Chapter XIII

The structure of this Gospel has been compared with the three divisions of Israel’s earthly sanctuary. There was an outer court, a holy part and the holy of holies. The first twelve chapters have been likened to the outer court. Our Lord moved in the midst of the mass of Jews, surrounded by His enemies, bearing witness to Himself, manifesting His glory in the signs of power, and hated by the great number of Jews. And now He leaves them behind and gathers His disciples about Himself to address them. He is in the holy part in fellowship with His own. The holy of holies is the seventeenth chapter.

Every reader of the New Testament knows that chapters Xili-xvii are peculiar to this Gospel; what we find here recorded is not mentioned in the preceding Gospels. That these great words of our Lord were known to Matthew no one doubts. He belonged to the twelve and was present in the place where our Lord had gathered His disciples. Why did he not put these words, and the occurrence of the feet washing into his record? The answer is not difficult to find. Matthew wrote about our Lord as King; his Gospel is the Gospel of the kingdom. There was no place in his Gospel to give an account of what took place between the Lord and His disciples. Nor could these sayings of our Lord be rightfully embodied in the other two synoptic Gospels. The Holy Spirit did not permit their record in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, but reserved the writing for the pen of John. In this Gospel with its great message as to His Deity and the eternal life those receive who believe on Him, we shall find that the teachings He gives to His disciples are but an expansion of the truth concerning eternal life, what it is, what goes with it, prayer, fruit-bearing, and the gift of the Holy Spirit and His mission on earth during the physical absence of our Lord.

On the other hand, many sayings and events of the days preceding the sacrificial death of our Lord, recorded in the Synoptics are not found in the fourth Gospel. The parables relating to the kingdom are omitted. John has nothing to say about the Pharisees and Sadducees tempting the Lord, nor does He mention the public charge against these leaders, as given in Matthew xxiii. Still more significant is the omission of the entire Olivet Discourse. As we know, that discourse is a great prophecy, recorded in full only by Matthew, for the discourse contains the prophecy concerning the return of the King. Inasmuch as John’s Gospel records the message of our Lord as to salvation, the gift of eternal life, the gift of the Holy Spirit, anticipating the Church, the one flock (John x), the visible and personal return of the Lord for the regathering of Israel and the judgment of the nations is not embodied in this Gospel. Instead of these prophetic teachings, so prominent in the Synoptics, we find in this Gospel a new promise, given to His eleven disciples, when He spoke to them about the Father’s house and assured them, “I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.”

Nor do we read anything in this Gospel about the institution of the Lord’s supper. Some commentators say that John thought it needless to repeat this account, because each of the preceding Gospels give it, and Paul also recorded it in the Epistle to the Corinthians. Such a statement makes John the author of the Gospel and not the Holy Spirit.

There is a good reason why neither baptism nor the Lord’s supper are mentioned in this Gospel. These two ordinances are omitted in this document in which salvation and eternal life are taught, showing that neither has anything to do with the gift of God, eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. The Holy Spirit anticipated the time when in ritualistic Christendom ordinances would be proclaimed as necessary to salvation, and that without the sacraments, duly administered, eternal life would be impossible.

Verses 1-5. Passover was about to take place. The hour had come, the hour of His suffering, His death and resurrection, the hour that He should depart out of this world, which knew Him not, and return to the Father. That hour was fixed before the foundation of the world in the eternal counsels of the Godhead. He knew this hour from the beginning; nothing could happen to Him till this hour came. We heard Him say in this Gospel, ‘“‘Mine hour is not yet come.” But now the great and solemn hour had come. He knew it from the beginning. He knew the hour in His boyhood, and when He read His own Hebrew Scriptures He saw the hour of the cross on every page. He knew it in His youth, when toiling in the carpenter shop of Nazareth. He knew it at the time of His baptism, and all along in His gracious ministry He knew the hour, and now it had come.

