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1. This short section of the Gospel, brethren, we have in this
lesson brought forward for exposition, as thinking that we ought also
to say something of the Lord's betrayer, as now plainly enough
disclosed by the dipping and holding out to him of the piece of bread.
Of that indeed which precedes, (namely), that Jesus, when about
to point him out, was troubled in spirit, we have treated in our last
discourse; but what I perhaps omitted to mention there, the Lord,
by His own perturbation of spirit, thought proper to indicate this
also, that it is necessary to bear with false brethren, and those
tares that are among the wheat in the Lord's field until
harvest-time, because that when we are compelled by urgent reasons to
separate some of them even before the harvest, it cannot be done
without disturbance to the Church. Such disturbance to His saints in
the future, through schismatics and heretics, the Lord in a way
foretold and prefigured in Himself, when, at the moment of that
wicked man Judas' departure, and of his thereby bringing to an end,
in a very open and decided way, his past intermingling with the wheat,
in which he had long been tolerated, He was troubled, not in body,
but in spirit. For it is not spitefulness, but charity, that
troubles His spiritual members in scandals of this kind; test
perchance. in separating some of the tares, any of the wheat should
also be uprooted therewith.
2. "Jesus," therefore, "was troubled in spirit, and testified,
and said: Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall
betray me." "One of you," in number, not in merit; in
appearance, not in reality; in bodily commingling, not by any
spiritual tie; a companion by fleshly juxtaposition, not in any unity
of the heart; and therefore not one who is of you, but one who is to
go forth from you. For how else can this "one of you" be true, of
which the Lord so testified, and said, if that is true which the
writer of this very Gospel says in his Epistle, "They went out from
us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would
no doubt have continued with us"? Judas, therefore was not of them;
for, had he been of them, he would have continued with them. What,
then, do the words "One of you shall betray me" mean, but that one
is going out from you who shall betray me? Just as he also, who
said, "If they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued
with us," had said before, "They went out from us." And thus it
is true in both senses, "of us," and "not of us;" in one respect
"of us," and in another "not of us;" "of us" in respect to
sacramental communion, but "not of us" in respect to the criminal
conduct that belongs exclusively to themselves.
3. "Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom He
spoke." For while they were imbued with a reverential love to their
Master, they were none the less affected by human infirmity in their
feelings towards each other. Each one's own conscience was known to
himself; but as he was ignorant of his neighbor's, each one's
self-assurance was such that each was uncertain of all the others, and
all the others were uncertain of that one.
4. "Now there was leaning on Jesus'bosom, one of His disciples,
whom Jesus loved." What he meant by saying "in His bosom," he
tells us a little further on, where he says, "on the breast of
Jesus." It was that very John whose Gospel is before us, as he
afterwards expressly declares. For it was a custom with those who have
supplied us with the sacred writings, that when any of them was
relating the divine history, and came to something affecting himself,
he spoke as if it were about another; and gave himself a place in the
line of his narrative becoming one who was the recorder of public
events, and not as one who made himself the subject of his preaching.
Saint Matthew acted also in this way, when, in coming in the course
of his narrative to himself, he says, "He saw a publican named
Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom, and saith unto him,
Follow me." He does not say, He saw me, and said to me. So also
acted the blessed Moses, writing all the history about himself as if
it concerned another, and saying, "The Lord said unto Moses."
Less habitually was this done by the Apostle Paul, not however in
any history which undertakes to explain the course of public events,
but in his own epistles. At all events, he speaks thus of himself:
"I knew a man in Christ fourteen years ago, (whether in the body,
or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an
one caught up into the third heaven." And so, when the blessed
evangelist also says here, not, I was leaning on Jesus' bosom,
but, "There was leaning one of the disciples," let us recognize a
custom of our author's, rather than fall into any wonder on the
subject. For what loss is there to the truth, when the facts
themselves are told us, and all boastfulness of language is in a
measure avoided? For thus at least did he relate that which most
signally pertained to his praise.
5. But what mean the words, "whom Jesus loved"? As if He did
not love the others, of whom this same John has said above, "He
loved them to the end" (ver. 1); and as the Lord Himself,
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for
his friends." And who could enumerate all the testimonies of the
sacred pages, in which the Lord Jesus is exhibited as the lover, not
only of this one, or of those who were then around Him, but of such
also as were to be His members in the distant future, and of His
universal Church? But there is some truth, doubtless, underlying
these words, and having reference to the bosom on which the narrator
was leaning. For what else can be indicated by the bosom but some
hidden truth? But there is another more suitable passage, where the
Lord may enable us to say something about this secret that may prove
sufficient.
6. "Simon Peter therefore beckons, and says to him." The
expression is noteworthy, as indicating that something was said not by
any sound of words, but by merely beckoning with the head. "He
beckons, and says;" that is, his beckoning is his speech. For if
one is said to speak in his thoughts, as Scripture saith, "They
said [reasoned] with themselves;" how much more may he do so by
beckoning, which expresses outwardly by some sort of signs what had
previously been conceived within! What, then, did his beckoning
mean? What else but that which follows? "Who is it of whom He
speaks?" Such was the language of Peter's beckoning; for it was by
no vocal sounds, but by bodily gestures, that he spoke. "He then,
having leaned back on Jesus' breast," surely the very bosom of His
breast this, the secret place of wisdom! "saith unto Him, Lord,
who is it? Jesus answered, He it is to whom I shall give a piece of
bread, when I have dipped it. And when He had dipped the bread, he
gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And after the bread,
Satan entered into him." The traitor was disclosed, the coverts of
darkness were revealed. What he got was good, but to his own hurt he
received it, because, evil himself, in an evil spirit he received
what was good. But we have much to say about that dipped bread which
was presented to the false-hearted disciple, and about that which
follows; and for these we shall require more time than remains to us
now at the close of this discourse.
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