
Lord, is it I?
a sermon based on
Matthew 26:17-15
by Rev. Frank Schaefer
[printable
version]
Matthew 26:17-15
The Last Supper
17 Now
on the first day
of the Feast of
the Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying to Him, “Where
do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?”
18 And
He said, “Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The
Teacher says, “My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at your
house with My disciples.”’”
19 So
the disciples did as Jesus had directed them; and they prepared the
Passover.
20 When
evening had come, He sat down with the twelve. 21Now
as they were eating, He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, one of you will
betray Me.”
22 And
they were exceedingly sorrowful, and each of them began to say to Him,
“Lord, is it I?”
23 He
answered and said, “He who dipped his hand
with Me in the dish will betray Me. 24 The
Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man
by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man
if he had not been born.”
25 Then
Judas, who was betraying Him, answered and said, “Rabbi, is it I?”
He said to him, “You have said it.”
Visualization:
Imagine
you are one of the disciples sitting with Jesus at the last supper.
Suddenly, you hear Jesus say: "one of you will betray me."
How do
you feel? What goes through your mind.
“One of
you will betray me.” This was a shocking statement by Jesus. It caused
confusion and even fear.
I never
really understood why all of the disciples asked: “Lord, is it I? Am I
the betrayer?”
Didn’t
they know their own heart?
But
when I think about it more deeply, perhaps that’s exactly what it was:
they each knew their heart and they knew that they weren’t perfect. Each
of them knew at that moment that they were not only capable of sinning,
but that they did sin, each and every day.
Have
you ever wondered why Jesus actually made this statement? Surely, he
knew who was going to betray him. Why did he not just ask Judas? Why did
he leave everybody wondering about who it might be?
Obviously, Jesus did this to teach the disciples something. At first
glance, this teaching method may seem unorthodox. But if you look at the
way Jesus taught, this was just one more example of effective teaching.
Think
about it, time and again, Jesus challenged his followers to look
inward. He said things like:
"Before
you try to remove the speck out of your brother's eye, remove the beam
from your own eye."
"He who
is without sin, throw the first stone"
"The
last shall be first and the first shall be last"
"He who
is the greatest in heaven is everybody's servant"
When
Peter rebuked him for saying that he had to die, Jesus yelled at him,
saying: "Get behind me, Satan"
When
Peter promised to never forsake him, not even if it meant certain death,
Jesus predicted that he would disown him.
When
you think you are standing, watch that you won't fall.
Jesus
spoke harshly to and about the religious leaders of his day;
He
called Pharisees snakes and the brood of vipers, he called the high
priest a white-washed wall.
He
turned over the tables of the merchants in the temple.
That's
part of what the people meant when they said: He speaks with authority.
Jesus called a spade a spade and got everybody thinking.
The
ultimate message behind his confrontations was: don't get complacent,
but instead, keep in mind that you are human and that you will always
need God.
There
is no salvation outside of God; we all need forgiveness and we all need
God's grace and the sooner we will accept that fact, the
better for our spiritual growth and happiness and.....the better for our
ability to accept and love one another.
Here is
the thing: sin, human failure and suffering is what makes all of us
the same; there is unity in the fact that we all need God equally.
If you
think that you might be better than a brother or a sister at
church…think again!
If you think that you are better than your non-church going colleague at
work…think again!
If you
think that you are better than the tax collector in the street or the
prostitute on the sidewalk…think again!
THINK
AGAIN! And repent of your self-righteous attitude. You stand in as much
need for God's grace as any sinner you may look down upon.
The
truth is that Judas is not the only one who failed Jesus. Yes, he was
the one who betrayed him. But all of them, with the exception of John
and his mother Mary disserted him. In the end, Jesus was without
a large following. Many of those who used to follow him were now mocking him.
Jesus
brought up the betrayal for a reason. And he didn’t say who it was going
to be for the same reason. Every disciple asked: "Lord is it I?" and
Jesus did not answer any of them directly. But he could have answered
every single one of them: "yes, it is you." One way or another you will
betray me."
And the
same is true for us all. We all betrayed Jesus, one way or another, and
we will do it again.
"Yes"
is the answer Jesus would have given to us, had we shared bread with him on the
night of his betrayal. “Yes, my son. Yes, my daughter, you will betray
me.”
The
good news is that Jesus' grace is greater than our betrayals. He walked down the path of suffering and death for us
fully knowing that we would fail him. And he did it anyhow!
Then
what can Jesus realistically expect of you and me? To stay humble, to
acknowledge that we need God's grace; to do our best and to ask
forgiveness when we fail him once again, then get right back to
following him, our compassionate and most gracious Lord. Amen.
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