The Gospel of John - Outline Part 33 - The Sovereignty of God Over Evil

TITLE

John 13:21-30 – The Sovereignty of God Over Evil

EXPLANATION

Continuing the Passover dinner, we find that Jesus reveals to His disicples that one of them is going to betray Him.  Confused, the disciples wondered who it would be.  Peter, ever the one to speak first and think later, convinced John, who apparently was right beside Jesus, to ask Him who the betrayer was.  John did so, and surprisingly, Jesus gave him a straight answer.  He revealed that whomever received the next morsel of bread from the Lord’s hand was the betrayer.  Jesus gave the morsel to Judas, pointing him out as the traitor.  Then He told him to quickly do what he was going to do.  Judas left, and the disciples wondered where he went.

Although Jesus had clearly pointed Judas out as the betrayer, at least to John and Peter, no one thought much of it when Judas left.  Perhaps, in their minds, they did not associate betrayal with being turned over to the Sanhedrin and executed.  Perhaps the men still had it in their minds that Jesus was going to achieve victory through strength of arms against His enemies.  Either way, Judas left without incident.

APPLICATION

This is a fascinating interlude in the last Passover evening that Jesus spent with His disciples.  It beautifully illustrates the complete purview that God has over the commission of evil in His world.  Judas may have thought He was being sneaky about his secret deal with the Jews.  He may have thought he was profiting from Jesus’s indecisiveness regarding a military rebellion.  But the whole time, he was acting exactly according to the will of God.  Jesus, of course, knew this perfectly.  And, He was fully in support of Judas’s actions.

Furthermore, it is likely, considering the typical seating arrangements at a 1^st century Jewish meal, that Judas was immediately to Jesus’s left.  John was on His right, so that he could lean back against Jesus and ask who the betrayer was.  So then, for Jesus to be able to easily give a morsel to Judas, he was probably on the Lord’s other side.  If so, this is astonishing.  To think that Jesus would give a position of honor, by being next to him, to one who was about to betray him, is incredible.  What a demonstration of Christ’s humility!

We should be encouraged by the conduct of Jesus at supper.  God is always in control of His creation.  Nothing transpires that He does not authorize.  Therefore, we can take heart and be of good cheer when we face evil and conflict.  Although to us, much like to Judas, it appears that we are calling the shots, in reality God is in the driver’s seat.  All we have to do is relax and see to our responsibilities.  He will take care of the rest.