To Find Peace - Communion (part six) ...

Imagine the stress of knowing that only in just an hour or two, you are to be tortured, extensively.  Many prisoners break, just under the very threat of imminent torture.  Imagine it even worse, that you have absolute assurance that at the end of this torture, there is no hope; you will for certain be killed.  Those who you love will be stripped away from you.  Your life may be unappreciated.  Your legacy unfulfilled.  No certainty that anything you have ever done, will matter.  Now with this weight upon your mind, with the stress of this certainty impacting you as much as perhaps any stress, ever could … John records the words of Christ is this situation as he continues in chapter 14 and verse 27 Jesus says to those few who have been with him so long … “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

Under the maximum stress possible here is Christ speaking of peace.  Not only is He speaking of peace, He is offering it to His disciples as yet another gift.  A gift, not the like world gives, with preconditions, or on a temporary basis, or something that flees in the face of torture and death, but something that exists despite those realities.  Peace.  Peace that can keep the stress in our hearts from causing us fear.  And here is the transcendent beauty of His peace, the reasons we might fear are real, but His peace is GREATER than our reality.  So often when confronted with our own mortality, with health problems, or accidents, or the evil actions of others that take from us so much – our first question is to ask why “bad” things happen to “good” people?  We may go so far as to blame God for permitting tragedy to come our way.  But this thinking does not bring us peace, it only adds to our stress.  Blaming God, and focusing on the reality of our trauma, does nothing to make us “feel” better, it can only deepen our misery.  For the reality of our mortality is not in dispute – we ALL die.  We ALL suffer.  We ALL face a world that is not in harmony with our Lord, and will often demonstrate just how far out of harmony it is with love, by showing us the pain of its hatred.

So how is it that Christ facing just such injustice and pain and the certainty of death was not asking “why me?” but instead was focused on “peace”?  Not only did He exhibit no visible signs of fear, He was actually focused on comforting His disciples, none of which was facing the real threat He was.  It was Jesus who would soon feel the shards of glass embedded in the Roman whip across his back and flesh tearing bits of it away from him as the lash recoiled.  It was Jesus who was to feel the incredible pain as a woven crown of thorns several inches in length and razor sharp was pushed into his head, piercing his flesh on all sides and adding to the pain of His body.  It was Jesus who would be faint from the loss of blood.  This level of torture was certain.  The pain was real.  It was nothing to look forward to, and would cause most of us to shudder in terror.  Yet He was unafraid facing this reality, and instead able to discuss peace with His disciples.

Herein is the key.  It is not our reality that must change in order for us to have peace.  It is our connection with Christ no matter what our reality is, that can establish peace within us.  We are human.  We do suffer, and we do die.  But the pain evil has brought with it into the universe, and into us, is not the ruler of our greater destiny.  Our death will not be eternal.  Our suffering will not last forever.  For through the power of His so great love, His sacrifice pays the eternal penalties we should have earned, and with his stripes, we are healed.  Peace is possible when seen through the eyes of the more important.  The 70-90 years we spend on this earth are nothing, next to the millions of years, we will spend in a place where pain lives no more.  The child of this earth who is taken too early, and misses the life he might have had here, will find growing up at the side of Christ, and in the company of generations of family he never met, a much more pleasing situation than anything he would have faced here on this sin-diseased world.

When we see our own lives through the lens of eternity, peace is able to take hold, where only pain lived before.  When though we face a tragedy that will be very real to us, and likely cause our mortal death, we can look beyond it – and focus on the needs of others even while under imminent threat, we find a peace that love brings that nothing can shake.  Christ was not focused on fear for the things that were to happen to Him; because He was so focused on the comfort of those who He knew would miss Him so much.  His whole concern and the communion He was engaged in, was designed only to bring them peace and assuage their fears.  He was not thinking of Himself, even though He was the one about to die.  For Love can beat death.  It is why He thought to save us, and how He thought to save us.  His sacrifice was merely a love in action that would bring about the redemption of the child He had lost by the will of that child’s choice.  Love would prove greater than evil.  Love would prove greater than even justice.  For love would offer us something that we would never deserve.  And love thinks not of itself.  This is why under the worst conditions we could possibly imagine, He is not focused on the fear He might feel for Himself, and is instead fully focused on the objects of His love.   Jesus did not love Himself, He loved us.

That is a peace our carnal minds can hardly comprehend.  A peace that comes from the complete ignoring of our own needs and realities, and maintains fully focused on the objects of our love despite what is about to happen to us.  This gift is nothing like what the world is capable of giving, because the world is obsessed only with itself.  When my carnal needs and perceptions of what I want become my focus, I care less about how they impact you.  At some point, I lose complete interest in your needs, and pursue only what I believe I want or need; and the consequences to others becomes irrelevant.  I rationalize to myself that my own need is greater, and so sin is born into the universe again within me.  The world has no concept of peace under this direction.  “Peace” the world offers can only be defined as not getting caught for long enough to enjoy the things I have taken at the expense of another.  But there is no real peace, and no real enjoyment, and no real satisfaction, only the pursuit of even more things.  It is an empty cycle that has no end until death relieves it.  Whereas the peace Christ offers is not founded on what brings Him comfort, but on making us comfortable instead.  His peace is not looking inwards to the reality of what He faces, but outwards to the impacts His own suffering will have on those He loves.  He is ever looking away from Himself and His own suffering, and always on the needs of those He loves, even when torture and death itself are upon Him.

