Didn't See That Coming

John 13:26-30

There are times when life has a way of smacking us in the face and we never see it coming. Much like the guy in this picture, we do not realize what is coming until it is too late. One thing is for sure, these situations are never fun, and sometimes they completely change the course of our lives. We may pray that these situations never come, but eventually they do. The real question is how will we respond when we do face these times? Will we be Christlike and let our light shine, or will we be crushed under the weight and fall apart?

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Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I shall give a piece of bread when I have dipped it.” And having dipped the bread, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. Now after the piece of bread, Satan entered him. Then Jesus said to him, “What you do, do quickly.” But no one at the table knew for what reason He said this to him. For some thought, because Judas had the money box, that Jesus had said to him, “Buy those things we need for the feast,” or that he should give something to the poor. Having received the piece of bread, he then went out immediately. And it was night.

John 13:26–30

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In our passage today, we will not look at how the disciples handled what was about to happen. Instead, we will see how they got blindsided. This passage takes place when Jesus is gathered with his disciples in the upper room before Passover. They believe that Jesus is the Messiah, but their idea of who Messiah would be, and who Jesus said He was going to be were two very different people. Because of this, they were blinded to the events that were beginning to transpire.

Jesus tells his disciples that one of them is about to betray Him. When they press as to which one of them this would be, Jesus provides a slightly cryptic answer. He tells them it is the one that he will sop his bread with. This answer was only lightly cryptic because Jesus did not come right out and give a name. However, right after he makes this statement, he takes the bread and sops it in the oil, and then offers it to Judas. His answer cannot get much more obvious than this. However, it went right over their heads.

John tells us that when Jesus offered Judas the bread, Satan entered into Judas. Think about that for just a moment. Here are Jesus's disciples, Jesus, and one guy who is lost (though the disciples do not know this yet). You would think that this would be a devil free zone, and yet Satan entered into Judas and possessed him to betray the Son of God to death.

There was not some grand Satanic presence like you see in the movies. This possession was so uneventful that the disciples had no idea it took place. When Jesus sent Judas away, they assumed it was to run an errand, or to do some kind of charity work. They totally missed what Jesus had said, and never suspected that Judas was a fraud. They thought he was a good church member and a Christian. They were wrong.

Judas was about to betray Jesus and the disciples' world was about to come crashing down around them. They were about to get smacked in the face with the reality that they were completely wrong about who they thought Jesus was. Yes, they called Him Lord, but they had transposed their ideas of who He would be onto Him. Even though Jesus told them over and over again that He would die and rise from the dead, that didn't fit their ideas and so they didn't hear Him. That is why His death on the cross rocked their world and in many ways they did not handle it well.

I wonder how many presuppositions we have about God that lead to our world being rocked when difficulties strike. This is why listening to what Jesus says is so important. I do not mean listening to what a preacher says. I have heard many preachers accuse the Bible of saying one thing, but in reality it was saying something very different. When I say, "listening to what Jesus says", I mean reading God's Word ourselves and studying it to learn what it truly means. If we know what Jesus has truly said, He will prepare us for those difficult times that catch us off guard.

Father, we all get caught off guard by hard times, but You never are. I pray that we would seek You in the good times and in the bad. When those bad times come, may our light burn brightly so that You are seen in our trials because we cling to You and do not run away from You.