The One to Whom I Will Give This Piece of Bread

Jesus was pretty well known for obtuse answers to simple questions. People were regularly befuddled when he answered their questions. We could look at the places where he confuses people.

But he kind of goes to some strange lengths when he's outing Judas as his betrayer, during the last supper.

John describes it in chapter 13 of his biography.

"8 “I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen. But this is to fulfill this passage of Scripture: ‘He who shared my bread has turned against me.’

19 “I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am who I am.

20 Very truly I tell you, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.”

21 After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, “Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.”

22 His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant.

23 One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him.

24 Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, “Ask him which one he means.”

25 Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, “Lord, who is it?”

26 Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.

27 As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. So Jesus told him, “What you are about to do, do quickly.”

28 But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him.

I've often wondered why Jesus was so cryptic about it. I was listening to it again this afternoon when it hit me: the answer is Genesis 1, isn't it?

In Genesis 1, God creates the whole universe in six days, and he does it by speaking. He says a thing, and then the thing is created.

In John 1, it's clarified that it was Jesus that was doing the speaking. And here, Jesus is sitting around the table, talking with his Boys, and he's NOT speaking the thing that every one of them is asking: Who is it.

Today it struck me that if Jesus had said, "Judas is going to betray me," then the power of Genesis 1:3 (and Mark 11:14) would be released & Judas might have been controlled by the creative words of the Creator declaring his future.

Jesus was carefully and intentionally leaving Judas's will untouched by supernatural power of the Creator's declaration, so he dances around the subject, and finally answers the question with actions, not with words. (And that is the closest thing to an interpretive dance in the Scriptures, I suppose.)

That is, by the way, the primary tactical difference between a legitimately prophetic word and good wishes: the word that is spoken from God, that is the true prophetic word, carries not only information about God's will in the circumstances, but also carries the power to cause it to come about.

We can discuss (and I have already strained my brain thinking about) whether Judas's God-given free will would triumph over Jesus God-empowered words: did Judas really have the free will to choose not to betray Jesus?

I think that is exactly the reason for the interpretive dance: Jesus wanted to leave no room for that accusation for the generations to follow. Jesus could NOT have influenced Judas with his words, since he didn't use his words to discuss Judas.

This shouts to me of God's impressive forethought, of course, but also of his remarkable kindness. By handing Judas a bite of dinner, he eliminates squabbles among his children for centuries to come. (Not that we haven't found other things to squabble about....)