In connection with this we find a most tender statement, ‘Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end.” All along they had been the objects of His love. He knew what they were in themselves. He knew that in a few hours they would forsake Him and Peter would deny Him, yet He loved them unto the end. His love was undiminished. They were His own. He had come unto His own and His own received Him not (i:11). But here are those who are His own in a higher sense of the word. Of these eleven disciples He says later in His great prayer, “The men which Thou gavest Me out of the world.” Those who believe on Him, accept Him, trust Him and serve Him are His own; as born again they are not of the world, even as He is not of the world. Yet believers though not of the world yet are still in the world, surrounded by evil. In this world they have tribulation, but His love towards His own remains always the same. His love passeth knowledge. And now He is in an act of deepest condescension to demonstrate that love and show symbolically the continuation of that love, even unto the end, till they are brought home to be with Him.

The supper was in progress. It was not the supper called “The Lord’s Supper,” but the ordinary Passover supper, which the Lord ate with His disciples. Before we read of His act of love and condescension, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, is brought to our attention. Twice we read of him in this chapter. Here is the record that the devil had put it into his heart to betray the Lord. Before our Lord had announced that one of the twelve was a devil (chapter vi:70). He was the only one among the disciples who did not believe on Jesus as Lord. He called Him, Rabbi, or Master. Judas Iscariot did not believe in the Deity of Christ and underneath his unbelief was sin; he loved money, he was a thief. Yielding thus to sin, living in sin, rejecting the matchless love of Him in whose outward fellowship he walked, whose acts of power and mercy he beheld, he became the willing tool of the devil. ““The devil having now put into the heart of Judas,” means literally, “the devil having already dropped into the heart of Judas.”” The seed had been sown in the unbelieving heart of this man of sin, the son of perdition. The devil probably had done this at the anointing by Mary (Matt. xxvi:14).

Judas was present at the washing of the feet; he was present during the supper, and after the Lord had given him the sop, Satan actually entered into him. After that he went out into the night, that night of eternal woe and darkness. And now before we see our Lord rising from the supper and girding Himself for service, we are reminded once more of His Person and His knowledge, “Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He was come from God and went to God.” We believe this statement is here introduced to show forth the greatness of His loving condescension. He who is one with the Father, who came from God, went back to God, who is God and in whose hands are all things, stooped down to wash the feet of the creature.

Everything is minutely described. First, He arose from the supper. None of them knew what He was about to do. Then He laid aside His garments, that is the long loose, flowing outer garment, which would have hindered Him in performing what He was about to do. Then He took a towel

and girded Himself. He garbed Himself as a servant ready

to do a servant’s work.

Then He took a basin, filled it with water, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and wiping them with the towel with which He was girded. Feetwashing was a rite of hospitality, as we learn from different passages in the Old Testament. Immediately after a guest presented himself at the tent door, it was customary to offer the necessary materials for washing the feet (Gen. xviii:4, xix:2, xxiv:32, xliv: 24; Judges xix:21). It was considered an act of humility and affection. But who can describe the scene before us, kneeling at His disciples’ feet and in unfathomable love serving them in this manner!

Verses 6-11. Probably He had washed the feet of several disciples before He came to Peter. It was too much for Peter, to see Him, at whose feet He had fallen and cried out, “Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man,” to see His holy Lord ready to take his feet into His hands and wash them. “Dost Thou wash my feet?” ‘The emphasis must be placed on the word “Thou.” Chrysostom says Peter meant, “With those hands with which Thou hast opened eyes, cleansed lepers and raised the dead?”

He receives as an answer from the Lord the information that His action in its true meaning was unknown to Peter. “What I do Thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know afterward.” The application is first of all to what the Lord was doing here; the afterward means the time when the Holy Spirit had come and made the things of Christ more fully known to their hearts. But the application in a wider sense cannot be denied. Many things are happening in the lives of God’s people, losses, suffering of various descriptions, strange and unexplainable providences, mysterious leadings. How often it is true, “What He does now we do not know,” but it is equally true, “We shall know afterward,” and all will be known by us, that it was all-wise, all-merciful, all-loving, yea, that all things worked together for good. But Peter did not profit by these words; he did not hold forth his feet so that the Lord might wash them. He withdrew more fully and said, ‘In no wise shalt Thou wash my feet forever.” He refused completely. Then the Lord told him, “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me.” But let us see, before showing the deeper meaning of this impressive scene, what Peter answered and what the Lord said in reply. Peter, when he heard these words, went to the other extreme. When he heard it was a question of having part with Christ, he burst out with the request, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.” To this the Lord answered, “He that is washed (bathed) needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit; and ye are clean, but not all. For He knew who should betray Him; therefore said He, Ye are not all clean.”