When you love this much, when this is “who” you are, there is nothing the world can do to take the peace of Christ from you.  This is the gift He offers us through the power of His transformative love.  He can change us from the creatures who focus only on the guy in the mirror, into creations that focus on reflecting His so great love to everyone we encounter.  That transition takes from us our self-inflicted-stress, and replaces it with divinely-gifted-peace and a sense of fulfillment no matter what comes.  Our reality will always be our reality.  But our reality does not control or govern our ability to accept His peace.  This was the Peace He offered to those who sat in that room.  He tells them they have no need to be afraid, or to allow their hearts to be troubled (perplexed, stressed, overwhelmed, pick your synonym).  His peace will be their gift.

Jesus continues in verse 28 … “Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.”  Jesus recognizes that His departure from those He loves, will be something that in our human perspective will cause us sadness.  But again He is looking at the greater good, again He is looking at the bigger picture.  Yes, He will depart from them after His death, but it is because He will be ascending to His Father to see if the sacrifice He has made will be sufficient to redeem our punishment.  And He has faith that it will.  He continues in verse 29 … “And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.”  Jesus is using His prophetic foretelling of these events to help build surety in the minds of the disciples, as when they occur, they could remember His words, and know that He must be speaking the truth.

Jesus closes out the dinner setting with the words of verse 30 … “Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. [verse 31] But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.”  Satan would be coming to accuse Christ of all manner of crimes but would have no basis for any of them.  Time was growing even shorter now, so Christ asks His disciples to rise and leave with Him.  They begin a walk towards the garden of Gethsemane.  But even while they are walking there is still some important things that must be conveyed.  The most important message Christ and His Father God have in mind for them to hear and understand.  So on the long walk to a place of prayer and struggling, Christ would continue His communion with them, for it was not over yet …

 

Communion (part three) ...

An ultimate act of humility and service, as Christ washes the filthy feet of his disciples.  A last attempt to warn and reclaim a traitor that preserves his anonymity but tires desperately to let him know his plans and intentions are revealed before he can carry them out.  Now, communion must take a different turn, what will be needed now more than anything else is comfort.  With the weight of mankind’s sins beginning to bear down on Him, with His own torture and death imminent, His first thoughts are STILL for the objects of His love and not Himself.   Everything John would record in his gospel in chapter 13 starting in verse 31 and going forward would be designed to sooth the fears, boost the faith, and give comfort to those who would feel His loss so keenly.  Even here at the end of His ministry, when He is still to go through so much personal pain, so much personal trial, He is still steadfastly focused on those He loves and not Himself.  This is the incredible example of love and the nature of love that our God exemplifies.  Not only in word, but in action, in action despite all the personal trials and pain He must endure.  He will die soon.  But His larger concern is with those He will leave behind while He rests for the Sabbath in the grave.

His ultimate sacrifice for those He loves represents the pinnacle of the measurement of love in the kingdom of Heaven.  And so Jesus begins by stating this to His disciples, to teach them where true glory lies, not in the battlefield against other men, but in the battlefield against self.  In verse 31 John records … “Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. [verse 32] If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him.”  Judas had just left the communion into the darkness.  Jesus then tells his faithful few, that it will be His own death and sacrifice for those He loves that will glorify Him before the universe.  The glory of love will be seen within Him as He pays for our crimes, and provides for our restoration.  This glory is shared by the Father who sent Him in to this world and shares His mission in every act of love and sacrifice.  Both Father and Son will share in the glory, for the glory they measure is defined in the actions of love to their creations.

Jesus continues in verse 33 … “Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; …”  How appropriate that despite all the time they had spent with Him, they were barely toddlers in the faith.  How appropriate the reference to little children who do nothing for themselves and gladly rely upon their parents for everything they need.  So it is with us.  Our salvation is not a work we perform upon ourselves.  It is a work our Father performs for us, within us, and sometimes in spite of us.  We need only look to Him, like a loving toddler looks to His parents.  Our Father longs to provide for us, carry our worries, give us rest and peace and comfort and provide for our needs.  But so many of us struggle to take those burdens upon ourselves, and then fail so miserably at them.  How much better to be free not to worry, to be free to love, to be free to play with our Father who longs to just play and be with us.  That close communion and fellowship with His disciples was about to come to a close.  He was going to miss them.  They were going to miss Him.  Jesus tenderly tells them it is now time for their physical companionship and communion to come to its close.  But this is not all bad news.

