John 13:21Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

After He had entrusted this to them, as to men who were to go throughout the whole world, He thought of the traitor. He had lost both blessings and would profit from neither.

He would profit neither from patience amid labors nor from the services of those who would receive them. Therefore He was again troubled in spirit.

The Evangelist indicates this and shows that this was why He was troubled, adding: “When Jesus had said this, He was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said: ... one of you will betray Me.”

Again He brings fear upon all, without naming him. Although the Apostles were conscious of no evil in themselves, they were perplexed. They believed the words of Christ more than their own thoughts.

The Lord reflected that the betrayer had lost both things: endurance in labors and the services of men who would receive the apostles. Therefore He "was troubled in spirit," that is, He felt sorrow in His soul. "And He testified." This means that He foretold, testified beforehand, and declared it. Some understood the words "one of you" in this way: one will betray Me who has fallen away from your choir and gone out from among you. Likewise, the expression "Behold, Adam has become like one of us" (Gen 3:22) has been explained rather subtly: he became like one who had fallen away from us, that is, the devil. For as he fell away, so this one, through disobedience, became one outside us. That is, he fell away from us.

To whom is it not evident that our nature possesses neither concepts nor words by which the properties of the divine and ineffable nature could be expressed with full truth and accuracy? Therefore we are compelled to use words suited to our nature, if only to clarify somewhat the things that exceed our mind. Indeed, how can one clearly express something that surpasses even our thought itself? For this reason, taking the roughness of human concepts and words as a kind of symbol or image, we must try, as far as we can, to pass to the very properties of the Godhead. So it is also with the dreadful wrath of God in rebukes and with His strong hatred of the wickedness of those against whom this must be directed by divine judgment, although God is ineffably long-suffering.

Was Jesus troubled not in the flesh but in spirit because He was about to say, “One of you will betray Me”? Did this come to His mind for the first time?

Or was it suddenly revealed to Him for the first time, so that the news of so great an evil troubled Him? [...]

Was it because He now had to reveal the betrayer, so that he would no longer remain unknown among the others, but would be separated from them? Was this what caused Him to be troubled in spirit?

Or was it because the betrayer himself was ready to go to those Jews to whom he would hand over the Lord? Was His spirit troubled by the inevitability of the Passion?

Was it troubled by the nearness of danger and by the pointing hand of the betrayer, whose decision He knew beforehand? Something of this sort troubled the spirit of Jesus. [...]

Therefore He was troubled, Who had authority to lay down His life and to take it up again, cf. Jn 10:18.

What then? Was so great a power troubled? Was so firm a rock shaken? Or is it our weakness that troubles Him? Certainly so.

Let the servants not think anything unworthy of their Lord, but let them recognize themselves as members of their Head, cf. 1 Cor 12:27.

He Who died for us was also troubled for us. He Who died by authority was also troubled by authority.

He Who transformed the body of our humiliation into conformity with the body of His glory, cf. Phil 3:21, also took into Himself the feeling of our weakness, having compassion on us in His soul.

Therefore, if the Great, Brave, Faithful, and Invincible One is troubled, let us not fear for Him as though He could fail. He is not perishing. He is seeking us. [...]

Let the arguments of the philosophers perish, who claim that disturbances of the soul are not proper to the wise man. [...]

The soul of a Christian must know disturbance, not from calamities, but from compassion.

Brothers, a serious question arises before us in the reading from the Gospel of John, where he says: “When Jesus had said this, He was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said: Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me.”

Was Jesus troubled not in body, but in spirit, for the reason that He was about to say, “One of you will betray Me”?

Did this then first enter His consciousness? Was it then suddenly revealed to Him for the first time, and did the unexpected news of such evil trouble Him?

Had He not spoken of this a little earlier when He said, “He who eats bread with Me has lifted up his heel against Me,” Jn 13:18?

Had He not said still earlier, “You are clean, but not all,” Jn 13:10? Then the Evangelist added, “For He knew who would betray Him,” Jn 13:11.

He had already pointed to him earlier, saying: “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And one of you is a devil,” Jn 6:70.

What, then, does it mean that He was now troubled in spirit when He testified and said: “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me”?

Or was He troubled in spirit because He was now about to point him out, so that he would not be hidden from the others, but separated from the others?

Or was it because the betrayer was already about to go out and bring the Jews, so as to hand the Lord over to them?

Did the approaching Passion, the threat of danger, and the hovering hand of the betrayer trouble Him, whose intention He knew beforehand?

Certainly there is some likeness between Jesus being troubled in spirit and His saying, “Now My soul is troubled; and what shall I say? Father, deliver Me from this hour!” Jn 12:27.

As His soul was then troubled when the hour of suffering was drawing near, so now He was troubled in spirit when Judas was about to go out and come with the Jews.

The betrayer’s crime was drawing near. Therefore He was troubled in spirit.

Thus He was troubled Who had authority to lay down His life and had authority to take it up again, cf. Jn 10:18.

Was such mighty authority troubled? Was the firmness of the rock troubled? Or rather, was our weakness troubled in Him?

It was precisely so. Let the servants think nothing unworthy of their Lord, but let them see themselves as members of their Head.

He Who died for us was troubled for us. He Who died by authority was troubled by authority.

He Who transformed the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of His glory, cf. Phil 3:21, also transformed in Himself the feeling of our weakness, sympathizing with us in the affections of His soul.

