"Judas Exposed as the Betrayer as the Last Supper is Instituted"

 

Matthew 26:25-26: Then Judas, who was betraying Him, answered and said, Rabbi, is it I? He said to him, You have said it.

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, Take, eat; this is My body.

Two paragraphs that are each one short sentence are packed with pathos and fulfillment of Scripture.

First, Judas in verse 25 finally asks Jesus if it is he that Christ has been referring to. Jesus answers in the affirmative, but the other disciples apparently were not aware. It is suggested that they thought that Judas was to complete some work as the treasurer--helping the poor would have been their guess. The enemy is right under your roof would be a modern way of paraphrasing Psalm 41:9. David in that psalm spoke not only of an incident in his own life, but also predicted what would happen to Christ: Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me. What an insult it must have been to our Lord who had given so much of Himself to his disciples to have this reaction by Judas.

Matthew gives the impression that Judas left at this poinit, and I have always thought that Judas would not have been present for the institution of the Lord's Table. Yet, in Luke 22, we find these words after the institution of the Lord's Table. Thus, the significance of the exact moment of Judas departure to betray Christ is not chronologically pinpointed. The Apostle John in John 13:21-30 gives the most detailed description of the scene, and it ends with the statement that after Judas received the bread with the bitter herbs he left and it was night. For Judas, it became dark because of his sin. John also mentions that Satan personally posssessed Judas at the moment that he is given the bread.

The last official Passover then in verse 26 becomes the First Lord's Supper. Jesus is the type represented in both services, and thus it is appropriate that He utilizes this moment to make the point. Jesus was the passover lamb that was slain by the Israelites all those years in the Old Testament. When they were eating the lamb, they were in reality spiritually eating Jesus. Now, he makes the statement in point of fact with the bread--the staff of life. Just as they spiritually were eating Christ's body as they partook of the lamb in the Passover Meal, so it is a spiritual eating of Christ's body as they took the bread. The disciples would not have misunderstood that Christ's body was spiritually present in the bread--because jesus was sitting right there with them and they were not physically eating him. It is sad that for about 1200 years this was the implication given by the church that they could literally eat Christ. The Scriptures make it plain that this is a spiritual presence in the supper.