The Community Faces Pain and Joy
John 13:21-30; 16:16-24; 20:11-16 – Part
II
A. John 13:21-30 –
The Call to Serve
Amazingly, John’s account of the Lord’s actions on the night that He
was betrayed records Him actually giving bread to the one would give Him over
the religious rulers and Roman authorities.
Bread symbolizes provision for physical sustenance and spiritual
well-being. How could the Lord offer
these sacred elements of life to the person who would scheme to take His
life? Why did not He just simply allow
Judas Iscariot to execute His plan?
After the prediction of the denial and the intense questioning amongst
the disciples about who would commit the dastardly deed, the Lord feeds Judas
by dipping the bread into the bowl and giving it to him. In so doing, Jesus in the midst of His
bleakest hour reminds us of His eternal mission to serve.
For all intents and purposes, the life of Christian discipleship is a
call to serve. We fulfill “The Great
Commandment” of loving Almighty God with our whole mind, heart, soul and
strength and loving our neighbor as ourselves by serving humankind. Service is as it does not as it says. James reminds us that faith without works is
dead. We demonstrate our love for God by
participating directly and concretely in meeting the embodied needs of
humankind. We do so in gratitude for the
service that the Lord performed in the atoning sacrifice and gift of His
sinless life in order to redeem us. Our
appreciation for the Lord’s humility, grace and redeeming love motivates us to
serve others in ways that will lead them to an acknowledgement of Christ.
Furthermore, our gratitude directs us to divest ourselves of
self-centered fears and self-seeking motives.
We cease living with the primary motive of securing ourselves and the
persons closest to us with financial, material and social well-being. Practically speaking, we loose interest in
the mono-dimensional goal of gaining the happy life, hoping that it will shield
us from the daily challenges and adversities which the average person
faces. In spite of ourselves, we replace
our selfishness with the genuine desire to be a vessel of the Lord to improve
the lives of others. We begin to realize
that we shall receive everything that we need as we busy ourselves with service.
Lest we glorify the mission of service, let us return to the drama of
the passage and examine exactly whom the Lord Jesus Christ serves. He serves Judas Iscariot, the eternal
betrayer of the perfect Savior and Lord of humankind. Driven by greed, Judas helped himself to the
treasury as he saw fit. Propelled by
self-righteousness, Judas disdains the lavish gift of the woman who anoints the
Lord’s head with perfume. Compelled by
ambition, Judas commits his act of betrayal believing misguidedly that he would
in turn coerce Jesus to commence the final rebellion and revolution against the
oppressive Roman government. Harboring
an illusion of becoming the equivalent of the Secretary of the Treasury or some
equally prestigious position, Judas convinces himself that the betrayal will
force Jesus to utilize His divine power to fight for Israel and restore the
nation to its former glory as in the days of David and Solomon. Nonetheless, this is the man whom Jesus serves.
The evangelist desires that we understand that all of the people whom
we serve will not appreciate us or our work.
Christianity may hold some allure because it may further their selfish
ambitions. It may also prove to be a
great façade to their predetermined goals.
Yet, we are called to serve even these kinds of people. Doubtless, it is easy to serve people who are
grateful, passive and loving. It is most
difficult to serve people who steadfastly maintain a prideful bliss of
ignorance. It helps to recall that we,
like Judas, other similarly situated persons required the Lord’s service of
redemption.
It is hard to think of serving someone as repulsive as Judas. But, that is what the Lord did. He did not give the bread to the “Beloved
Disciple” who been reclining on the Lord’s lap.
He did not give the elements to Simon Peter who impulsivity the Lord
both restrained and celebrated. He did
not give the bread to James, the other son of Zebedee who along with his
brother had asked earlier for one of the two seats of honor in the forthcoming
kingdom. In total, all of the disciples
possessed similar self-centered principles as Judas Iscariot. All of them stood in line for candidacy to
his treacherous position. Yet, the Lord
specifically serves Judas on that fateful night so that the others would
retrospectively recall this indescribable act of love and service.
More starkly, we do not wish to admit that we are Judas. Many of us come to the Lord with ulterior
motives. We seek earthly and temporal
blessings that moths and dust corrupt and thieves break in and steal. We desire a heavenly Santa Claus who gives
Christmas presents to us each day. We do
not yearn to make Him the Lord of our lives.
We do not wish to die daily to the selfishness that plagues us. As we fill our calendars with so many
commitments that do not serve Him and give our financial resources to so many
causes that do not glorify Him, we commit a daily act of betrayal that equates
with Judas’ deed over the course of a lifetime.
Still, today’s lesson combines this prickly passage with the following
resurrection account. The evangelist
wants us to know that rebirth can follow any act of betrayal that yields
genuine forgiveness and repentance. All
of the other disciples desert the Lord in the hour of His deepest need for human
companionship and support. Ultimately,
they are no better than Judas as their cowardice acquiesces the crucifixion. At
the dinner table that night were twenty-six hands. There twenty-two hands of denial. Judas Iscariot has two hands of betrayal that
would hold thirty pieces of silver representative of the number of selfish
motives that abided in his mind and heart.
But, thank the Heavenly Father that there were also two hands of
salvation! Those hands would serve
humankind with the provision of eternal life.
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