Jesus continues in verse 33 “…so now I say to you. [verse 34] A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. [verse 35] By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”  The MOST important thing in all of existence is love.  Here is Jesus about to die on a cross and the ONE thing He commands of His disciples is that they LOVE one another as HE has loved them.  Christ loved in actions.  He healed the sick, thus meeting every physical need He could, without demanding payment, or service, or even faith.  He was careful never to condemn the guilty but instead to focus on their redemption.  Only moments before He could have out-ed Judas as the traitor in their midst but He would not.  Mary Magdeline had been guilty.  But He refused to condemn her.  His constant focus on all He encountered was only to show them love, and effectively love them back to redemption, without judgment or condemnation.  Christ served those He loved in absolute humility.  Christ took ownership of nothing, but gave everything.  To love each other as Christ loved us is to abandon caution and restraint and apprehension and love with the fullness of our lives.  He would die for us.  We should be willing to go that far for each other.  But Christ did more than die for us; He had the courage to live for us.  He lived a life of exemplary love and it is to this kind of life we should aspire.

Next Christ tells us, that by this kind of love for each other – to be a family by choice and not by blood – the world will know we are His.  This is HOW Christians were supposed to be known, for our unabashed love and acceptance.  Those men in that room were NOT perfect yet.  They were ALL still sinners, not just Judas who left into the night.  Their understanding of doctrines related to the mission of the Messiah Himself was STILL incorrect at that moment.  They were STILL greedy and seeking position in the anti-Roman kingdom they hoped He would rule.  They STILL valued their own safety above the loyalty they felt for their Lord.  In short, nothing about them was in the condition to deserve love, and avoid judgment or condemnation that would be well earned.  This should a model for us.  We do not need to expect perfection from the pathetic sinners we encounter before we decide we are “able” to love them.  For in truth, we are just like them.  One does not need to be doctrinally perfect to be loved.  One does not need to be completely transformed to be loved.  The character of these men would STILL lead them to do wrong.  BUT that did NOTHING to deter Christ from loving them in spite of their condition.  For only through the power of His transformational love would they ever be free from the pain of sin they embraced.  The same is true of us.  The same is true of those whose behavior and beliefs we do not agree with.  Only love can bring us, and them, to a reformation.  Condemnation does nothing to reform anyone, it only deepens the sadness.  But love can lift a person from the depths of depravity to the heights of selfless service, and give them a motive to never want to live another way. 

This was His last commandment to us.  He did not say … be sure to teach the world the proper doctrines in order that they might be saved.  For in truth, none of them were even aware what those doctrines might be; whereas the doctrine of love is the ONLY one that leads to the freedom from ALL sins, and the road to His perfection, in His time, in His methods for each of us, suited to each of us.  He did not offer this idea that we should love each other with conditions or as an optional idea.  This was a commandment, of the same variety written on tables of stone by the finger of God.  It is a reflection of how like Him we have become.  When we love without reservation, we reflect the character of Christ.  When we love like this, we do not even consider taking what is not ours, lieing, cheating, lusting, and putting our own desires ahead of others.  To love like Christ loved is to do exactly the opposite.  Instead of taking, we think of nothing but giving, for in giving we find our own joy.  It is in the making of another’s happiness that we finally find our own.  This was the model with which He was establishing the Christian church.  It was after all a “new” commandment, as we had not properly discerned it from the last ten He had written.  How different our world will be, when we finally submit ourselves to Him, and begin to see this commandment fulfilled in our characters from the inside out.

But like all great truths, we sometimes miss them entirely because we focus on the things that are important to us, instead of things that are important to God.  Christ was keenly interested in focusing His disciples on continuing to love each other.  That was what was most important in His words.  But Simon Peter was still hung up on the words that preceded them.  He was still pondering the ominous ideas of Christ leaving and him being unable to follow.  To this idea Peter responds in verse 36 … “Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow me afterwards. [verse 37] Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake.”  For Peter, even the grave was not something he would allow to separate him from Christ.  But unfortunately, this boast was based in the strength of his humanity, not in the humility of his submission.  Therefore it was subject to error, and a revelation of pride, even if the pride was of a spiritual nature.

Christ responded in verse 38 … “Jesus answered him, Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied me thrice.”  Christ reveals the future to Peter here and predicts where his human strength will lead him.  We can do nothing without Christ.  We can do nothing, even of a spiritual nature.  We will achieve no conversions in our missions, nor transformations in the mirror, without Christ.  Peter made his boast believing it to be true.  But it was not true, for it was founded in his own ideas, thinking, and will.  None of these would prove adequate when the testing time began.  Only through the power of Christ can we withstand the testing that will surely find us all.  In those times we must throw ourselves upon Christ and seek for Him to fight our battles.  Or we will find ourselves like Peter and Judas, defeated by our own ideas, and faith in ourselves, our own wisdom, our own strength.

