Mrk. 14:18 ... "As they were reclining at table and eating, Jesus said, 'Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me, one who is eating with Me.'"
Jesus spoke these words while He was eating the Passover meal with His apostles in an upper room somewhere in Jerusalem. It was during this solemn celebration that He instituted the sacred meal we now call the Lord's Supper. There was a great deal that pressed upon Jesus' mind that evening, for He knew that the next day He would be afflicted and crucified as if He were a dangerous criminal. Our Lord was also grieved by the knowledge that He would be delivered into the hands of evil men by one whom He had chosen as a friend, apostle, and co-laborer in His exalted work. He revealed this terrible realization with the above announcement, although He did not indicate who the traitor would be. When John asked Him, He replied, "It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it." It is then reported that "when He had dipped the morsel, He gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot," (Jno. 13:26).
Judas has the horrible distinction of being the traitor who delivered Jesus to be killed by His enemies. But he is by no means the only disciple of Christ who has brought reproach upon the Lord by some kind of denial or other disloyal word or deed. Each Sunday we gather about the Lord's Table to keep the Holy Communion that He ordained on that night so long ago. As we eat the bread that signifies His body broken for us and drink the cup that signifies His blood shed to cleanse us of our sins, we are in a very real way sharing a sacred meal with Jesus. Often there are times that Jesus could say to us, "One of you will betray Me." Because, in the week that follows, as we go about life at home, at work, and in public, we say and do many things that are sorely offensive to Jesus. Our words and deeds sometimes deny the commitment we made to take up our cross and follow Him.
There are Christians who eat the Lord's Supper and then use language that is dirty or abusive later in the week. People hear it and wonder what worship means to a person who follows it up with such defiled speech. It constitutes a kind of denial of Jesus and is akin to Judas' deed. The Lord teaches us to "let no corrupting talk come out of your mouth," (Eph. 4:29). To disregard this admonition of our Master shows a degree of contempt for a person's confession of loyalty to Jesus.
As the congregation shares the Lord's Supper, there are those who eat it and then let themselves be lured into the sin of fornication before the week is out. We live in a context where moral standards are easy and low. Sexual freedom is expected and even demanded. An opportunity to fornicate is not looked upon as a temptation to be resisted and defeated but as a welcomed occasion to indulge in sensual pleasure. But in spite of society's new definitions and cheap virtues, sin remains sin. The Christian who shares his/her body with someone other than a marriage partner is sinning and betraying the Lord who died to purify us. Our world approves sexual license as an individual's right, but the Lord warns: "Flee from sexual immorality. ... The sexually immoral person sins against his own body," (I Cor. 6:18).
It might be obscene speech or fornication that constitutes one's betrayal of Jesus. Or, it might be any of the other sins that are identified in Scripture, such as stealing, lying, slandering, drunkenness, homosexual behavior, or abusing drugs. But the person who eats the Lord's Supper and goes out to trample on the teaching of Jesus is betraying Him after the fashion of Judas Iscariot.