That all this has a deeper meaning than the literal action of our Lord appears on the surface. The statement of our Lord that they would know the meaning afterward makes this clear. And now that the Holy Spirit has come we know what the washing of the disciples’ feet symbolizes. In this Gospel we read much of water and of blood. Blood is for atonement, water is for purification. In the first epistle of John we also read of water and blood, “He that came by water and blood, not in water only, but in water and blood” (1 John v:6).

It is His precious blood which washes our sins away; but it is the water which cleanses those who belong to Him. Out of His pierced side came blood and water (chapter xix: 34), the emblems of atonement and cleansing. In washing the disciples’ feet, when our Lord said to Peter that all had been washed, or as this word indicates (bathed), and were clean every whit, He meant by it the new birth by water (the Word) and the Spirit. They had believed on Him and were born again, except Judas, who was meant when He said, “but not all.” We read in Titus 1i1:5, ““Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us by the bath of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.”” This great work is done once and for all; it cannot be repeated, just as the natural birth cannot be repeated with the same individual.

He washed the disciples’ feet, not their hands. Hands are for work and feet for walking. As the believer walks in an evil age he contracts defilement, and this interrupts our fellowship with Him. We therefore need cleansing. This He has graciously provided and the washing of the feet typifies this need. To accomplish this He uses His Word. It is the great truth which the Apostle Paul states in Ephesians: “Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word” (Eph. v:25-26). We must come to Him with our sins and failures, with our imperfect walk and our defilement, and place ourselves into His loving hands as the disciples placed their feet into His hands. He searches us by His Spirit and cleanses us, so that we can have part with Him in fellowship. This necessitates from our side heart-searching, self-judgment and confession. If this is not practiced we may be saved, but we know nothing of real fellowship with Him, and are at a distance. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John i and ii). It is His blessed work as advocate that He cleanses us by the washing of water by the Word and restores us to His fellowship. ‘“The great practical truth,” says another, ‘“‘in these words ought to be carefully noted and treasured up by all believers. Once joined to Christ and cleansed in His blood, they are completely absolved and free from all spot and guilt, and are counted without blame before God. But all this they need every day, as they walk through the world, to confess their daily failures, and sue for daily pardon. They require, in short, a daily washing of their feet, over and above the great washing of justification, which is theirs the moment they first believe. He that neglects this daily washing is a very questionable and doubtful kind of a Christian.” Luther remarks pithily, “The Devil allows no Christian to reach heaven with clean feet all the way.”

May we know and use the great and loving provision made for us who belong to Him — the washing of water by the Word which the Holy Spirit applies in answer to the Advocacy of our Lord with the Father.

Verses 12-17. The act of the washing of the disciples’ feet was ended. The towel with which He had girded Himself was laid aside, and the garment, the loose flowing robe which He had discarded to be free for His service, was once more put on by Him. After He sat down again in their midst, He asked the question “Know ye what I have done to you?” There was probably a brief pause; no answer came from the disciples. They knew that He had washed their feet; the deeper meaning they understood not. And so He continued, “Ye call me the Master (or Teacher) and the Lord; and ye say well, for so I am.” According to the original text He did not speak of Himself as ‘‘a Master” and ‘ta Lord,” but the definite article is connected with the words ‘‘Master” and “Lord.” He is the Master and the Lord — so I am, He said. The humble service performed had been performed by one who was not only fully conscious of His greatness but who in the very service claimed that greatness. Before in this Gospel, He had witnessed to His Lordship in the presence of the unbelieving Jews, and here He bears witness to it again in the presence of the twelve. He sanctions and fully endorses the disciples in their calling Him the Lord. It was faith in them which honored Him in this way.

