understand Jesus at all. To be fair, most of Jesus’s followers didn’t; and a lot of us today still don’t. And some of us still bail on Him when He disappoints us; and some of us still try to push Him into positions where we expect Him to act, and are stunned when He won’t.
So Jesus foretells Judas’s treachery by quoting David: “Even my best friend, the one I trusted completely, the one who shared my food, has turned against me.” (Ps 41.9) Sharing food is a big, big deal in Middle Eastern cultures. It’s part of hospitality customs; you don’t share a meal one day and bash them the next. If you don’t like someone, you simply refuse to eat with them, period. To do otherwise is considered the worst sort of hypocrisy.
Contrary to popular belief, “fulfilled the scripture” doesn’t mean that the scripture quoted was a prophecy about the present scenario, or that it was even quoted in context. It can just mean that this particular verse sounds like the current scenario, and would be a fitting thing to say right about now. But Jesus never just quoted scripture for the heck of it: Psalm 41 describes hypocrites who were kind to David’s face, and bashed him when his back was turned. Quite likely Judas was one of those people, one we’re all too familiar with, who rip into us when we’re not around, just for fun. Sometimes they disguise this as “concerns” or “prayer requests” or “things laid on my heart,” but that’s just Christianese for gossip. Likely Judas, because Jesus didn’t meet his standards, vented about Jesus when He wasn’t around. Fans are easily disappointed when their heroes don’t live up to their grandiose expectations, and ditch or bash them. Followers learn from these disappointments; we recognize that we made the mistake, not the leader.
Jesus wanted His students to know that none of this came as any surprise to Him; that “I am.” The NLT has “I am the Messiah,” but Jesus only said “I am”—meaning either “I am who I claim to be,” or reminding them that He is God, who described Himself to Moses as “I am.” (Ex 3.14) Either way Jesus indicated that He was, and is, in control of the circumstances. Don’t sweat about the weeds among the wheat. (cf. Mt 13.24-30)
Jesus then says—actually swears, with an “Amen Amen” (which the NLT translates “I tell you the truth”)—that anyone who welcomes His messengers welcomes Him, and for that matter the Father. (Jn 13.20) This connects to the previous bit about foot-washing—those who recognize the Master’s servants recognize the Master and His Father. It also connects with those folks who are fans rather than followers. Fans, noticing that we Christians consider Jesus beyond criticism, decide it’s not safe to critique Him directly. So they go after His followers: They rip on the church, or tear apart the bible, or claim that the red letters in the bible are stuff Jesus’s followers made up, and not things that Jesus would ever say—as if they know what He would say, apart from the examples of His statements in the gospels. They slam away at everything in Christianity but Christ Himself. Not that we Christians are above criticism, but there’s a big difference between correctively asking about errors and discrepancies and misbehaviors, and pure anarchic demolition.
And they’re ignoring how closely Jesus chooses to identify Himself with His followers. Welcome us and you’re welcoming Him logically implies the contrary: Don’t welcome us and you’re not welcoming Him. Jesus loves the church and died for it; you can’t claim to love Him and yet not love what He does.
This is not Jesus’s last word about traitors among Christians, as we’ll see in the next verses.