Beware The Shadows (John 13:21-30) Series

Let's start today by simply rereading from last week's passage, John 13:1-20. Our story today directly builds on these verses, and the easiest way back into John 13 is through a reminder of where we've been.

John 13:1:

(1) Now, before the feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that his hour had come, that he would depart from this world toward the Father, loving his own in the world, to the end/uttermost he loved them,

(2) and while supper was happening, while the devil already had put into his (own) heart

that Judas would betray him (=Jesus),

[Jesus], knowing

that all things the Father had given into the/his hands,

and that from God he had come from,

and toward God he is going,

he rises up from the supper,

and he laid down his outer clothing,

and taking a towel, he tied it around himself.

(5) Next, he pours water into the washbasin,

and he began to wash his disciples' feet

and to wipe them dry with the towel with which he was tied around.

(6) Then, he comes toward Simon Peter.

He says to him,

"Lord/Master, you, my feet, you are going to wash?"

(7) He answered-- Jesus--

and he said to him,

"What I am doing, you don't understand now.

Now, you will know after these things."

(8) He says to him-- Peter--

"You will absolutely not wash my feet, ever."

He answered-- Jesus-- to him,

"Unless I wash you, you don't have a share/part with me."

(9) He says to him-- Simon Peter--

"Lord/Master, not my feet only,

but also the hands and the head."

(10) He says to him-- Jesus--

"The one having bathed doesn't have need,

except only the feet to wash,

but he is completely clean,

and you (plural), clean you are,

but not all.

(11) For he knew the one betraying him.

For this reason he said that

"Not all, clean, you (plural) are.

(12) Then, when he washed their feet,

and he took his cloak,

and he reclined again,

he said to them,

"Do you (plural) know what I have done for you?

You call me 'the teacher' and 'the Lord/Master',

and rightly you speak.

For I am.

(14) [And so] then, if I wash your feet-- the Lord and the Teacher-- also you must, of one another, wash the feet.

(15) For an example/model I have given you,

in order that just as I did to you, also you shall do.

(16) Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave isn't greater than his lord/master,

nor an envoy greater than the one sending him.

(17) If these things you know, blessed, you are, if you do them.

(18) Not about all of you I am speaking--I know whom I have chosen/selected--

but in order that the Scripture would be fulfilled,

'The one eating my bread, lifted up against me his heel.'

(19) From now on, I am speaking to you before it happens,

in order that you may believe, when it happens, that I am.

(20) Truly, truly, I say to you, the one receiving anyone I send, me, he receives.

Now, the one, me, receiving, receives The One Sending me.

That's what we got through last week. But let's take another look at verse 20, because it's confusing. If you "receive anyone Jesus sends," you are receiving Jesus.

What does Jesus mean? Who is he talking about?

I think this verse points ahead to the very end of the book. John 21:20-25 (NKJV, for no reason):

20 Then Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also had leaned on His breast at the supper, and said, “Lord, who is the one who betrays You?” 21 Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, “But Lord, what about this man?”

22 Jesus said to him, “If I [h]will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.”

23 Then this saying went out among the brethren that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you?”

24 This is the disciple who testifies of these things, and wrote these things; and we know that his testimony is true.

25 And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen.

Who wrote the gospel of John? It's complicated. On one hand, we are told that the beloved disciple testifies about these things, and wrote these things. He left a reliable record of what Jesus said and did. On the other hand, this beloved disciple himself made disciples. And it's these disciples who end the book by talking about what "we" know. "We" know that the testimony of the beloved disciple is true.