And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come?
The last pleading of love
I. The patience of Christ’s love. The betrayer in the very instant of his treason has that changeless tenderness lingering around him, and that merciful hand beckoning to him still. Sin is mighty, but it cannot make God cease to love us.
II. The pleading of Christ’s patient love. There is an appeal to the traitor’s heart, and an appeal to his conscience. Christ would have him think of the relations that have so long subsisted between them, and of the real nature of the deed he was doing. The sharp question is meant to wake up his conscience. All our evils are betrayals of Christ, and all our betrayals of Christ are sins against a perfect friendship and an unvaried goodness. We too have sat at His table, heard His wisdom, had a place in His heart. It is the constant effort of the love of Christ to get us to say to ourselves the real name of what we are about. “Wherefore art thou come? “ Almost all actions have a better and a worse side, prudence is called selfishness; we are clever men of business, he a rogue. It is, therefore, the office of love to force us to look at the thing as it is. He must begin with rebukes that He may advance to blessing.
III. The possible rejection Of the pleading of Christ’s patient love. We can resist His pleadings. It is easily done. Judas merely held his peace-no more. Silence is sufficient. Non-submission is rebellion. The appeal of Christ’s love hardens where it does not soften. The sun either scatters the summer morning mists, or it rolls them into heavier folds, from whose livid depths the lightning is flashing by mid-day. That silence was probably the silence of a man whose conscience was convicted while his will was unchanged. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
God’s love embraces the worst man
As the sunshine pours down as willingly and abundantly on filth and dunghills, as on gold that glitters in its beam, and jewels that flash back its lustre, so the light and warmth of that unsetting and unexhausted source of life pours down on “the unthankful and on the good.” The great ocean clasps some black and barren crag that frowns against it, as closely as with its waves it kisses some fair strand enamelled with flowers and fragrant with perfumes. So that sea of love in which we live, and move, and have our being, encircles the worst with abundant flow. He Himself sets us the pattern, which to imitate is to be the children of “our Father which is in heaven,” in that He loves His enemies, blessing them that curse, and doing good to them that hate. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Man may reject the Divine love
We cannot cease to be the objects of His love, but we can refuse to be the recipients of its most precious gifts. We can bar our hearts against it. Then, of what avail is it to us? To go back to an earlier illustration, the sunshine pours down and floods a world, what does that matter to us if we have fastened up shutters on all our windows, and barred every crevice through which the streaming gladness can find its way? We shall grope at noontide as in the dark, within our gloomy houses, while our neighbours have light in theirs. What matters it though we float in the great ocean of the Divine love, if with pitch and canvas we have carefully closed every aperture at which the flood can enter? A hermetically closed jar, plunged in the Atlantic, will be as dry inside as if it were lying on the sand of the desert. It is possible to perish of thirst within sight of the fountain. It is possible to separate ourselves from the love of God, not to separate the love of God from ourselves. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Judas, why made a disciple
But why did Christ choose Judas as a disciple, knowing him a wicked man?
1. To teach us that He will tolerate in the Church militant evil men, and no society among men so small, so holy, but some will creep in.
2. To show His humility and patience in admitting to His board and bread so vile a person, yea, to dip his hand in the same dish.
3. To accomplish the ancient prophecy, that his familiar friend, and he that eats bread with Him, that went up to the house of God with Him as a friend, he should lift up his hand against Him (Psalms 55:13-14.) (Thomas Taylor.)
Perishing by the sword if we use the sword
Human vengeance will produce its own punishment. Resist, and you will be resisted. Treat men unkindly and they will treat you unkindly. But, on the other hand, be gentle and you will rule. Be willing to bear injuries and you will triumph. Believe in martyrdom. Let martyrdom be possible. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” Christ is the great fulfilment of that beatitude; and His example is here before us, consistent to the end. (Dean Howson.)