Scripture Daily

Context No. 735 of 4322 · Matthew

Context · Reflection

Matthew 26:19-24: in context

19The disciples did as Jesus commanded them, and they prepared the Passover. 20Now when evening had come, he was reclining at the table with the twelve disciples. 21As they were eating, he said, “Most certainly I tell you that one of you will betray me.” 22They were exceedingly sorrowful, and each began to ask him, “It isn’t me, is it, Lord?” 23He answered, “He who dipped his hand with me in the dish will betray me. 24The Son of Man goes even as it is written of him, but woe to that man through whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would be better for that man if he had not been born.”

The Passover is prepared, and in the evening Jesus reclines at the table with the Twelve, and in the middle of the meal he says something that stops it cold: truly I tell you, one of you will betray me. What the disciples do next is worth watching. They do not look around the table trying to spot the traitor. They are grieved, deeply, and one after another they ask the same question, and it is turned inward: is it I, Lord? Each man is willing to suspect himself before he suspects his neighbor, to wonder whether the betrayer might be his own heart.

Jesus answers that it is one who has dipped his hand in the dish with him, one sharing this very meal, which is the sharpest kind of betrayal, the friend who eats your bread and then turns on you. And he says two things at once that most people want to keep apart. The Son of Man goes as it is written of him; this is not an accident, it moves along the path Scripture foretold. And, in the same breath, woe to that man by whom he is betrayed; it would be better for him if he had never been born. The plan does not excuse the man. Both are true, and Jesus holds them together, while eleven honest men are still asking, is it I?

When betrayal was named at the table, each disciple asked is it I, not who is it. When I hear that something has gone wrong, does my mind first scan the others, or search myself?

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