“Surely Not I, Lord?”
Matthew 26:17-30
July 12, 2009
General Intro
Before we get into the message today, I want to make you a promise: I won’t preach as long as I did last week.
I truly had no idea that the message was going so long, and combined with a longer time singing, it just went way long.
In fact, that was probably the longest service we’ve had since I’ve been here.
I had a guest here with me and he suggested putting up a clock in the back. I told him we did that years ago, but I got a bit tired of people looking back at it during the sermon, even when I wasn’t going long!
And besides, folks, I really needed to say what I said last week.
This last week has confirmed in my heart some of the issues that God had laid on my heart.
I suppose I could have worked a bit more to be able to say it in fewer words, but I don’t really regret anything I had to say.
But today, we’re going to get out early! How’s that for a deal, okay?
Then we can get lunch going, and those who are scheduled to donate blood at the beginning can maybe get a bite before their turn.
God: We’re going to look at the passage in which Jesus gives us the Lord’s Supper, and we’re actually going to take 2 or 3 weeks to get through it, because there is just too much stuff in this passage for us to get through in one week.
So we’re going to take at least 2 weeks, and probably three.
And while we’re not going to look at the entire passage today, I do want us to read the whole thing, so we’ll be sure of the context of what I’ll be sharing today.
Matthew 26:17-30 (p. 703) –
17 On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?"
18 He replied, "Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, ’The Teacher says: My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.’" 19 So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover.
It’s these next few verses, verses 20-25, that are the focus for us today:
20 When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve. 21 And while they were eating, he said, "I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me."
22 They were very sad and began to say to him one after the other, "Surely not I, Lord?"
23 Jesus replied, "The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. 24 The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born."
25 Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said, "Surely not I, Rabbi?"
Jesus answered, "Yes, it is you."
26 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat; this is my body."
27 Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. 28 This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom."
30 When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Just in these few verses there is a lot that we can look at, especially in terms of how this displays Jesus’ knowledge of what was coming and His knowledge of what it would accomplish and how it would be accomplished.
But for today I want to focus specifically on how Judas and the other disciples respond to Jesus’ words that someone was going to betray Him.
That wasn’t where I was planning on going with this message when I started working on it, but as I came across something in a commentary, I was intrigued by it and thought it would be good for us to look at.
Can you imagine the scene?
All the disciples are just kinda reclining back after eating the Passover meal, probably picking lamb out of their teeth, trying not to burp too loudly, or maybe grabbing a last bite.
And then Jesus says, “One of you guys here at the table is going to betray me.”
I was there, I’d probably either start choking or spewing out any food I still had in my mouth.
You know what that’s like, right? You’ve got something in your mouth, you get surprised somehow and you’ve either got to clean up your shirt from the crumbs of hope someone knows the Heimlich Maneuver.
Jesus had already told the disciples on at least three separate occasions that He would die.
A couple days before this evening, He told them He would be handed over during the Passover they were just beginning to celebrate that night and which would continue over the next few days.
But tonight He goes farther by telling them that it would be one of them – the men at the table who had just shared the meal with Him.
Someone who had just dipped his bread with Jesus – as all of them had.
It makes them sad, and they ask the question, “Surely not I, Lord?”
All of them ask the question, even Judas, and of course, Jesus tells Judas that He is the one.
Apparently, the other disciples still didn’t get it, or they probably would’ve done all they could to prevent him from leaving and doing the dirty deed.
But here’s the curious thing: the disciples didn’t accuse each other, they looked at themselves.
Why would they do that?
When someone says something like Jesus said, the natural thing would probably be to look around the table, wondering which one of these other guys it could be.
But they didn’t. They each asked Jesus, “Surely not I, Lord?”
They didn’t say, “Surely not him, Lord?” It was, “Surely not I, Lord.”
Why?
Because they were in the presence of the Holy Son of God.
As I continue to grow in my understanding of the holiness of God, I also grow in my understanding of my “un-holiness.”
Yes, I have experienced what we Wesleyans call, “Entire Sanctification,” that point where I turned my life entirely over to Christ, asking the Holy Spirit to renew my heart in holiness and to help me say no to willful sin.
But folks, I’d be lying to you if I told you I’m perfect, and I’ve still got a long way to go – in fact, it won’t be until heaven that I’ll finally be perfected in holiness, and that’s only because of what Christ and the Spirit using the Word of God have done in my life.
I think that in the presence of the Messiah, the Holy Lamb of God, the divine Son, the disciples were probably more aware of their own ability to fall and weren’t worried so much about anybody else at the table.
I think they were keenly aware that given the right circumstances and the right kind of pressure, they might do the same thing.
They weren’t worried about pointing fingers – they were worried that Jesus might point His finger at them.
You: I think that the reaction of the disciples can instruct us a bit, so I want to offer a couple suggestions for all of us to apply:
1. Don’t be so quick to point the finger.
America is a society of blamers. If that weren’t true, why do we have so many lawyers.
Listen to this story out of New York, from FoxNews.com:
A New York City teenager says she was text messaging while walking down the street — and the next second she was down a manhole.
Alexa Longueira was walking down a Staten Island block and was getting ready to text message when she fell into an open sewer manhole, MyFOX NY reports.
Longueira suffered mild cuts and bruises and is expected to recover.
The teen’s mother says workers told her they left the manhole open and unattended for just seconds while they went to fetch some cones from their truck.
The Department of Environmental Protection says it is investigating.
The Longueira family says they plan on filing a lawsuit.
They workers are doing their jobs, a teen who is not paying attention gets hurt, and who’s in trouble? The workers.
The family is looking for someone to point the finger at because obviously, it’s not the teenager’s job to look where she’s going, right?
But folks, we’re all like that from time to time. And it’s wrong. We need to be slow to point the finger.
The second thing we can learn from the disciples to…
2. Look at your own heart.
Again, in the presence of Jesus, these guys were forced to look at themselves and they were so caught up with that, they didn’t have time to judge or accuse anyone else.
So look at your own heart.
Better yet, ask God to look at your heart.
Most of us are familiar with Psalm 139, and especially the last few verses –
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Here’s David, a guy after God’s own heart, who is all too aware that he is capable of the darkest of sins, including adultery and murder.
So he’s asking God to search his heart to help him be a man who puts God first of all.
You might be sitting here and you’ve called yourself a Christian for many years. And you might have a habit of throwing blame and accusations around.
Then I would suggest that you get rid of the idea that you’re perfect and ask God to search your heart and purge those offensive things out of it.
David had walked with God many years and still felt the need to ask Him to clean his heart.
The disciples, after walking and talking and living with Jesus for 3 years still had cause to examine their hearts.
If you think you’re above this kind of examination, then let me also suggest that sinful pride is in the way.
You okay with that?
And here’s the really good news: Jesus is ready to forgive and cleanse, if we’ll come to Him in an attitude of sorrow and repentance.
We: Folks, let’s not be marked by the attitude of the Pharisees and religious leaders who thought they were beyond any questioning.
Let’s adopt the attitude of the disciples and let the Savior speak to our hearts.
Let’s pray.
