Up to this point in our study, what Jesus said, he said for the admonition of all. However, what he says in John 13:18, he says with Judas in mind. Jesus told his disciples that he, indeed, had chosen the Twelve, including the betrayer. However, this was done in order that the scripture could be fulfilled, “he who eats my bread has lifted up his heel against me” (John 13:18; cp. Psalm 41:9). Therefore, the fact that he will be betrayed was expected. Nothing about the betrayal came as a surprise to Jesus. The Septuagint may give the sense of the Hebrew idiom lifted up his heel. It translates the Psalm: “For also the man of my peace upon whom I hoped, the one eating my bread loaves, magnified against me with trickery.” In other words, lifting up the heel alludes to trickery of some kind. Judas’ trickery was intended to force Jesus to act in a manner that wasn’t his custom to do.
If the Septuagint is an accurate rendering of the meaning of the Hebrew: lifted up his heel (Psalm 41:9), then it behooves us to try to understand what trickery this might refer to. Obviously, it couldn’t mean Jesus didn’t know what Judas was up to. No, the text tells us that Jesus chose Judas in the beginning, knowing what he would do (John 13:18; cp. 6:70-71). If what I claimed about Judas in John 13:2 is logical and true,[1] then Judas was the epitome of the one who thought, or at least acted as though, he was greater than his Lord and more knowledgeable than the one who sent him (cp. verse-16).
Earlier, during the meal, when Judas asked Jesus: “Is it I?” (Matthew 26:25), and Jesus said it was, indeed, he who was about to betray him, a short discussion between Jesus and Judas may have ensued, whereby Judas may have told Jesus he wouldn’t have to do what he intended, if Jesus would only do what the zealots expected of him. Of course, no one else was able to hear what was said between Jesus and Judas. We know this, because after the meal Peter would signal to the disciple whom Jesus loved to ask Jesus the identity of the betrayer (John 13:23-26). Moreover, just as the disciple whom Jesus loved was able to speak privately to Jesus by leaning backwards unto Jesus’ breast, Jesus was able to do likewise to Judas and speak to him privately by his leaning on Judas’ breast. Thus, if this is reasonable and true, Judas thought to trick the Lord by forcing him to act as the zealots expected the Messiah to act. Judas believed by placing Jesus’ life in danger, surely, that would cause him to act to save his own life.
Nevertheless, when Judas’ deed would be complete, and when Jesus was both crucified and resurrected from the dead, from that time forward the disciples would know Jesus was the I AM, the great God who had rescued them from bondage (John 13:19; cp. Exodus 3:14). Then, they would be in the position to understand that Jesus had predicted all of what had come to pass, even that he had chosen Judas, simply because he would always behave as a zealot and not a disciple.
Then, speaking to all once more, and in the context of what he just told them, Jesus said it was obviously true that anyone whom he sends and is received by another, he who receives Jesus’ disciple receives Jesus as well. Moreover, he who receives Jesus as Savior and Messiah also receives the one who sent him, namely, the Father.
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[1] See my earlier study in this chapter: Jesus’ Hour Had Come
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