Well may we think here of the unscriptural habit which so many Christians have of using constantly the name “‘Jesus,” never speaking of Him as the Lord, or of the Lord Jesus Christ. Certain movements, like the Pentecostalists, men and women evangelists, all kinds of cults and fanatical sects, never speak of Him as the Lord, but with an astonishing spirit of familiarity they speak of “Jesus” in a sentimental way. The same is true of the literature of the destructive criticism. They also speak and write about “Jesus” and do not own Him in His Lordship. The Holy Spirit, who is here to glorify Christ will never lead any person to use the earthly name “Jesus.” “Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed, and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians xii:3).

“If I then, the Lord and the Master, washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done unto you.” The text does not say “‘your teacher” or “‘your Lord.” That might mean that He was their Lord and Teacher by their own selection; but He said, “If I then, the Lord and the Master (or Teacher), washed your feet.” Then follows the command “Ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.”’ Is this a command which is to be literally understood and practiced? Is feet-washing an ordinance like “the Lord’s supper” or “Baptism”? ‘The only other reference to feet-washing in the literal sense is in 1 Timothy v:10. ‘There can be no question that it means in that passage not a religious ceremony but an act of hospitality. It was in the fourth century that feet-washing as a religious act is mentioned for the first time in ecclesiastical history. It was then practiced in connection with baptism. It is still practiced in some monasteries of the Greek Orthodox Church. The Romish Church also practices it in a strange way. The “would-be head” of the church and vice-regent of Christ, the Pope, once a year on the so-called ‘“Maundy-Thursday,” the Thursday before Easter, washes the feet of certain poor men, we believe twelve, who are specially selected and prepared for the occasion. Then there are certain small Protestant bodies, which practice feet washing. That the feet-washing is not to be literally carried out is demonstrated by the silence of the Epistles about this act. Both Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are repeatedly mentioned in the New Testament, and their literalness as ordinances maintained; the Church has practiced both ordinances from the very beginning. But the Epistles have nothing to say about feet-washing as an ordinance. Furthermore if our Lord had meant a literal feet-washing, why did He ask the disciples ““Know you what I have done to you?” He had reference to the spiritual meaning and not to the literal act.

The feet-washing has a true spiritual meaning. He served them in love and in humility, so should we serve one another. He had given them an example. He had taught the same in words before as He did in the washing of the feet. “‘Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant; even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matt. xx:26-28). As He had waited on them, so should we wait on each other; as He had taken the lowest place in their midst, though Lord of all, so should we take the lowest place before each other; as He had ministered, so should we minister to each other. But we must go still deeper. Inasmuch as the washing of the disciples’ feet signifies, as we stated before, the cleansing of the disciples feet from defilement, the work of Christ for His own by washing them by the cleansing of water, the Word of God, the Lord teaches us that what He does for us in His gracious ministrations, that we should also do to each other. If a fellow Christian has soiled his feet, has sinned, we must go after him in love and humility to restore him. “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in any fault, ye that are spiritual restore such an one in a spirit of meekness” (Gal. vi:1). This is true feet-washing. In the restoration of a brother in Christ who has failed, not the sword is needed to cut and to wound, but the basin and the towel, the humble, gracious service. But that needs faith, self-denial and deep affection, such which the Holy Spirit alone can impart. And therefore He said, ‘‘For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done unto you” — I have shown you symbolically in washing your feet the cleansing which you need and which I perform for you; do the same to each other.

Another “verily, verily” follows. The servant is not greater than his lord, nor is he that is sent greater than he that sent him. It is a solemn remembrance charge that the servant must follow the example of the Teacher, the sent one, the example of him that sent. Love and humility are the two great features in this blessed scene in the upper room, and love and humility must be reproduced in the servant of Christ. And the Lord who spoke these words and pronounced a blessing — “‘If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them’”’ — knew in His divine omniscience how soon those who claim to be his ministers would manifest hatred instead of love, pride instead of humility; and so it is still, but not without the exception of many who through grace follow His gracious example. The words, “‘If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them,” guard strongly against the literal interpretation of the literal feet-washing. Know what things? That He had washed their feet? Of course they knew that. Therefore it is the spiritual meaning which is to be known and to be practiced.

