Sorrowful

The disciples began to be sorrowful and looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke. Then they began to question one another, which of them it could be who was going to do this, saying to him one after another, "Is it I, Lord?" (Matthew 26:22; Mark 14:19; Luke 22:23; John 13:22).

The word ‘sorrowful’ is actually 2 words in the Greek text, sphodra lupeo, which translated literally is ‘violently distressed’. It means to be heavy in spirit or grieved in spirit. The idea is to be crushed under the weight of grief and sorrow.

Why would the disciples react this way? It wasn’t as if Jesus hadn’t told them before that He would be betrayed into the hands of the Chief Priests, be condemned, then crucified. That was bad enough. But His words that one of them would betray Him hit them like a ton of bricks, it threw them into complete confusion and disbelief. Someone among them, one who had been called to discipleship by Him, one who had engaged in ministry with Him, one among them whom Jesus said He loved, who was a friend, and had now had his feet washed by Jesus! Unthinkable!

This is by no means a compliment, but it is a tribute to the deceptive power of Satan that he could have maintained an agent among the disciples who remained undetected by them for 3 years. And it is a tribute to the hypocrisy of Judas Iscariot that he would play the role of a disciple of Jesus when in fact he never was one at heart. Of course, Jesus knew who Judas Iscariot was at heart. He knew he was a devil from the beginning (John 6:70). But the other disciples were completely taken aback by the announcement of Jesus that one among them was not clean (vv.10-11) and would lift up his heel against Him (v.18).

What is also disheartening in this text is that the disciples questioned themselves if they could be the betrayer. Even Judas, in his hypocrisy, questioned Jesus, “Is it I?” (Matthew 26:25). Judas’ response was hypocritical - he knew he was the one betraying Jesus. But what of the others? Alxander MacLaren (1826-1910), the great Scottish expositor wrote, “Every man is a mystery to himself. In every soul there lie, coiled and dormant, like hybernating [sic] snakes, evils that a very slight rise in the temperature will wake up into poisonous activity. Let no man say, in foolish self-confidence, that any form of sin which his brother has ever committed, is impossible for him. Temperament shields us from much, no doubt. There are sins that we are “inclined to,” and there are sins that we “have no mind to.” But the identity of human nature is deeper than the diversity of temperament.”

In light of such response by the disciples, and exposition of Dr. MacLaren, we should cry out with the Hebrew hymn writer (Psalm 139:23)  Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.  Amen.

Pastor