And It Was Night

"So after receiving the morsel he went out immediately; and it was night."

John 13:30

Jesus is in the upper room with His disciples. He has washed their feet -- even the feet of Judas Iscariot, the one who would betray Him -- as an example of how the disciples are to serve one another. He reveals that He will be betrayed and the disciples ask which one of them it is. Jesus answers, “That is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him.” And He serves the morsel to Judas. "After the morsel, Satan then entered into him. Therefore Jesus said to him, 'What you do, do quickly.'” (v. 27). Ray Steadman writes: "But Judas still had a chance to retreat. Jesus would never have tried to reach him had he not still had an opportunity to recover at this point. When Jesus gave him the morsel, and Judas took it and ate it without a word or a sign of repentance or remorse, he passed the point of no return." And then Judas departed into the night. How symbolic. For Judas to turn away from the Lord and go his own way, was to leave The Light and walk into darkness. And it was in darkness that Judas would die by his own hand. "If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin." (1 John 1:6-7)