Verses 18-20. The eighteenth verse evidently takes up the statement given by our Lord in the tenth verse. He had chosen twelve and He had washed the feet of all His twelve disciples, but He knew whom He had chosen. He knew Judas who was about to betray Him. He had chosen him as a disciple, knowing that he had a devil (chapter vi:70).

And Judas Iscariot had never known Him as Lord; he never spoke of Him as the Lord, hence Judas was not born of God. But why did the Lord select him to such a place of honor? Why, knowing his character as He did, did He make him one of the twelve, one of His constant companions? The answer is given by Himself and we do not need to speculate or try to reason to find an answer to the “Why?” He had chosen him an apostle “that the Scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with Me hath lifted up his heel against Me” (Psalm xli:9). It is unfortunate that the verses are divided as they are. The better division is to put the first sentence of verse 19 over to the preceding verse and read, “He that eateth bread with Me hath lifted up his heel against Me, now I tell you before it come. That when it is come to pass ye may believe that Iam.” The fulfillment of His prediction based on the prophecy of the forty-first Psalm would prove to them His Deity, that He is the omniscientI AM. Psalm xli refers to the treachery of Ahithopel towards David, and is therefore a prophetic type of Judas’s treachery against David’s Son and David’s Lord. The words which follow in verse 20 were spoken by Him to comfort His true disciples and to show them that they were unaffected by Judas’s coming betrayal and horrible fall.

Verses 21-30. As the Apostle John does not record the institution of the Lord’s supper, the question arises at what point did it occur? There has been much written on this question, and also on Judas’s presence at the supper. It may have been at this time that the Lord’s supper took place, for there seems to be a pause between the twentieth and twenty-first verses. And now again we see Him troubled in spirit. (See xi:33 and xii:27). Great distress is upon Him. But that distress was not on account of Himself, a feeling of self-pity and fear. These emotions had no place in the holy soul of our Lord. The distress was produced by His own holiness, and love in behalf of Judas about to betray Him. He loved Judas. On the other hand, in His holiness He was troubled over the awful sin which His disciple was about to commit, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray Me (or give Me up).”’ We behold the anxious looks of the disciples. ‘They looked at each other; they were puzzled and did not know of whom He spake. Evidently the heart of Judas was hardened to such an extent that no blush on his cheek, no paleness of face, not a single change of feature was noticeable to the eleven; as they looked into the face of Judas they saw he was calm and undisturbed, yet all was planned in his sinful, unbelieving heart.

According to oriental custom the Lord and the twelve were not sitting on chairs around a table; they were reclining, and leaning on the bosom of the Lord, next to His heart, was the beloved disciple, none other than John the writer of this Gospel. He speaks of himself for the first time here as the beloved disciple. Four times more this term is employed by John. In all, the phrase ‘whom Jesus loved”’ is found seven times in this Gospel, twice it is used in connection with Mary, Martha and Lazarus, and five times it refers to John. Why the Lord Jesus had singled him out for His special love we do not know. John has been charged with egotism in speaking of himself thus. Such a charge is unfounded. He wrote under the guiding hand of the Holy Spirit; it was He who put this statement into his pen. And let it be noticed, while John undoubtedly loved the Lord, it is not his love for the Lord, but the love of the Lord for John, which the Spirit of God reveals. Then Peter turned to John. It is the same earnest, zealous, impetuous Peter. He is agitated over the words which the Lord had spoken; he must know at once. He requests John to find out from the Lord who it is. And John whispered to Him, “Lord, who is it?” A solemn moment it must have been. Then the Lord answered the request. Was it spoken in a loud voice? We rather think it was whispered to John. “He it is, to whom I shall give the sop, when I have dipped it. And when He had dipped the sop, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.” It is an oriental custom to dip a choice morsel of bread or meat into the sauce, and pass it as a special token of kindness to a favored guest. This our Lord did to Judas. No doubt it was a loving act from the side of our Lord, His last appeal to the heart of Judas. The betrayal had been planned by this disciple. It has been suggested that Judas knew of different attacks upon the life of our Lord and that He escaped; that he thought that He would also escape on this occasion, while he would reap a reward to gratify his besetting sin; and afterward Judas might have looked for mercy after his deed had been unsuccessful. We cannot be sure of this but it is not unlikely that the liar from the beginning, who had put it into his heart to betray Christ, used some such deceptive suggestion.