But the focus of the communion was not intended to depress Peter or the others with the reality of their human weaknesses.  It was to focus them on the beauty of what He would accomplish on their behalf.  While chapter 13 ends with these prophetic words to Peter, chapter 14 immediately refocuses their minds back to the truth of the rewards of His mission.  Jesus continues in verse 1 of chapter 14 … “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.”  Perhaps one of the most quoted scriptures in all the Bible.  Do not be worried or dismayed at your own human weakness.  You believe in God.  You can believe that Christ can overcome the weakness inherent in you.  This is the most precious text in scripture and perhaps so often quoted not for what follows but for what has already been said.  It is not the mansions we need.  It is the redemption we need.  It is the recreation from the sin-sick-slaves to the freedom to love without restraint or limit.  We do not need a license to continue in our depravity, but instead a surety that He will free us from it.  We believe in God.  We can also believe in the salvation Christ offers us, in His promises to change us, to redeem us, to forgive us, and to re-create us so that even forgiveness will become a thing of the past.

Jesus continues in verse 2 … “In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. [verse 3] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. [verse 4] And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.”  Heaven is NOT about the beauty of architecture and precious gems.  It is about COMMUNION.  It is about fellowship.  It is about being WITH God full time forever and ever, never to be parted again.  The mission of Christ was not to be accomplished only to keep us distant from Himself on some remote planet at the far end of the universe.  We are going home.  To our real home.  To the place where we belong.  To the side of our God.  We will know where He goes, because we will be able to see it with our own eyes.  We will live with Him where He lives.  To accomplish this, He leaves this world to prepare homes for us in His.  He is making His city ready for humans to live in.  We need things like water, air, food, gravity.  But our greater need is to be loved, and to love.  We get that from Him.  And He intends to share that with us for all eternity by building us a home right where He lives.  Heaven, where gold is nothing more than concrete, and companionship is worth more than all of it combined.   This is the beauty of the reward of His mission.  It is not about making us wealthy in His eternal city.  It is about bringing us home to be with Him forever.  We could live in mud huts if we were close to Him.  But love is not satisfied with providing us with such meager accommodations; instead He finds His joy in making our homes special for each of us.

And communion was not over yet …

Communion (part two) ...

What is betrayal?  How long does it last?  Can it be undone?  John sets the scene for us again in his gospel in chapter 13.  The act of humility and service of their King washing each of their feet is still fresh in their minds.  But a disturbing fact has emerged.  Christ has said one of them is not clean, despite the foot washing.  They all know this means that one of them is unclean in spirit.  But who?  And to what extent?  And what could this mean?  Is one of them unfit to serve in the new anti-Roman kingship their Lord is sure to setup in the near future?  The people have already tried to crown Him more than once in His ministry, and it stands to reason that He won’t be able to avoid this eventuality forever.  They all believed His coronation was eminent, so to have one of them identified as being unworthy to be a leader in the new administration was quite disturbing.

But being “wrong” about doctrine, was not a sin.  If it were, ALL of them would have been guilty.  The misinterpretation of scripture was going to lead them all to a great disappointment, but was not going to alter the truth in any way.  The true meaning of scripture was about to be revealed.  The true glory of God was about to be seen in the giving to us the ultimate of sacrifices of self.  So despite them clinging to misguided interpretations, and hopes that vaunted their pride and ambition, these ideas were NOT the source of the uncleanliness that Christ was identifying.  In that sense the disciples were little different than the Pharisees.  Both were mistaken about doctrine and scripture.  But the difference was that the disciples were willing to follow and love Christ in spite of the error of their doctrinal beliefs.  As long as they were willing to follow, their beliefs could be corrected.  When like the Pharisees they no longer believed they needed correction; that they were already the foremost authorities of scripture ever known to man, truth could not be discerned by them – even when it was accompanied by miracles, and the literal voice of God the Father.

How like us.  Each Christian denomination is so certain today of its respective beliefs and doctrines that none of us believe we still need to be led to truth.  We have our own ideas about the packaging of truth, and believe only our own leads to heaven.  But in this we are ALL mistaken.  We are ALL in need of the leadership and guidance of Christ; for it is Christ alone that allows us to see truth clearly.  It is Christ alone who allows us to look beneath our respective packaging, and find the truth in its purest form.  For Christ alone is truth.  Interpretation of scripture is nothing more than an attempt at discerning Christ better.  It is a vehicle by which to behold Christ.  But it is always and only Christ who IS the truth.  When we become willing to be led, we can be led.  When we are humble enough to discard our own human wisdom and look to Christ to receive His wisdom instead of our own – we will find it.  And we may come to rethink many of the core beliefs we hold as sacrosanct.  Think about it.  The most fundamental belief of the Jewish nation at the time of Christ was regarding the mission of the Messiah.  And they were ALL wrong about it.  But it was the disciples who were willing to be corrected and led by the Truth of Jesus Christ.  We may find that one or more of our core beliefs are mistaken as well.  And we may be the better and blessed for this discovery, but only as we put our faith, our trust, and our humility to follow in the only true leader Jesus Christ.

