Judas had seen Jesus. He had been with Jesus. He had heard Jesus. 

He had seen Jesus raise the dead and walk on water and heal people. He had seen Jesus do all these amazing things and yet Judas betrayed him.

He ended up in the night. (That’s such a powerful line in John’s account of what happened in John 13). 

But if Judas could do that, could you? Could I?  

We want to blow past that question because we don’t like it. Because the truth is we can, the truth is we do. We do it in the way we think and speak and act and in what we don’t think and don’t do and how we don’t act.

We can betray Jesus in all sorts of ways. We can betray Jesus in what we decide to watch. We can betray Jesus in the way we treat family. We can betray Jesus when we don’t follow His ways.

Here’s the good news: If we do, we can repent; we can confess.

So we need to examine ourselves. We need to get introspective, and one of Jesus’ disciples that same night shows us how.

As the disciples were trying to figure out which one of them was going to betray Jesus, we read that John, described as “the disciple Jesus loved,” leaned into Jesus: “Leaning back against Jesus, [John] asked him, ‘Lord, who is it?’”

And that’s how you confess and repent when you’ve turned from Jesus. That’s how you avoid betraying Him: lean into Him. Recline into him, as a child to His mother or father. Turn to Him and be near Him.

As you do, he will certainly accept you. That’s how good He is.

Adapted from the sermon, “Judas, Jesus & John: Kindness Received, Kindness Rejected.”