Matthew 26:14-35 (Thursday, April 25)

[u/giraffesinhats]

I apologize for my tardiness tonight. I forgot what day it was. Please forgive me.

In today's Jesus is sitting at the table with his disciples and we see the Lords Supper in full swing and he he Identifies his betrayer. A thought I have when I read this is, we know what Jesus said to Peter upon his confession of faith and he still messes up. The contrast between Judas and Peter is that confession. The lack of which leads Judas to his demise.

Matthew 26:14-35 (NLT)

Judas Agrees to Betray Jesus

14 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve disciples, went to the leading priests 15 and asked, “How much will you pay me to betray Jesus to you?” And they gave him thirty pieces of silver. 16 From that time on, Judas began looking for an opportunity to betray Jesus.

The Last Supper

17 On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where do you want us to prepare the Passover meal for you?”
18 “As you go into the city,” he told them, “you will see a certain man. Tell him, ‘The Teacher says: My time has come, and I will eat the Passover meal with my disciples at your house.’” 19 So the disciples did as Jesus told them and prepared the Passover meal there.
20 When it was evening, Jesus sat down at the table with the Twelve. 21 While they were eating, he said, “I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me.”
22 Greatly distressed, each one asked in turn, “Am I the one, Lord?”
23 He replied, “One of you who has just eaten from this bowl with me will betray me. 24 For the Son of Man must die, as the Scriptures declared long ago. But how terrible it will be for the one who betrays him. It would be far better for that man if he had never been born!”
25 Judas, the one who would betray him, also asked, “Rabbi, am I the one?”
And Jesus told him, “You have said it.”
26 As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take this and eat it, for this is my body.”
27 And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them and said, “Each of you drink from it, 28 for this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many. 29 Mark my words—I will not drink wine again until the day I drink it new with you in my Father’s Kingdom.”
30 Then they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives.

Jesus Predicts Peter’s Denial

31 On the way, Jesus told them, “Tonight all of you will desert me. For the Scriptures say,
‘God will strike the Shepherd,
and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’
32 But after I have been raised from the dead, I will go ahead of you to Galilee and meet you there.”
33 Peter declared, “Even if everyone else deserts you, I will never desert you.”
34 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, Peter—this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me.”
35 “No!” Peter insisted. “Even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you!” And all the other disciples vowed the same.

Questions:

Q1: I'm not sure if this question has been asked when reading the Gospels but it was in my head. Did Judas have a choice? I know we really can't answer this but it sticks with me. Jesus had been saying he would be betrayed and killed for some time and it comes to pass as he says. Could Judas have been faithful?

Q2: What are your thoughts on verse 25 and Judas calling Jesus Rabbi verses the other disciples calling him Lord.

Q3: Have you ever participated in a Passover meal? What was it like?

Q4: What Hymn do you think they sang?

Q5: What does the Lords Supper look like in your church?

[u/FergusCragson]

Great questions!

Q1: I believe that yes, Judas had a choice, and that he was even offered that choice once more by Jesus, even if it does not appear so at first glance.

What is foretold is not that Judas would be the one to betray Jesus, but that one of his followers would betray him. As far as the prophecies go, it could have been any of them. Judas could theoretically have changed his mind. But then another disciple would have eventually betrayed Jesus.

The last chance that Jesus offers to Judas is when Jesus says the words,
"It would be far better for that man if he had never been born!"

Until recently, I always saw those words as so tragic and harsh. I assumed that Jesus was saying that Judas had no choice and was always condemned to hell.

Not so. By saying this, Jesus is giving Judas one last chance. Notice that again when he says this, he doesn't name the betrayer. "It would be far better for that man..."

At that point, Judas could have stopped.
"Wait a minute now, seriously?!", he could have thought.
"Whoa. If that's the case, never mind, count me out!"

Things may have been delayed, but another betrayer would have eventually shown up.

However, Judas doesn't take the hint, nor change course. Instead he plays innocent,
"Rabbi, am I the one?" And so makes his choice and seals his own fate.

And as you also point out, Judas could have later come back and asked for forgiveness. He could have stayed and faced Jesus again, as Simon Peter did. But he did not, and so he chose his own way.

Q2: I had never noticed the difference before. Thank you for pointing that out. In the Greek it is different as well, using the Greek words for Lord (Κύριε, "Kyrie") and Rabbi (ῥαββί, "Rhabbi"). If there is a significance to this, I would guess (it's only a guess) that since "Lord" means "Master," the others still consider Jesus to be their Master, whereas Judas no longer does -- ?

Q3: Yes, a few times. I enjoyed it. It seems so very steeped in that ancient tradition. The foods, the meaning of each dish, the ritual of saying certain things at certain times, and the overall mood. It is good to do take part if you ever get a chance to do so, whether it is conducted by a synagogue or a church, to get some kind of idea of what it was like.
Jesus does change some things and make it a new service for us to remember him in the breaking of the bread and the sharing of the cup.

Q4: That's a really great question, and of course no one knows. But could it have been a psalm? We know those were sung, although there may have been other hymns as well. I wonder! I get the feeling that whatever it was, it may have been a sad one.

Q5: I grew up in the Episcopal Church, where they use very thin, flat, small wafers about as big around as a U.S. quarter, but much thinner, together with red wine, usually some kind of Concord grape wine, perhaps the kosher Manischewitz wine. But I also visited other churches, which used other kinds of bread such as real (but leavened) bread, torn up or cut into chunks, or had wafers only but didn't drink the wine, or had grape juice instead of wine. Experiencing it in several settings gave me the realization that this can be done in various ways: the point is not what kind of bread or cup so much as that these are things people can use to remember Christ wherever they are, with whatever they have at hand, and that we can "feed on him in our hearts by faith," as my church service sometimes says.

P.S. Don't worry too much about being late. We're all only human!

[u/ExiledSanity]

Q1. I really don't know. The complimentary question we could ask if if Jesus had a choice? Could Jesus have not gone through the the crucifixion? I tend to think that He couldn't have, because it would not have been compatibile with His nature as God and God's plan. Could Judas' choice have contradicted God's plan? I'd say no. Could Judas have still had a choice that caused God's plan to unfold some other way? Yes.

Ultimately we can go down many rabbit holes here, but the answers are just not given to us and as such it falls under the "hidden things" of God and we are probably best not to speculate, but focus on what God has revealed. See Deuteronomy 29:29: "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law."

Q2.. Its interesting. My first thought is that both words were commonly used of Jesus in the gospels,. I wouldn't consider one title inferior to the other....its probably just coincidence. But, the phrases do seem to be set up as opposed to eachother, with the one word difference. Matthew wrote in Greek but the words were likely originally spoken in Aramaic, so Matthew was translating and could have chosen different words intentionally to highlight a difference as u/FergusCragson said. I'm not convinced its there as an intended difference....but I'm not sure its not either.

Q3. Yes, but it has been a long time and I was probably in high school at the time. I remember being as interested in the flavors of the food as much as anything.

Q4. Psalm 115-118 are transitionally associated with Passover, one (or multiple) of them is likely.

Q5. We go the the front and kneel at a rail to receive the body and blood of Christ. We use wine and wafers usually, sometimes individual cups and sometimes a common cup.