John 13:26-28 26 Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it.” So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. 27 Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.” 28 Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him.
The more I look at this the more interesting things pop out of it. It seems like Jesus is really obvious about who is going to betray Him, right? ‚ÄúHe to whom I will give this morsel to bread when I have dipped it.‚Äù and then Jesus hands it over to Judas. So why didn‚Äôt they get it? I wonder if they couldn‚Äôt believe it. Or if they had pegged somebody else as the one in their heads, and none of them had pegged Judas. I wonder if the news that Judas would betray Jesus fell on their ears like Jesus‚Äô words that He would die fell on Peter‚Äôs ears and caused Peter to rebuke Jesus. So foreign, so far out from what they conceived about the Messiah and about Judas, that they couldn’t even understand when it was told to them clearly.
All of this just shows off how merciful and amazing Jesus is. How often do we not say something or tell someone something because we think “They wouldn’t understand.” or “They’re not ready for that.” Jesus told the disciples stuff they weren’t ready for all of the time. He seems like He lived in a constant state of being around people that “didn’t get it” and He never flipped out or belittled them for it. (Once he was angry at the hardness of heart of the Pharisees, but never at His disciples. He was angered at the unwillingness to learn, not the inability to learn.)
Many times, in fact, Jesus told people something that confused them until something significant happened hours, days, or even years later.