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Here our Saviour acquaints his disciples who it was that had designed his death, even he that dipped with him in the dish, or he to whom he gave the sop.
Observe, The traitor, whom Christ less loved, he has the sop given to him; the other disciples, whom Christ loved better, had no such particular boon. Outward good things are not always given to the children of men in love, but are sometimes bestowed in displeasure; there is no measuring Christ's affections by temporal blessings, no concluding either love or hatred by these things.
Observe farther, How Judas could sit still and hear the threats of judgment denounced against himself without concern; he hears Christ say, Woe to the man by whom the Son of man is betrayed, and is no more blanked than innocence itself: resolved sinners run on desperately in their wicked courses, and with open eyes see and meet their own destruction; and are neither dismayed at it, nor concerned about it.
Observe farther, That this shameless man had the impudence to say to Christ, Master, is it I? Our Saviour gives him a direct affirmation, Thou hast said. Did Judas, think ye, blush, and cast down his gulty eyes, and let fall his drooping head, at so galling an intimation. Nothing less.
Lord, how does obduracy in sin steel the brow, and make it incapable of all relenting impressions!
Observe lastly, How Christ prefers nonentity before damnation. It had been better for that man if he had never been born. A temporal miserable being is not worse than no being, but an eternal miserable being is worse than no being at all; eternal misery is much worse than nonentity. It had been better for Judas if he had never been born, than to commit such a sin, and lie under such wrath, and that everlasting. O, better to have no being, than not to have a being in Christ.