The betrayer denounced.
I. THE SHADOW AT THE FEAST, Not fear, as of a criminal under sting of conscience; nor over-anxiety, the specter that sits with the worldling at his board; but moral repugnance expressing itself in sympathetic sorrow. An inward sense of interrupted sympathy and fellowship.
II. THE BETRAYER INDICATED. It is necessary to declare what it is which prevents the full communion of the household of Christ. This is done in order:
1. To awaken the spirit of self-examination and self-distrust. "Is it I?" Therefore the indication given is general and anonymous.
2. To characterize and accentuate the moral hideousness of the crime. It was shown to be an evil foretold from afar. The betrayal is to take place, "that the Scripture (Psalms 41:9) may be fulfilled, He that eateth my bread [or his bread with me] lifted up his heel against me" (John 13:18). And so, anticipatively, a new evidence is furnished by which to identify Jesus as the Messiah (John 13:19). As done by one enjoying the benefits of the Christian household, and reclining in pretended communion with the Lord, it is declared to be an act of the basest treachery and ingratitude.
3. As a personal discovery determining the further action of the guilty one. The special sign given was perceived by Judas alone, although explicitly mentioned. In answer to John's inquiry (the question of spiritual love), the partaking, which is here spoken of as a general thing, is specialized in a definite way with respect to the individual meant (John 13:26). The further command is given, not to do the deed, but, as he is determined even then to do it, to do it quickly (John 13:27, John 13:30). Thus the foulest crime against the Son of God is determined and accelerated amidst communion and sacred celebration—a psychological truth.
4. As an occasion for solemn lamentation over the miserable destiny of Judas. The "woe" is not spoken so much as a denunciation, but rather in commiseration. All the good of life is spoken of as forfeited—and more than forfeited. "The apophthegm is rather remarkable when microscopically examined, for, strictly speaking, nothing would be good to a man who never existed. But our Savior's meaning is not microscopic, but obvious, and most solemn. A man's existence is turned into a curse to him when he inverts the grand moral purpose contemplated in its Divine origination" (Morison). At the feast of love there is ever a sense of mingled reprobation and sympathy with respect to sinners.
III. THE PRINCIPLE OF THE INTERDEPENDENCE OF GOOD AND EVIL STATED. "The Son of man goeth," etc. Evil is overruled and made the occasion of good. Not that it is thereby necessitated: it is still the product of the free-will of the creature. Yet is it foreseen, and the operation of good is modified so as to produce the greater good. That Christ should die was foreordained; it was the expression of an eternal deterruination of the Divine nature; but the particular circumstances affecting the external character of his death were not foreordained. And, therefore, as freely committed, evil is not altered in its moral character by the result flowing from its being divinely overruled. Judas was a criminal awfully and uniquely wicked, and his "woe" is wailed forth by Infinite Love himself!—M.