Judas however, was not so willing.  Judas was too much like the Pharisees around him.  Judas could see that Christ was simply too humble to ever take the crown the people wanted Him to have.  So Judas planned to force the issue.  He would betray Christ into the hands of His enemies, thus forcing Him to become the King He was supposed to be.  Surely no man would ever allow Himself to be killed, rather than become the King of the world.  The plan of Judas was a sound one.  It was logical, rational, believable, and he was certain Christ would thank him for it later when He was King.  Then, once having a crown on His head, Jesus was sure to remember who was responsible for putting that crown on His head.  He was sure to reward the ingenuity and creativity of the Machiavellian planning of Judas.  Judas thought himself in a win-win scenario.  He would make a little money, and force Christ on the throne at the same time.  He would naturally become the number two guy in the new kingdom.  And he would win the thanks and gratitude of Christ in the process; even if the process itself, was a little shady.  The lesser of two evils though right?  And after all, the end justifies the means.

Again, how like us.  When our prayers are not answered in the way we desire, we attempt to manipulate our circumstances to force God to answer them in the way we believe He should.  Instead of re-thinking “what “ we want, or “if” what we want is truly what is in our best spiritual and eternal interests, we demand positive answers in the here and now.  When we sometimes do not get the answers we want, we proceed with every human means at our disposal attempting to get them anyway.  We rationalize to ourselves that we are only following the certain will of God.  We rationalize that even if we must disobey the values and laws of God to get what we want, once we get it, God will be happy and forgive us our methods of achieving these goals.  This is the same logic that allows men who carry the name of Christian to commit murder of those who will not accept their ideas.  They believe they defend the honor of God, and follow His earlier edicts from the Old Testament regarding how to handle enemies.  But they entirely miss the life of Christ who took NO such approach when confronting those who would not accept His truths.  And they miss the same concepts of forgiveness offered throughout the Old Testament, from cities of refuge, to the sacrificial system, to the salvation of Noah who was far from perfect, to the bargaining of Christ with Abraham to spare both Sodom and Gomorrah with thousands of evil doers if only for 10 who were not so evil.  But when we are bent on our own ideas as being the will of God, we are never deterred by truth, logic, or the reality of the answer “No”.  We proceed on course and figure God will catch up with us later.  So it was with Judas.

Jesus continues talking to his disciples in verse 18 saying … “I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.”  Jesus reminds them all that each of them is precious to Him, He chose each one.  Judas, John, Peter, all selected by Christ.  But being selected does not automatically translate into receiving the transformation He offers.  One must be willing for that to occur.  Jesus tells them that the damage done by “lifted up his heel against me” will not be a permanent detriment.  He continues in verse 19 saying … “Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he.”  Jesus is trying to tell them all, Judas included; that He knows what is about to take place.  It will not be a surprise to Him.  This was His mission.  The disciples all expect Him to be crowned King.  Instead He is about to be betrayed to His death, a death upon the cross.  That is a long ways from their expectations of Him, and the Messiah in general.  Had He been overtaken by events, without fore-knowledge, it might have totally dampened the faith of even His most loyal followers as to His divinity.  Instead He tells them here, plainly, He knows what is coming.

Jesus then looks forward, to a time when His followers will go into the world to preach the new gospel.  The gospel of redemption, reformation, and re-creation under the name of Jesus Christ.  This will not be an easy work.  There will remain those who believe it is their religious duty to kill the ones who spread these new ideas.  So in verse 20 Jesus reminds His followers, that they have a connection to Him, and through Him to God the Father … “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me; and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.”  The gospel that will be preached by these men is not just one of the story of Jesus Christ in isolation.  It is the story of Jesus Christ and His intimate connection with God His Father, and now ours.  That connection is our vehicle of restoration, back to what His intentions were for us, before we embraced this evil of self.  In this verse, He offers them and us hope.  Hope that no matter how our message is received, it is a truth that traces back to the Father’s throne, not our own.

But none the less, one of His faithful few, remains bent on betraying Him to His death.  Betrayal is painful to us, but agonizing to Christ; and for a different reason.  Jesus agonized that the betrayal Judas would enact, may cause the loss of Judas to His kingdom.  He would gladly see Judas repent and be forgiven no matter what his crime.  But Judas would not believe he could ever be forgiven, and so would not ever ask it.  He would believe his crimes were too great.  He would believe he did not deserve a second chance.  So like us.  In truth, we know better than to choose to do the things we do.  Like every other sinner before us or after, we partake in the evil of self-service willingly.  We do not deserve his forgiveness.  And so, some of us will be like Judas, choosing to live as though forgiveness is not possible and therefore we must get as much evil as we can before we die eternally.  And some of us will live like Peter, who though we are guilty of great public crimes that cause immense pain, still crawl back to the throne of grace, only to find Him there with open arms longing to forgive our every crime, and purge us of the evil we embrace.  The weight of the loss of Judas hurts Christ and troubles Him.  He cries out to them in verse 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.”  This was both a prophecy and a warning.