“And after the sop Satan entered into him.” He had rejected the winning love and the warning words, and now Satan got full and complete possession of him. All along Judas had been under the influence of his master, whom he served instead of the Lord, whose lovely face of grace he beheld and whose works of power and mercy he had seen for three years. But now after he had received that love-token from the Christ whom he so willfully rejected, without yielding to repentance, then Satan entered into him. That awful being possessed and controlled him now fully. As are many today who love sin, who love darkness more than light, who also have yielded themselves completely as tools to Satan.

“Then said Jesus unto him, What thou doest do quickly.” These words have been variously interpreted. It is a solemn sentence for it announces for Himself that His life down here was soon to end, while for the deluded Judas, Satan’s instrument, it announced everlasting, never-ending wrath. Some have suggested that the Lord desired to hasten this act of consummated wickedness; but this is not true. He knew all that would take place and the act which Judas was to perform; He knew that Satan had entered into him. The murderer from the beginning was about to use man to kill the Lord of glory. Judas had hardened his heart; there was no remedy for him; he had set his heart on doing it and therefore the Lord said, ““Go on and do it; there need be no delay; it needs to be done this very night and I am ready fOMrtralle

All the disciples heard this; it was not whispered into the ear of John. Not one of the disciples knew the real truth of what was meant. None imagined that Judas was to do the deed he did that night. Because Judas had the bag, they thought it was a command to buy the necessary things for the feast, or that some love-deed was contemplated by the Lord. ‘The verse is interesting as it gives valuable information. The verse shows that the Lord Jesus Christ in His humiliation did not make use of His omnipotent power to supply the daily needs of Himself and His disciples by a

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miracle. We know from other Scriptures that He who had become poor for our sakes received from others means to keep Him. “And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven demons; and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto Him of their substance” (Luke viii:2, 3). Then we learn that our Lord, out of these gifts which Judas kept, ministered to the poor. It was done, like all His gracious works, unostentatiously. In the sermon on the mount He taught “But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth,” a command which the believer follows gladly. Whatever He preached He also practiced. Many times before He must have given instruction to Judas what to give and where to give it, without the others knowing anything about it. The surmise of the disciples suggests this also. And all along Judas was the thief. Well, remarks another, ‘‘Let us recognize the snares which attend the possession, fingering and handling of money. The man who has care of the money in our Lord’s little company of followers, is the very man who makes shipwreck of his soul forever, through the love of money.” “Give me neither poverty nor riches” should be a Christian’s frequent prayer (Prov. xxx:8).

Then follows the mournful record “‘He then having received the sop went out immediately; and it was night.” Judas realized now that the Lord knew all his dark and sinister plans. He disappeared at once. He could no longer remain in His presence. May he not have feared a further disclosure from the side of the Lord and an interference from the other disciples? We do not know. He left and significantly the eye-witness, the beloved disciple, tells us “It was night.” It was night physically. It was night for Judas. He went out into that night and hunted up the enemies of the Lord to receive the thirty pieces of silver and to give them the needed information. That night on earth, the night of sin, ended for Judas when he committed suicide. But that did not end his night. His soul went “to his place,” the place of outer, eternal and conscious darkness. In that place, that eternal prison house, he is forever and ever with no hope in all eternity. From the Gospel of Matthew we learn that our Lord sent after him that wail of deepest sorrow, when He said “It had been good for that man if he had never been born” (Matthew xxvi:24). What did our Lord mean? If it is true that man’s soul is not immortal; if it is true that the wicked man is annihilated soul and body; if it is true that the wicked man has a second chance; if it is true that there is a “‘reconciliation”’ for all the lost and that all the wicked will be finally saved, then our Lord spoke a meaningless sentence. But there are not a few errorists among Christians who have accepted the foolish invention that Judas will finally, after ages of punishment, get to heaven.

