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The Traitor at the Table.
v. 21. When Jesus had thus said, He was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray Me.
v. 22. Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom He spake.
v. 23. Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved.
v. 24. Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him that he should ask who it should be of whom He spake.
v. 25. He then, lying on Jesus' breast, saith unto Him, Lord, who is it?
v. 26. Jesus answered, He it is to whom I shall give a sop when I have dipped it. And when He had dipped the sop, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.
The reference which Jesus had just made to His betrayer affected Him very deeply. He was deeply moved in the spirit, with sorrow over the ingratitude and baseness of the wretch that would use the familiarity and knowledge of intimacy to betray Him. Purposely the Lord does not mention the name of the traitor, since Peter and some of the rest would undoubtedly have taken measures to prevent the crime by dealing summarily with the man that contemplated such an atrocity, but merely says, with solemn deliberateness: One of you will betray Me. It was a tense moment. The sorrow of Jesus was transmitted to His faithful disciples. Involuntarily they became suspicious of one another; a feeling of uncertainty, of doubt took-hold of them; they did not dare to question one another's loyalty outright, and so the situation became very strained. Some of them began excitedly to whisper and to discuss the meaning of this revelation; others appealed to Jesus whether they were the guilty ones. But Peter wanted the satisfaction of finding out from Jesus. Since John, therefore, was reclining next to Jesus in such a way that his head almost touched the breast of Jesus, and since this man, John, had the enviable distinction of enjoying the love of Christ in a special measure, Peter beckoned to him, making himself understood to him by some form of the sign language that he should get the information from Jesus. John, therefore, without attracting any attention, leaned over or moved more closely to Christ so that his head actually touched the chest of Jesus, and then softly asked Him, Lord, who is it? The Lord even now did not give the name of the traitor, but answered John, in the same confidential way, that it was he to whom He would give a morsel (of bread) which He was' just then dipping into the sauce (charoseth), which was one of the dishes of the Passover meal. And suiting His action to His word, Jesus took the sop which He was just then dipping and gave it to Judas Iscariot. This incident revealed the traitor to John, and probably also to Peter. But as for the rest, it is probable that most of them did not notice the incident at the time, or did not attach any importance to it. For the entire matter was taken care of so quietly, almost secretly, that it attracted no attention from the rest of the table-round. Then, also, Judas dipped into the sauce at the same time that Jesus did, Mar_14:20. He, of course, knew to whom Jesus had reference, but he was brazen-faced enough even to ask Jesus whether it was he that would perform the dastardly deed of betraying the Master, Mat_26:25.