The disciples could hardly believe their ears.  This was more than just being unclean or unworthy.  They had an active traitor in their midst.  They began looking around and doubting that this was even a possibility.  All of them had been with Christ for nearly three years.  They had all seen the miracles.  They had all seen the risen Lazarus.  It was unthinkable that one of them could do such a thing.  And in this scene, John takes time to note where he was.  He was in the “bosom of Jesus”.  He had his head on the chest of Christ, or perhaps in his lap.  But no matter, he was physically the closest to Jesus at the time this was all occurring.  Communion, even when it was painful, to talk of betrayal, was still occurring between God and man.  So Peter asks John to ask Jesus who it might be and John does ask.  Jesus could have exposed Judas clearly by name.  But if he had done so, Peter and the others might have taken direct action to prevent Judas from carrying out his plans.  So instead He is less clear to the others there, and only very clear to Judas.  I believe He was still hoping Judas might turn from his plans.

Jesus answers in verse 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.”  Still dining, he dips some of the unleavened bread into the oils there and hands it to Judas.  Thus Judas knew clearly, that Jesus was well aware of His plan.  But the disciples were used to Christ serving others, and another act of generosity was not immediately interpreted as the identification of a traitor.  But at this point, something horrific happened.  John tells us in verse 27 that at that moment Satan entered Judas.  Christ then directs Satan within Judas … “Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly.”  Judas having refused to yield control of himself to Christ, has now yielded it to Satan whether he wanted to or not.  There are only two choices in this regard.  Satan tries his best to get us all to believe that “we” are the masters of our will and our fate.  That “our” decisions govern our lives and no one can control our will or make us do anything.  But this is just not so.  We have but one choice: to yield to Christ, or to default control of our will to Satan.  Our nature is to be bound to self-service, slave to it, we are simply NOT free to choose a fate for ourselves other than to give up to Christ, or be bound to evil.

The disciples in the room could still not wrap their heads around what Christ was saying, either to Judas or to them.  They did not know if maybe Jesus was asking Judas to go out and buy something they needed for the feast, or maybe to address some need the poor may have.  But whatever the reason, Judas got up immediately and left into the night.  Satan has no power against Christ.  He cannot resist the power of the love of God.  But he is fully able to conquer us without working up a sweat.  We are child’s play to him.  When we refuse like Judas to be transformed by Christ, to be protected by Christ, we find ourselves in the net of the devil already.  This was the sadness Christ had dreaded, for the one sheep had left the fold and was lost.  Christ loved Judas, and it was His will, that all would have remained faithful until the end.  But Judas would not choose to embrace that fate.  Now all that remained for Judas was Satan and the night.

To think that Judas alone betrayed Christ was and is a mistake.  We join him in that betrayal.  Every time we choose to sin, rather than choose His victories within us, we put Christ back up on that cross to cover the cost of our choices.  Peter too would betray His Lord, he would deny even knowing him, in order to protect his life, such as it was.  While our crimes are great, it is not our crimes the Lord came to judge within us.  Instead He paid our cost so that we might embrace His forgiveness, and begin to know His re-creation personally.  Had Judas like Peter sought repentance and forgiveness, he would have found it.  Though we are convicted by the truth of our sins, and though we do not deserve yet another chance, His love reaches out to us still.  He does not want to lose us, like He lost Judas.  He wants to reclaim us, like He was able to do with Peter.  But the choice of our response to His love, is our choice to make.  We can ignore Him, walk away from Him, believe we are not deserving and decide to never seek Him out again.  Or, we can return to the foot of the cross, confess what He already knows, acknowledge our need, and find redemption, and re-creation from a love that can transform the entire world, within us, and around us.  This is the lesson of Judas and his betrayal for us to learn from.  There is redemption, even after a betrayal of God, if we but seek it. 

And communion was not over yet …

Passion of the Christ - Communion (part one) ...

After opening his gospel with a prologue, and spending a great deal of time discussing at length all of the miraculous witnesses to the divinity of Christ; John now turns his attention to the fulfillment of the ministry of the Messiah.  Though miracles would still be a significant part of the completion of the mission of Jesus, the idea of the magnitude of His sacrifice warrants our undivided attention.  The time of His mission was nearly complete.  He would only be with them a short while now.  The immediacy and the priority of what He must share with His few faithful companions, His friends as He called them, was now of paramount importance.  These final hours would be the thing most prevalent in their minds as events were about to unfold.  So only the most important truths must be shared.  Everything else could wait, everything else could be discovered later, or revealed by the work of the Holy Spirit.  What He must share with His disciples now, had to be what was of utmost importance as time was nearly at an end.  Against this backdrop, Jesus begins by sharing the most important thing between God and man, He shares communion.

Communion is more than a tradition of the newly established Christian church.  It is fellowship between God and man.  As time is nearly out, Christ takes precious moments to “be” with His disciples.  As He used to enjoy His walks with Adam and Eve in the Garden at sunset, and even set aside an entire day to be “Holy” just to be with us; so now He takes out a moment to simply “be” with His disciples.  They will eat, drink, and commune together.  From the point of view of the disciples this is a celebration of the feast of Passover.  From the point of view of the Messiah, this is the last meal He will ever enjoy with His disciples.  With all the burden that must come upon Him in just a few short hours, He makes time to be with His disciples and speak, and do, what is most important to them.  John sets the stage for us, in his gospel account beginning in chapter 13.  It is the time for the feast of Passover, but John puts his emphasis on the truth of the character of Christ.