Verses 31-35. One can easily imagine how the departure of Judas Iscariot must have relieved our Lord and cleared the atmosphere in the upper room where they were assembled. And now Judas was gone and only the eleven remained behind, and they were all believers in His Messiahship; they knew Him as Lord. He is free to express Himself, for the restraint which was upon Him ever since He had stooped to wash the disciples’ feet was removed. Then He said, ‘‘Now has the Son of Man been glorified, and God has been glorified in Him. If God has been glorified in Him, God also shall glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify Him” (literal translation). The late Dr. Lyman Abbott in his Commentary on John, makes the following comment: “The phrase ‘Son of Man’ was a common Jewish designation of the Messiah, and would have been so understood by His disciples. They had come up to Jerusalem anticipating the coronation of the Messiah as King of the Jews. They had entered Jerusalem in triumph, hailing Him as such. Two of his disciples on the way had come to Him privately for the best offices (Matthew xx:21, 28). The twelve even had quarreled for pre-eminence as they were sitting down at the table (Luke xxii:24). The immediate object of Christ in the discourse which follows is to prepare them for the terrible revulsion of feeling, the shock of disappointment and despair which to-morrow had in store for them. He begins, therefore, with the declaration that the glory of the Messiah is already an accomplished fact. He had been glorified; by His incarnation, His life of loving self-sacrifice, His patience and His love; and in His life and character God had been glorified. Then He adds a prophecy of further glory; not that of death: not that of resurrection; not that of the ascension; but that again of being one with the Father. The Father shall glorify Him in Himself. He foresees and foretells the answer to His prayer: ‘Glorify Thou Me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was,’ and for this there is to be no waiting; no delay for an earthly coronation. There must be a long interval of redeeming work before He can see the travail of His soul and be satisfied; before every knee will bow; before He can reign as King of kings and Lord of lords; but for this the Father will not wait. Immediately that His work of self-sacrifice is over, He will return to the Father, to share with Him the glory which He had from the foundation of the world.’’*

While this comment has some good suggestions it misses the mark in not emphasizing the Cross, the atoning work of our Lord, as that which glorifies the Son of Man, and in which He gloried. When He speaks here of being glorified it has the same meaning as in chapter xii when He said at the occasion of the inquiring Greeks, that the Son of Man is to be glorified. The context shows that it was His death, the death of the corn of wheat falling into the ground which He meant by being glorified. It is the Cross which is before Him again, the Cross and its ever blessed and unfathomably deep work, in which the Son of Man is glorified and God glorified in Him. The glorification which He beholds, yea, longs for, is His atoning death as the sinner’s substitute, the death through which God would receive the highest glory, in which God’s Holiness, Righteousness, Mercy, Love and Grace would be so wonderfully demonstrated and glorified. It is refreshing to see how our Lord, in looking on toward the cross, estimates that cross as the most glorious part of His work in incarnation; and so it is.

The tense of the verb, “Now has the Son of Man been. glorified” is not a difficulty. In John xvii:4 He also speaks

*Commentary on John, page 170.

of having finished the work, yet the work was then still unfinished. He also prayed, “I am no longer in the world,” yet He was still here. He spoke these words in anticipation of the accomplished fact.

But what does it mean, ‘God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify Him’? This unquestionably refers to His own glorification by the Father, after His finished work, when He raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory. It is that acquired glory of the Son of Man with which God rewarded Him by putting Him at His right hand, by making Him the heir of all things, the glorification which the Holy Spirit so blessedly reveals in Ephesians i, Philippians ii and Hebrews 1.

