Manifested Love, Pt 4: Forewarning

John 13:18-20                        18“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. 20Very truly I tell you, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.”

I think all of us have had the experience of discovering a friend who, although presenting a spirit of friendship, has all the while been gossiping and tongue-wagging behind our backs.  The discovery is always a shock.  Yet here is Jesus, God in a skinsuit, telling us that one of the men he chose to be his followers was in the process of betraying him.  Did he not know?  Was he surprised?  Of course not, Jesus is God.

But Jesus is here experiencing a betrayal much worse than anything we modern believers have.  Remember Jesus is 100% God.  He is also 100% man.  Jesus as God knew it was an integral part of his Father’s plan that he be betrayed, crucified, die, and resurrect.  Jesus as man felt the pain of betrayal.  The NIV uses the phrase ‘turned against’ to translate the Hebrew.  Other translation use ‘raised his heel’.  The original context is that of a person who has been kicked in the chest by the hind hoof of a donkey; an extremely painful, potentially fatal circumstance.

In an odd sort of way this passage is another expression of manifest love.  Although Jesus had been saying it would soon be time for him to depart from them, the disciples didn’t understand the divine and salvific implications.  He knew his death and resurrection were absolutely necessary, but he also knew they would be shocked at the betrayal of one of their intimate friends.  Jesus is intimately concerned for the emotional and spiritual welfare of his friends.  Let’s look at the sequence of events:  For three years Jesus had been doing things he shouldn’t have been able to do (miracles) and saying things beyond the wisdom of a human (omniscience).  He was about to be tortured to death and he knew that would seem to discount and undermine all that he had been teaching.  But he also knew that soon after that he would resurrect, which would confirm his divinity.  The disciples would be shaken to the core by the upcoming events, so Jesus is smoothing the way by telling them what was about to happened ahead of time. 

But now we come to the most important verse of the passage (v20).  “Christ and his Sender are one.

29My Father, who has given [my sheep] to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30I and the Father are one. (John 10:29-30)

It is impossible to accept the one and reject the other. The two are inseparable. And when the plan of God is carried out, and Judas betrays the Lord, delivering him into the hands of the enemy, the disciples must remain conscious of the dignity of their calling. They will remain ambassadors for Christ. And when they say to anyone, “We beseech you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God,” God himself through their preaching will be making his appeal to the sinner. If anyone, whether Jew or Greek, rejects such an appeal, he will be rejecting Christ; and if anyone rejects the Christ, he will be rejecting his Sender, God. The statement applies to all time, and to every true ambassador for Christ (i.e., to every ambassador who truly represents him and truly proclaims his Word).[1]”

So my friend, let’s consider what this means to us today.  You and I have accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior.  We trust in him for every action we take, every thought we think, and every decision we make.  And it also means we are children of the Father.  In the accepting of him, we also have accepted God the Father.  When we accepted Christ, it might have been at a service, or in someone’s home, or through a tele-evangelist’s message.  In any case it was probably because some human being was anointed by God to lead us to Christ.  The same thing happened for him, and before him, and before him…  Now it is your turn.  Christ gave you freedom from the consequence for your sins so that you can have eternal life with him, and also so that you can help others come to salvation.

Have you been transformed by your acceptance of Christ as Savior?  Or did you check off the box to shut someone up.  That’s kind of a harsh way to say this:  Accepting Christ as Savior should change us.  When we were in the world, doing things the way the world does them, we were not aligned with Christ.  Now that we are, our perspective has changed.  This is not to say our sin nature has suddenly changed, but that our attitude toward it has changed.  Suddenly we look at the frequent sin we used to do in a different way.  Maybe we still have the struggle, but whereas we once justified it because ‘everyone else is doing it’, now it repulses us.  Or if we do not experience repulsion, at least we go to Jesus for help in dealing with it in a way we never did before.

So each of us is next in a long line of prayer and intercession leading all the way back to Jesus Himself.  A succession of people, anointed of God, have prayed and interceded for the next person in the succession.  We should not take that lightly.  We are important to Jesus and important to God himself.  God loves each of us individually with a love the depth of which we cannot understand.  Will we allow that God-ordained prayer chain to be broken?  We all were saved with a purpose:  To bring us out of the consequence of sin and into the Kingdom of God.  And we all were saved for a purpose:  To help someone else realize the joy of that salvation experience.  My friend do not allow yourself to become neither a hermit, nor a Lone Ranger.  We have a job to do.  We must not hide in our easy chair; we must engage the world and push back against it.  If you are offended by the trajectory the world is following, then talk about it with your friends.  Point out how it violates Godly precepts laid out in the Bible.  If you have a friend who is consumed with alcohol or drugs, help him or her fight their way out of it.  When they fail, forgive and continue.  Be a Godly mentor.  Pray for him or her.  Bless them, guide them, help shape them.  These are all ways to manifest Jesus into their lives.  However you reflect Jesus into someone’s life, remember it is Jesus Himself who is doing it through you.

[1] William Hendriksen and Simon J. Kistemaker, Exposition of the Gospel According to John, vol. 2, New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1953–2001), 240.