He opens in verse 1 saying … “Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.”  The love of Christ never wavered.  He loved all of His disciples right up to the end of His life.  That love was paramount.  That love was the reason why He had come to our world.  Jesus did not restrict His love to only those disciples He knew would be faithful to Him in all things.  If He had so restricted it; who would have been left to enjoy the meal with Him?  For all deserted Him in His time of greatest need.  Judas was at this dinner.  Judas enjoyed this meal with His Lord like John, Peter, and all the rest of them.  Jesus did not restrict His love to Judas even knowing what Judas was about to do.  Nor did He restrict His love from Peter knowing how Peter would deny Him openly.  Both dined.  Both enjoyed the company of their Lord.

But John, with the benefit of hindsight, writes now what he knows about that night.  He continues in verse 2 … “And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him;”  Judas had too long refused to be changed by the Messiah he spent his every waking moment with.  His greed and avarice, and thirst for power and prominence had never given way to the simplicity of humble service that the life of Christ exemplified.  That life was not the one Judas wanted.  Judas wanted the life of a great leader.  He wanted the power and fame that comes from a position of authority.  He was not alone in his ambitions.  Right up to these moments the disciples often jockeyed for position in who would be the next greatest leader in the kingdom of Christ.  Judas was no different in that respect, if perhaps only in that he was more ambitious and more secretive about his own desires.  What he was not; was transformed.  He lacked the humility to be transformed.  He was “happy” with who he was, and only wanted more of it, not less.  In that respect, does he sound like the person in the mirror who stares back at you every day?  Are you so comfortable with “who” you are, that you believe you need no transformation into something else, something more humble, something resembling more of servant and less of a king?

Christ had a knowledge of the thoughts and desires of His disciples.  He knew that what Judas wanted was not so different than any of the others, though only Judas was willing to betray His Lord to acquire it.  John continues in verse 3 by revealing what Jesus knew … “Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God;”  His death is nearly upon Him.  His mission is nearly complete.  So does He finally accept the glory and praise He is due?  Does He seek out the people to praise Him, for the act of sacrifice He is about to perform for them?  Wouldn’t we?  We seek praise for our accomplishments.  We seek adoration when we do something good for others, if only to remind us of how good we are.  Yet Christ makes no such moves.  Instead John continues with what He does with time so short, and burden so high.

John relays in verse 4 … “He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself. [verse 5] After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.”  He served.  He took upon Himself the most humiliating duty of a servant and performed this act of humility on those who SHOULD have done it for Him.  Their feet were dirty.  Their feet were smelly.  They had no Dr. Scholls to reduce the smell, or orthodic shoes to protect their feet from the dirt, mud, and animal waste they must walk upon.  They had only sandals of rough leather to protect them from dusty, rocky roads.  They had no chance to bath regularly, or rub oils on their feet, or keep themselves well maintained.  Yet Christ who considered Himself willing, was willing to wash and dry the feet of these men.  All of them.  Judas included as well as Peter.  Jesus stooped to serve the one who would choose to be His enemy.  He did not restrict His love from Judas, nor did He refrain from serving one who would choose to do evil.  Every opportunity would be offered to all who were there, regardless of what they would choose to do with the opportunity and love He offered.

It was a stark contrast in the minds of those who were only moments before thinking to themselves what greatness would be theirs in the kingdom He was sure to establish.  Here was their King, serving them in the most debasing of ways, the most humiliating.  A King who served?  Who had ever heard of such a thing?  This was too much for Peter to accept.  Peter says in verse 6 … “Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? [verse 7] Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.”  Peter had to question this.  Peter thought it his place to remind the Lord that servants do this kind of work, not Kings.  If he accepted Jesus performing this act of humility upon him, it was like admitting that his own pride had kept him from even considering doing this kind of work.  Not an easy pill to swallow.  Jesus however, tells Peter that while he may not understand this act right now, it will become clear to him later as to why He would do it.  Peter responds in verse 8 … “Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. …”  Peter response is “forget it” Lord.  I am not going to allow you to humiliate yourself or me in doing this kind of work.  In effect, Peter was too proud to accept that.

But the words of Christ in response were overwhelming as Jesus responds continuing in verse 8 … “… Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.”  Peter was blown away.  They were all just thinking about the establishment of the kingdom of Christ.  For him to have no part in it would be devastating.  Peter still does not understand why Christ would do this, but he will not risk becoming a power broker in the new anti-Roman kingdom Christ is surely about to setup.  So he quickly answers in verse 9 … “Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.”  If this is about cleanliness perhaps, then go ahead and give me a full bath.  Whatever it takes to be the number one general, or number one secretary of state, or number one chief council, just go ahead and do it Lord.  Ironically Peter was really asking to be the number one servant, but he just could not comprehend that yet, as Christ had just told him.

