²¹As they were eating, He said, “Truly I say to you that one of you will betray Me.” ²²Being deeply grieved, they each one began to say to Him, “Surely not I, Lord?” ²³And He answered, “He who dipped his hand with Me in the bowl is the one who will betray Me. ²⁴The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.” ²⁵And Judas, who was betraying Him, said, “Surely it is not I, Rabbi?” Jesus said to him, “You have said it yourself.”

How can a depressing passage like this inspire our worship? As we study Jesus’ statements in the twenty-four hours before He died, we gain deeper insight into His experience and thoughts as His death approached. The more we know of Him, the more we appreciate what He did for us. How wonderful is His love, and how great is His glory that He should go through all this for us?

The atmosphere in the upper room where Jesus and His followers had their last supper together was quite gloomy; the disciples were disconcerted by His talk about departing and leaving them behind. And He levels with them: one of them will betray Him—a turncoat, a Benedict Arnold (to use a familiar name in U.S. history). Judas’ treachery was no secret to the Master, but this announcement shocked the disciples, plunging them into perplexity. How could it happen that any one of them would even think of doing such a thing? They had followed Jesus for three-plus years in close fellowship; they loved Him and sacrificed so much for Him, and now this?

Even among the most faithful, self-doubt can haunt the conscience; who among us is perfectly loyal to God? The seed of insecurity can quickly escalate like a sapling growing in the crack of a rock that eventually has the power to split the stone in two. Each of them blurted out the same question, with Judas being the last to join the chorus. The common response “Surely, not I, Lord?” is interestingly phrased in the original Greek. You will remember that Jesus earlier referred to Himself, saying, “I am” (most notably in John 8:58). Here, the disciples use the identical phrase (in the underlying Greek) but with a negation in front. Could this be an instinctive nuance where each disciple was saying, “Surely, you don’t think that I would betray everything I know about who You are, the great I am, Yahweh God, do you?” They had earlier proclaimed, in the words of Peter, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16). In a few hours, the high priest would try bullying Jesus into admitting “whether You are the Christ, the Son of God” (Matt. 26:63).

The enormity of betrayal is highlighted by the intimate fellowship of eating together with Jesus, where they all shared the food. The “dipping his hand with Me” (according to the eating custom of that day) was lost to the other disciples who were consumed with their own insecurity over their loyalty to Jesus. This may have propelled them to the debate among them about who of them was the greatest (Luke 22:23-24). But, one of them knew of whom Jesus spoke.

Despite being exposed in the eyes of the Lord, Judas furtively carried out what his heart was set on doing, turning Jesus over to the Jewish authorities in just a few short hours. Sin had gripped his heart; his conscience was seared. His mind was made up, no turning back. Some have offered psychological explanations in attempts to encourage a sympathetic understanding of what drove Judas to this. Some even suggest he meant good, thinking that the authorities would apprehend Jesus, warn Him, and then let Him go with the hope that Jesus would lay low for awhile. But Jesus thought otherwise, placing the blame squarely on Judas’ shoulders. He gives no sympathetic soft-pedalling that Judas was simply a flawed, misguided individual. No, Jesus says, “Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.” It would have been better for Judas not to have been born than to betray the Son of God.

So, where is the worship in all of this? It is this: God is so high above our ways and thoughts that He can not just circumvent the evil of men’s hearts but use it to accomplish His glorious purposes! That should lift our hearts in praise and adoration of the Lord. Jesus made it very clear that “the Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him,” that is, His death was pre-ordained from eternity past and prophesied in throughout the OT Scripture.

Many stories of Israel show that God sometimes used godless nations to chastise His chosen people. To our sensibilities today, that seems brutal—military defeat and subjugation. But God never sought to destroy His people; but He would go to extremes in bringing them to recognize their sin, repent, and return to Him. For example, God sent the evil Chaldeans (a.k.a. Babylonians) to invade Israel when His people were living sinful, ungodly lives. The prophet Habakkuk couldn’t understand this and complained to God:

Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, and You cannot look on wickedness with favor. Why do You look with favor on those who deal treacherously? (Hab. 1:13a)

Habakkuk had much to learn about God, and we do as well. Jesus was, on the surface, passive about the impending betrayal by Judas; He could have exposed the betrayer right on the spot, and the disciples would have ostracized him, removing any further insider knowledge of their movements. But our Lord allowed Judas’ evil heart and nefarious plan to play right into the Father’s hand and purposes. The deception of Judas became a critical link in the chain that led to God accomplishing a greater objective. In the betrayer, we see evil personified, working against what Jesus came to do, namely, to showcase the glory of God. Judas meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. Same action, same outcome, but different intentions. How can we not worship a God who is so great that evil is swallowed up in the purposes of God.

Lord, I humbly bow before the greatness of Your glory and majesty. Absolutely nothing, not even evil, is greater than You, for You are sovereign over all.