Meditations on St. John’s Gospel: Chapter Thirteen
In chapters 13–17, St. John will give us many sublime teachings of Jesus to His apostles at the Last Supper—a part of those, as promised by Our Lord on this very occasion: “the Holy Ghost. . . will bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you” (14:26). The language introducing Christ’s farewell words are quite solemn: “Jesus, knowing that his hour was come, that he should pass out of this world to the Father. . . knowing that the Father had given him all things into his hands, and that he came from God and goeth to God. . .” (vs 1 & 3). He is about to leave them (vs 33 & 36), which does not mean that He does not love them. On the contrary, “having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (vs 1) to the end of His life, and to the limits of love (15:13). This whole discourse will show us that.
There are some who are troubled somewhat by the first words “Before the festival day of the Pasch” (vs 1), and especially those subsequent,1 which show, according to the fourth gospel, that Jesus died on the day before the Passover. The Last Supper would not therefore have been the Passover meal. (This is the reason for the Eastern Rites using leavened bread for the Eucharist.) But it was, as is seen very clearly from the Synoptics.2 Jesus, and some of the Jews, therefore, celebrated the Passover the day before most of Jerusalem did. That is a fact we get from the gospels. We do not know exactly why; hence a number of theories.3 But it is sure that He supped on the Thursday, died on the Friday, and rose on the Sunday.
At this Supper, we see Jesus “troubled in spirit” (vs 21), as He already had been, at the prospect of His passion (12:27). His passion has begun; He is wounded in heart; the cause right now is the thought and presence of one of His intimates who is about to betray Him, under the inspiration of the devil (vs 2). Our Lord knows this (vs 11) and that it is ordained of God (vs 18). But He cannot keep it to Himself, “and He testified and said: Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you shall betray me” (vs 21). The outpouring of a suffering heart, and at the same time, a further appeal, after washing his feet, to the traitor. “Friend” Jesus will call him to the end (Mt. 26:50). Now all the apostles are troubled (vs 22), except the one who should have been. Our Lord will be giving them a new commandment of love (vs 34) for which He has already prepared them more immediately by His example, washing their feet (vs 14 & 15), and now showing consideration to Judas. He will not point him out to all, but disclose the traitor quietly to the “disciple whom Jesus loved” “leaning on Jesus’ bosom” (vs 23) who asks Him, and in the hearing of the one next to Him to whom He passed dipped bread (vs 26). Judas will not let his heart be softened, and so “Satan entered into him” and Jesus dismisses him: “That which thou dost, do quickly” (vs 27). [Most likely, it is not a question of corporal possession, but being firmly resolved to go ahead with the treachery. “The wicked man, when he is come to the depth of sins, contemneth” (Prov. 18:3).] Judas has been a burden for His heart for some time now [“Have I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?” (6:71) He gave voice to a year ago], but has been treated by Our Lord just the same as all the others. They don’t suspect him, even after the denouncing of a traitor in their midst and this dismissal, but ascribe worthy motives for his going (vs 29). Jesus must be for us a model in our fraternal charity: “I have given you an example, that as I have done to you, so you do also” (vs 15).
St. John does not speak of the institution of the Holy Eucharist—the Synoptics and St. Paul (I Cor. 11:23ff) already had. Most commentators put it here, just after Judas’ departure and before Jesus’ more tender love. “Little children” (vs 33) He calls them (for the only time in the gospels). [Some say Luke’s “the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table” (Lk. 22:21), after the consecration, is not just the substantial equivalent of Our Lord’s quoting the psalmist (Ps. 40:10), which He does (vs 18) and could apply, Judas being present or not, but that it is a statement and in its chronologically right place. The Fathers, in their commentaries, are divided on the question of Judas’ presence.]
Be that as it may, with the traitor having gone, Jesus becomes more effusive. “Now is the Son of man glorified. . . Little children. . .” (vs 31–34). “A new commandment I give unto you: that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (vs 34). What is “new” in this commandment is the pattern of Christ’s love: so sublime as to be a goal ever to be aimed at. Cf. I Jn. 3:16; 4:9f. The new commandment will recur constantly in the writings of the disciple whom Jesus loved.4 It is also new because of Christ’s teaching that we are all one, thanks to His life animating each member (14:23; 15:1-7; 17:21-23), a teaching St. Paul develops at length with his “Body of Christ.” This mutual love, moreover, must be what characterizes the Christian: “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another” (vs 35).
Just before giving His new commandment, Jesus had told them that He was going and they couldn’t follow Him (vs 33)—though it would be for the moment (vs 36). St. Peter, through his love for the Master, is held back by that word. Where is He going? Why can’t I follow? (vs 36f). Peter’s love is not pure and it somewhat blinds him. Just as once Christ had told them that He must suffer and Peter had said “No!” (Mt. 16:21f), so tonight Jesus wants to wash his feet and he says “Never” (vs 8). And now, Jesus says that they could not follow, and Peter remonstrates. If he must be washed to have part with Our Lord, then his hands and head too (vs 9); if he must follow Him to death, he’ll do it. “I will lay down my life for thee” (vs 37). Peter doesn’t know himself, just how weak he is; and he has not yet learnt that “we are serving God only when we are serving Him as He wants to be served.” We are “to go at God’s pace.” He will learn the hard way: “the cock shall not crow, tilt thou deny me thrice” (vs 38). Peter is infirm, but, as for Lazarus, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified by it” (11:4).
Endnotes:
1 On the day of the Passion, the priests refuse to enter the Praetorium, which would render them defiled and unable to eat the pasch (18:28); when Jesus was crucified “it was the parasceve (preparation) of the pasch” (19:14 & 31); the day after the crucifixion was a Sabbath exceptionally solemn i.e. the Passover (19:31).
2 It was the first day of Unleavened Bread (Azymes) that His disciples go to prepare the Passover meal (Mt. 26:17; Mk. 14:12; Lk. 22:7). Our Lord’s request to the Cenacle’s master is that He have the Passover there (Mt. 26:18; Mk. 14:14; Lk. 22:11). The apostles do prepare the Passover meal (Mt. 26:19; Mk. 14:16; Lk. 22:13). Hence Jesus’ word: “With desire have I desired to eat this pasch with you before I suffer” (Lk. 22:15).
3 Was there some difference of opinion about the day of the full moon? A difference between Galilean pilgrims in this, and inhabitants of Jerusalem? Or between Pharisees, who were the dominant religious force, and Sadducees, the priests regulating the calendar? Or. . . ?
4 15:12; I Jn. 2:7-10; 3:11; 3:23; II Jn. 5. Well known is St. Jerome’s anecdote of the aged John: carried to the pulpit, he always said the same thing, “Love one another.” They, tiring, asked why always this word. “It is the precept of the Lord, and if it is observed, it is enough.”