This is a chapter of intense contrasts!

There is the amazing love poured out on the disciples - (...’He now showed them the full extent of his love’ v1) and there is the betrayal by Judas and the foretaste of Peter's denial of Jesus and Peter’s own fumbling assurance of his faithfulness. It’s the light of day in its full strength in the pitch black of night.

It’s brought out by the comment in John 13:30 ‘And it was night.’ - Though there would have been a bright full moon overhead (Passover was at full moon) yet they were surrounded by the gloom of eternal night. John inserts the phrase with devastating effect.

Have you noticed - when anyone is under peculiar stresses you get peculiar insights into their character - they are at their most vulnerable and most human under those circumstances.

Let’s look at the way Judas, Peter and Jesus responded to the darkness...

1- Judas the betrayer

You can try to imagine what was going on in Judas’ mind! If we had a film of the event we’d have some very meaningful close up shots of Judas during the Passover meal - when Jesus passed the bread and wine of memorial - and when it arrived at Judas, when Jesus, in distress, was talking about his betrayer and when the piece of bread was passed to him. Judas received kindness upon kindness and still stayed in the dark. It’s the fact that he received so much that has prompted some to believe that Judas could not have had malevolent intentions! - he was merely provoking Jesus to show his power. But you and I know that there are people like this - however much you show them the love of Christ, however much you give to them they may never be won over.

Darkness is a trap, but a safe trap! It’s sometimes too disturbing to come into the light.

Jeremiah challenged the people with God’s message - Jer 13:23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.

Sin is so insidious that it doesn’t allow human nature to be changed easily- even Paul found the good he wanted to do was not done, while the evil he wanted to steer clear of was what he still did!

Jesus told us that people love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.

Matt 6:23  But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

John 3:19  This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

BUT that doesn’t stop us continuing to strive - sharing the light, giving the grace. Jesus did right to the last with Judas - he accepted the embrace that gripped him to hold him helpless.

Early in my pastoral career I visited a couple who were alcoholics. I asked my church to pray for them only to be told ‘that kind will never be changed.’ I was humoured as one whose youthful enthusiasm was unrealistic - with little experience of the world. However, though worse times came - the husband died following a fire in their flat, Alice was converted, got off the drink and became part of the fellowship.  Her body had taken its toll however and she died within a very few years too, but it showed me that however hopeless the task may seem, we don’t give up.

I learnt that it isn’t up to us to decide who will and who won’t receive Christ.

John tells us in ch1:5 - the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has never put it out, though it also has never understood it!  - Judas couldn’t come out of the dark.

I want to ask you where you are in the dark? Do you like being in the dark - do you find it difficult to accept the light and come into it? Judas is a warning to those who skulk away in the dark - the gloom - without Christ often for fear of the light he brings.

2 - Peter behaved differently - he shouted in the dark to comfort himself.

He was confronted by the darkness. He didn’t want to enter it but underestimated his vulnerability.

We’re warned - 1 Cor. 10:12  So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!  13  No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

Peter had to be strong - others are looking to him, so is Jesus! He can’t break, he can’t fail! He must never let Jesus down! He’ll be the steel among the straw, the true among the false!

And what happens? - a servant maid asks him and sweeps his resolve from under him.

Give Peter credit - he did follow after the soldiers. He tried to be true, his resolve carried him so far. He thought he was safe - following in the dark. He even drew closer to the fire but his cover is blown. It’s in the semi-darkness of the courtyard that Peter fails and in the deeper darkness of the night that Peter hides and weeps for failing his Lord.

Have you had that feeling? ‘I’ve let Jesus down - all that determination to follow, that declaration at my baptism, when I told my home group what I wanted to do for Jesus, when I actually thought I was bringing the light of Jesus to my office or shop floor then I failed. I let him down and I let his people down.’

But as darkness didn’t hide Peter from the maid, so neither did it hide Peter from Jesus - Luke tells us that Jesus turned and looked straight at Peter. ‘Jesus looked straight at him’  - We may feel it’s the look of condemnation but Jesus’ response to Peter after the resurrection is to restore and recall. To embrace him in love and welcome. This was a look of sorrow and love - the piercing look that you hide from when you’ve let someone down - not the kind of look that makes you fight and resist. Yes, Jesus knows your weakness, failure, sin, - He knows it better than you know yourself! He sees it and he loves us!

If you cringe at your failing at least bring that to Jesus - it seems to be dangerous to be exposed but Jesus welcomes you to Himself whatever failings you’ve brought.

Paul tells us that his confidence in himself is low! - though he fails to do the good and ends up doing the evil yet he has the confidence in his Saviour - Rom 7.23  but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24  What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25  Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. 8:1  Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!

Don’t try to deny the darkness, don’t try to tell yourself you’re immune - that way is to retreat more into the dark. Instead come into the light with Jesus.

3 - What about Jesus? - Jesus poured out his love here yet he’s also described as being troubled in spirit - distressed - a foretaste of Gethsemane - he’s traumatised by the horror of the cross and the fact that it will be one of his own who will betray him. Our translation covers it over - but can you imagine what is happening here in the upper room - Jesus was openly distressed and would have found the words ‘one of you will betray me’ very difficult to utter. No wonder the disciples are at a loss! They haven’t seen their Lord and Master like this before. They’ve seen him angry, they’ve seen him compassionate, they’ve seen him weep at Lazarus’ tomb - but they haven’t seen this before.

Have you ever felt betrayed? Seriously let down by someone you trusted, whose company you enjoyed, who you drew into your close circle?

At the time he appointed him did Jesus allow himself to know that Judas would do this? He certainly could have known but would he be fully human if he had allowed himself to know it. I believe it hit Jesus with all the forcefulness that such betrayal would hit us when it comes out of the blue.

There are Christians who believe you should go through life with a cheery evanjelly grin on your face all the time - ‘I am H-A-P-P-Y’, ‘Now I am happy all the day’, ‘Singing singing always singing’ - always triumphant, never cast down. It could make you want to go out and shoot someone! Jesus has never made me like that! And when you get to know that kind of person you actually find they’re just as weak and vulnerable as you - possibly more so! When the tough trials come their way suddenly they capitulate like snow in the Sahara. They failed to be joyful all the time or Jesus obviously let them down after all.

Does it help you to know that Jesus was so exhausted he slept through the storm, was so devastated by the loss of his friend he wept at the tomb, and actually experienced the trauma of what was to happen enough that he was ‘troubled in spirit’ - broke down in distress.

Yet in this darkness the light still shone! Nothing could put it out! Nothing could defeat it!

When the darkness of ultimate separation from the Father brought darkness to the earth at Calvary the light could not be dimmed and the flame of His love could not be extinguished!

I say this to myself as much as to anyone here - don’t feel you have to put on a brave face in the face of trial. Go through it knowing that Jesus has trod that path already, go through it knowing that He takes your hand, go through the tunnel of darkness knowing that Jesus will never leave you alone in the tunnel!

His grace IS sufficient! His fellowship will never be shut out! His light will never be extinguished!

For discussion or thought. What dark times have you been through – or are going through? What light is there in the gloom? What might Jesus do faced with this dark time? What unrealistic things do well meaning Christians sometimes tell others facing the darkness? How can we meet these unrealistic expectations? Pray with someone with whom you feel safe about the darkness you face.

Praise the Lord!