Commentary on the Gospel According to John John Calvin
Commentary on John
to the rage of, Satan.
By giving the sop, Christ did not give an opportunity to Satan, but rather Judas, having received the sop, gave himself up entirely to Satan. It was, indeed, the occasion, but not the cause. His heart, which was harder than iron, ought to have been softened by so great kindness showed to him by Christ; and now his desperate and incurable obstinacy deserves that God, by his just judgment, should harden his heart still more by Satan. Thus, when, by acts of kindness to enemies, we heap coals of fire on their heads, (Romans 12:20,) if they are utterly incurable, they are the more enraged and inflamed 386 to their destruction. And yet no blame is due, on this account, to our kindness, by which their hearts ought to have been inflamed to love us.
Augustine was wrong in thinking that this sop was an emblem of the body of Christ, since it was not during the Lord's Supper that it was given to Judas. It is also a very foolish dream to imagine that the devil entered essentially — as the phrase is — into Judas; for the Evangelist speaks only of the power and efficacy of Satan. This example reminds us what a dreadful punishment awaits all those who profane the gifts of the Lord by abusing them.
What thou doest, do quickly. The exhortation addressed by Christ to Judas is not of such a nature that he can be regarded as exciting him to do the action: it is rather the language of one who views the crime with horror and detestation. 387 Hitherto he had endeavored, by various methods, to bring him back, but to no purpose. Now he addresses him as a desperate man, "Go to destruction, since you have resolved to go to destruction;" and, in doing so, he performs the office of a, judge, who condemns to death not those whom he, of his own accord, desires to ruin, but those who have already ruined themselves by their own fault. In short, Christ does not lay Judas under the necessity of perishing, but declares him to be what he had formerly been.
28. Not one of those who were at table. Either John had not yet related to others what Christ had told him, or they were so much struck by it, that they lost their presence of mind; and, indeed, it is probable, that John himself was almost out of his senses. But what then happened to the disciples, we frequently see: taking place in the Church, that few of the believers discern the hypocrites whom the Lord loudly condemns.
29. Or that he should give something to the poor. It is plain enough from other passages how great was Christ's poverty, and yet, out of the little that he had, he gave something to the poor, in order to lay down a rule for us; for the Apostles would not have conjectured that he had spoken about the poor, if it had not been their usual custom to relieve the poor
386"Ils se despitent et enflamment davantage." 387"C'est plustost la parole d'un homme qui a en horreur et detestation quelque forfait."