Jesus suffers the sins of His disciples

Sermon for Holy Monday

We continue to watch the Lamb tonight. We watch everything He does during this Holy Week. We pay attention to everything He says. But above all, we watch Him suffer. The word “suffering,” by the way, literally means to allow something. The familiar King James verse, “Suffer the little children to come unto Me,” means, “Allow the little children to come to Me.” So when we see Jesus suffer, it isn’t just the agony of the beatings and torture that Jesus allowed to be done to Him. It’s also the other things He allowed to be done to Him, the other things He put up with, willingly, as part of the payment price for our sins. And the vast majority of the suffering we heard about this evening was caused, not by soldiers or priests or Jewish councils. No, before that, Jesus suffered the sins of His own disciples.

The ritual Passover meal had ended. Jesus had finished stooping down to wash His disciples’ feet. Imagine the good Lord kneeling before Judas and washing his feet, knowing full well what Judas was about to do. Jesus alluded to Judas’ betrayal already then. But afterward, as He sat down again to continue the common, more informal supper with His disciples, Jesus couldn’t hold in how much He was hurting, knowing that one of His twelve closest companions in the world, one of His chosen apostles, one of His friends, one of those who had been sent out to preach in Jesus’ name and to do miracles in Jesus’ name, one of those who had heard Him most and seen Him most, and known Him the best, was about to betray Him.

And that betrayal wasn’t a little slip, like sharing a friend’s secret without thinking about how it will affect your friend. Judas had actively sought out Jesus’ enemies who wanted Him dead. He had been pretending for some time that he believed in Jesus as his Lord and his God while actually disbelieving. He had made arrangements with the priests to trap Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and to identify Him with a kiss of friendship so that they could bind Him, arrest Him, and lead Him away to judgment. Knowing all this as He sat there at the supper table with His disciples, Jesus couldn’t contain the pain or the secret any longer: He was troubled in spirit, and testified and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me.” And as the rest of the disciples asked in horror and confusion, “Lord, is it I?” Judas actually had the gall to ask the question himself.

But Jesus didn’t stop him from going through with it, did He? He didn’t even call out Judas by name or shame him in front of the rest of the disciples. He let him go to do what Satan had been instigating him to do. He suffered it, for you and for me, because mankind had been betraying God for thousands of year. But if we were to be forgiven, if justice were to be done, then God had to suffer the ultimate betrayal in the flesh, as a Man, in the Person of His Son.

Judas’ sin was, in a sense, the worst one that Jesus suffered, because the other eleven had a willing spirit, had a New Man, that was willing to stay with Jesus, to listen to Jesus, but their flesh, their Old Man, was weak. As Jesus told them in the Garden, “The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak.” Judas, on the other hand, didn’t even have a willing spirit. He had inwardly turned away from Christ some time ago. His spirit was with Satan again.

Still, the weakness of the other eleven caused plenty of suffering for Jesus, too, from their dispute among themselves, right there at the supper table with Jesus, about which of them should be considered the greatest, even as Jesus, who was by far the greatest, was about to lay down His life for them; to their arguing with Jesus and pridefully insisting that, even though He told them that they would all fall away that night, no, He was wrong, He didn’t know what He was talking about; to their giving in to sleep in the Garden when He had specifically pleaded with them to stay awake with Him and watch for just one hour; to Peter’s sudden misguided act of violence toward one of the servants in the Garden; to all the disciples’ abandoning Jesus, when fear for their own lives took the place of faith in the Lord of life.

Yes, there were other things that Jesus suffered in tonight’s readings, including the dread of the cup He was about to suffer and being treated like a violent criminal by those who came to arrest Him, although He had never, ever lifted a finger against anyone. But the sins of the disciples were front and center on that Thursday night of Holy Week. And Jesus suffered it, for you and for me, because mankind had been giving in to pride and fear and weakness for thousands of years. But if we were to be forgiven, if justice were to be done, then God had to suffer the pain caused by our pride, fear, and weakness in the flesh, as a Man, in the Person of His Son.

Some people are like Judas, who come to Christ, who come to His Church for a while, looking for something earthly, hoping for something that will confirm their own wrong beliefs. But eventually, when they hear the true Gospel, they go away profoundly disappointed, not wanting at all what Jesus actually offers, or they stay and pretend to believe while secretly clinging to their sin. If only they would turn and repent and see that Jesus may not offer what they want, but He offers and gives exactly what they need.

The rest of the Christians in the world are like the eleven disciples, whose spirit is indeed willing, but whose flesh is always weak. And so Jesus urges us to watch and pray so that we don’t fall into temptation.

Prayer is a powerful tool Christ has given us to beat down our sinful flesh, prayer and watchfulness. But just as necessary and even more powerful is that Supper that Jesus instituted on the same night in which He was betrayed, where the Suffering Servant kindly and gladly offers His body and blood to the very ones whose sins He suffered. For those with a willing spirit, who know and abhor the weakness of their flesh, that Supper offers both the forgiveness of sins and strength to fight and to resist temptation. It even sustains a willingness to suffer for Jesus’ sake, because you know that your Lord’s suffering wasn’t in vain. It’s the price of atonement for your sins, paid in full by the Lord who loved you and was willing to suffer for you. Amen.