Leadership is lonely, or so some say. As a pastor since 2002, I have felt that loneliness from time to time. Frankly, some loneliness is self-imposed. “I can do it better myself,” we think. Or we don’t want to put in the work to involve others. Maybe we struggle to release our grip on a task, an event, a ministry. A church.
In John 13, verse 20, Jesus teaches a powerful missional truth, “I tell you the truth, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.”
Notice the linkage Jesus teaches here, like a chain. First link in the chain is Jesus sends people. Second link in the chain is that Jesus himself is sent on a mission by the father. So the people Jesus sends are linked in a chain to the father.
What Jesus is talking about is the significant task of his mission to train up others and send them on mission. In the other Gospel accounts, we learn that during his ministry years, prior to this Last Supper, he had already sent people out on mission trips. One time he sent the twelve disciples out. Other times he sent out people he healed. Another time he sent our 70 people on a mission trip.
Those guys around that table knew this because he sent them on those ministry trips. They know he is talking about them. Now he seems to be hinting at the possibility of sending them out again. He wants them to know that when they are sent out, while they are on their ministry trip, if people accept them, those people are at the same time accepting him, because he is the one who sent them. Furthermore, those people will also be accepting the Father, because it is the Father who sent out Jesus.
Jesus wants his disciples to understand this missional principle. When the sent ones are ministering, they are not operating on their own power and authority. Instead, they are linked in a chain to Jesus and God the Father. The sent ones are serving and ministering under Jesus’ and God the Father’s authority and power. That’s an important principle for you and I to remember. Today, you and I are the sent ones who are pursuing Jesus’ mission in our day, and praise God, we serve his mission under his power and authority.
At the same time, Jesus is clearly insinuating here that not everyone accepts him. Including, possibly, some people right there in that room around that table. It would have been a shock to those disciples to hear that one or more of them might not accept Jesus. They were his inner circle. Could it be possible that someone there would not accept Jesus? We know the answer. Look at verse 21,
“After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, ‘I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me’.”
There it is, plain as day. If they wondered if it was possible that one of them might not accept him, Jesus says, “Yes.” This news is startling. Imagine how it would feel! How would you feel if you heard that someone you just spent the better part of three years serving with was a betrayer? How will the disciples respond?
In verses 22-25, we learn that disciples are rattled,
“His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, ‘Ask him which one he means.’ Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, ‘Lord, who is it?’”
Of course it is Peter who is willing to question Jesus. I wonder if Peter thought he himself might be who Jesus is referring to. But actually, Peter is perhaps surprisingly not bold enough to just ask Jesus outright. He nudges John, telling John to ask. That may simply be because John was sitting next to Jesus. Or it could be that Peter knew John and Jesus were very close friends, maybe what we would consider best friends. Thus it would be natural for John to ask, as it would be highly unlikely John would betray Jesus.
John asks Jesus, “Who is it?” That leads a deeply dark moment in this story, which we’ll study in the next post.
Photo by Eyasu Etsub on Unsplash
Engaging Scripture 