And now that Judas had left, He addressed His own by the endearing term “Little children.” Judas, who rejected His Lordship, was not one of His children. Only those are the “little children” who are born again. Nor are the Unitarian deniers of Christ, the Christian Scientists, the Spiritists, the Theosophists, the Destructive Critics, and other rejectors of the Deity of Christ, children of God.

“Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek Me; and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you.” He announced in this brief statement the fact that in a very short time He would leave them and they would be left alone. Then they would wish for Him; want Him, and seek Him. He had said to the Jews, “I go My way, and ye shall seek Me, and shall die in your sins; whither I go ye cannot come” (viii:21). He reminded them of it, that He had spoken such words to the unbelieving Jews. They were also applicable to them but in a far different sense. They could not follow Him to that place, for He was going back to the Father and to the Father’s house, while they were to remain here. But soon He dispels the gloom which must have come upon them, when He spoke these mystifying words; there He promises His coming again for His own to take them to the place where He is. But in the meantime He gave them a new commandment to be kept by His own while awaiting His return, “That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”

This commandment is not identical with the one given in the law, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself (Lev. xix:18). That was the commandment given to the nation Israel. A new relationship is here established, that of the family of God, later revealed as the Church, the body of Christ. The next verse shows that this new commandment is given to those who are His disciples, His own, who belong to Him, “By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another.”” The measure of that love is to be His own love. Nowhere in the law is there such a command; it is indeed a new commandment, for that new relationship which He called into existence by His death and resurrection and the gift of the Holy Spirit, who forms this relationship. The first Epistle of John makes it a test of the family relation, and the Holy Spirit through the beloved disciple enlarges and presses home these blessed words of our Lord. ‘‘Here is our Lord leaving the world, speaking for the last time, and giving His last charge to the disciples. The very first subject He takes up and presses on them is the great duty of loving each other, and that with no common love, but after the same patient, tender unwearied manner that He has loved them. How vast the extent of Christian love ought to be! The measure and standard of it is the love wherewith Christ loved us.”* And that love was a love unto death. Alas! how little we think of it! How loving and forgiving He is! How impatient and often unloving and even unforgiving His own are, never remembering that it is written, ‘“‘Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye” (Col. iii:13). It is only as we keep ourselves in His love, and remember His matchless grace towards us, that we can be enabled to manifest that love one to another. But we shall find these words again (chap. xv).

Verses 36-38. Then Peter’s voice breaks in once more, even in this solemn moment. He speaks for his fellow disciples. ‘Lord, whither goest Thou?” With all He had spoken about going up to Jerusalem, to be delivered into the

*Thoughts on John.

hands of the Gentiles, to be crucified and raised from the dead, they did not understand. They still were in darkness about this, hence Peter’s question to find out where He was going. And He answered, ‘‘Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow Me afterward.” He was going to the place in glory where none of His own could follow Him at once, but to which all would follow Him afterwards, for this is the glorious goal of His own, to be withHim, where He is. Peter’s answer still more demonstrates his ignorance of what the Lord meant; his answer is self-confident and presumptuous. ‘Lord, why cannot I follow Thee now? I will lay down my life for Thy sake.” It was the natural heart which revealed itself in this self-confident assertion, though he meant well and showed thereby his attachment to the Lord. He thought highly of himself, of his courage and determination. He did not know his utter weakness and helplessness, nor did he remember that the Lord had told him before, that Satan had desired to sift him as wheat, and that sifting was about to take place. The Lord in His divine omniscience tells Peter what would happen that very night, and that the next sunrise would find Peter bitterly weeping. “Wilt thou lay down thy life for My sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, the cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied Me thrice.” What astonishment these words must have brought to Peter’s heart, perhaps more than that, gloom to him and to all the disciples. And so it came true; he denied his Lord, as the Lord had told him. Yet how marvelous His grace and kindness shine forth in all this. He knew what Peter would do; yet He loved him.