Jesus responds to Peter’s overdoing-it by saying in verse 10 … “Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all. [verse 11] For he knew who should betray him; therefore said he, Ye are not all clean.”  Obviously none of them had recently bathed, nor was Christ trying to say that a literal clean-up of our feet can take the place of proper bath when it comes to cleanliness.  However, being served in humility, is by definition humiliating.  We are cleansed by a power outside of ourselves.  That fact is humiliating.  To admit we are unable to cleanse ourselves is not something most Christians are comfortable with, let alone non-believers.  Christians like to think they can remove the sins from themselves by their power, or determination, or abundance of good works.  They like to think that at the worst case, they are in a partnership with God, where the Christian does his best work first, and only THEN does God do “His part”.  But none of this is true.  The disciples feet did not clean themselves, they were not allowed to participate in the cleansing.  They did not even necessarily want to be clean or at least want it enough to do it to themselves, let alone for others.  The act of cleansing their most exposed and dirty part was done solely by Christ.  They were clean only as they allowed Him to clean them.  They had NO partnership.  They did NONE of the work.  Christ did it all.  All they did, was let Him.

With time for Christ as short as it was, He takes time out to eat and socialize and commune with His closest followers.  And now with time growing even shorter, He serves them all in the most humble of ways, taking the part of the lowest slave to do work, none of them would even consider.  This is the heart of our God.  This is the level of service He will do for us if we but let Him.  He will cleanse us from the filth we have embraced like a patient parent who cleans up his baby from an accident in going to the bathroom all over themselves.  Sin is that distasteful to God, but He cleans us up from it because He loves us that much.  And in this act of humility, Judas participates.  He allows Christ to wash his own feet as well.  But his heart is unmoved by it.  We may allow Christ to clean us, but we do not remain clean if we do not choose to do so.  Judas was only growing more indignant that this purported King would so humiliate Himself and them.  And Jesus recognizes Judas resistance to being made clean by a force outside of himself.  Thus He offers out loud to all of them, the idea, that one has not accepted the cleaning He is offering.

Now because it was still a mystery in the minds of those He had just served, Christ must explain to them why He did what He did.  Jesus asks in verse 12 … “So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?”  Notice that it took Christ a minute to get his own clothing back on, and to sit back down at the table.  Notice too that no-one took the initiative to clean the feet of Christ with basin and towel.  Jesus continues in verse 13 … “Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. [verse 14] If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. [verse 15] For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. [verse 16] Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. [verse 17] If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.”

First Jesus acknowledges that He is indeed their Lord and ours, the title is not lost on Him, or inaccurate in any way.  He is God after all.  For God to be willing to stoop to serve man, in the most humble of ways, should show us that we should not be reluctant to serve each other in equal humility.  Christ was not setting up a feet cleaning business, or stating the clean feet are the mark of His followers.  He was however plainly stating that no act of humble service from one to another is something we should think ourselves “above” doing.  Often we continue the tradition of feet washing in our churches in times of performing an ordinance of communion.  We follow the literal words of Christ, but lose the deeper meaning.  Washing another member of our churches feet, is a much different proposition today, when everyone is sure to have bathed and worn appropriate footwear for just such an event.  But to bring a member in need groceries without being asked, or even desired, is something we are more reluctant to do, as it might embarrass him or us in the process.  To take the initiative to serve another in tasks we consider unpleasant do not spring to mind.  We reserve our service for more convenient actions that require less of our time, and perhaps only more of our resources.  Digging a latrine in a mission is not considered “glory” work … by anyone other than God.  The message of Christ to us, is that when we love each other as He loved us, no act of service is beneath us.  No need should go un met if we can meet it.  And there is no room for pride in any part of the equation of love and service.

To wash each other’s feet in our day, can hardly breach the gulf of an entrenched pride that refuses to be made humble.  And there is ancestor who felt that same way.  One who had the benefit of the literal company of Christ, but would leave that very night to betray Him to His death.  Is it the path of Judas we follow?  Or is the path of our King, who put aside his garments, took basin and towel, and washed each of the feet of his disciples in the condition they were in?  There is nothing wrong with following the traditions and ordinance of humility our communion services offer.  But the heart of the transformed by Christ can hardly stop serving before or after such an event.  When the heart is transformed, it values love above all else, and must express that love in humble service meeting every need it can, in any way that it can.  We can choose to express our love to our parents, our siblings, our spouses, or our children.  Or we can love greater, by loving those we know less, and associate with more.  Or we can love greater still, by investing our time and energy on those who seek to call themselves our enemies, and desire nothing but our destruction.  To love those who would do us nothing but harm, is to love as Christ loved.  For He showed that same tender love to the eleven as He did to the twelfth (Judas).  Nothing was ever held back by Christ despite what we would choose to do with it.  The same is true today.  But communion was not over yet …