Therefore, when the Great, Strong, Confident, and Invincible One was troubled, we should not fear for Him as though He were perishing.

He is not perishing, but seeking us. Yes, I say, He is seeking us, us ourselves, in this way.

Let us see ourselves in this disturbance. Then, when we are troubled, we will not perish in despair.

When He is troubled, Who is not troubled without willing it, He encourages the one who is troubled against his will.

Let the arguments of the philosophers perish, who assert that disturbances of the soul have no power over the wise man.

The ideal of the untroubled wise man was characteristic of many schools of ancient philosophy. Democritus seems to have been the first to speak about ataraxia, that is, calm, imperturbability, and composure.

This ideal of the imperturbable and passionless wise man received special development in Epicureanism and skepticism, and also among the Stoic philosophers, whom blessed Augustine mentions especially at the end of the passage.

God has turned the wisdom of this world into foolishness, cf. 1 Cor 1:20. The Lord knows the thoughts of men, that they are vain, cf. Ps 93:11.

Certainly the Christian spirit is troubled, but not by grief alone. It is troubled by mercy.

It fears lest people be lost to Christ, and it grieves when someone is lost to Christ. It longs for people to be found by Christ, and rejoices when people are found by Christ.

It fears also for itself, lest it be lost to Christ, and grieves if it finds itself estranged from Christ. It longs to reign with Christ and rejoices, having hope of future reigning with Christ.

Thus there are four feelings, fear, grief, love, and joy, which are called disturbances of the soul.

Blessed Augustine here points to the well-known Stoic teaching concerning the four affections of the soul. It occurs in him elsewhere: On Diverse Questions 14.8-9; Confessions X.14.21-22; Questions on the Heptateuch I.30.

According to Stoic teaching, these affections rule ordinary and ignorant people. But the Stoic wise man, through attaining wisdom and discipline, can avoid their power over himself.

Let Christian souls, when they have righteous causes, show these feelings.

Let there be no agreement with the error of the Stoics or philosophers like them. They truly regard emptiness as truth, and insensibility as health.

Here the Latin term stupor may be rendered in the sense of the Stoic notion of passionlessness.

They do not know that the spirit of a man, like a member of the body, is hopelessly sick when it loses the feeling of pain.

But someone will say, “Must the Christian spirit also be troubled because of the approach of death?”

For why did the Apostle say that he had a desire to depart and be with Christ, Phil 1:23, if the thing he desired could trouble him when it approached?

In fact, it is not difficult to answer this question for those who also call joy a disturbance of the soul.

For if this is so, then the spirit is troubled at the approach of death because it rejoices that death is near.

But they will say that this should be called satisfaction, not joy. Yet what is this, if not a desire to call the same feeling by different names?

But let us turn our hearing to the Holy Scriptures. Better, following them, let us seek the answer to this question with the Lord’s help.

Concerning what is written, “When Jesus had said this, He was troubled in spirit,” let us not say that He was seized by joy. Otherwise He will refute us by His own words: “My soul is sorrowful unto death,” Mt 26:38.

Some similar feeling should be understood here also, when Jesus was troubled in spirit. His betrayer intended to go out alone and immediately return with his accomplices.

Indeed, those Christians, if there are any, who are not at all troubled by the approach of death are very steadfast.

But are they more steadfast than Christ? Who would utter such madness?

What does it mean that He was troubled, except that in His Body, that is, in His Church, He comforted the weak?

He voluntarily likened Himself to them in His weakness. Thus, if any of His members are troubled in spirit at the approach of death, they may look to Him.

Because of this, they will not think that they act wrongly by being troubled, and they will not sink into the heavier death of despair.

Therefore, how great a good must we expect from participation in the Godhead of Him Whose disturbance calms us and Whose weakness strengthens us!

Whether He was troubled in this passage out of pity for perishing Judas himself, or because of the approach of His own death, there should be no doubt at all.

He was troubled not through weakness of spirit, but by His authority, so that despair over salvation might not arise in us when we are troubled not by our authority, but by weakness.

Yes, He certainly bore the weakness of the flesh, which weakness was destroyed by the Resurrection.

But being not only man, but also God, He surpassed the whole human race immeasurably in the firmness of His spirit.

Therefore He was troubled not by anyone’s compulsion, but troubled Himself. This was expressed quite clearly in the Gospel when He raised Lazarus.

There it was written that He troubled Himself, see Jn 11:33. The same should be understood even in those passages where this is not written expressly.

That is, even in those cases where the text does not use the reflexive pronoun, as in the passage about Lazarus, where it says turbavit seipsum, “He troubled Himself.”

Even there we still read that He was troubled. Of course, when He judged it necessary, He stirred up human feeling in Himself by His own authority.

By the same authority He took upon Himself the whole man, hominem totum.

Blessed Augustine means that the Son of God in the Incarnation took upon Himself the whole fullness of human nature: body and soul, including human reason and emotions.

Brothers, the structure of this chapter of the Gospel, presented in today’s reading, is such that we must say something also about the betrayer of the Lord.

The Lord pointed him out clearly enough when He dipped the bread and handed it to him.

Although in the previous discourse I spoke about Jesus being troubled in spirit when He was about to point him out, perhaps I did not say there what the Lord deigned to indicate to us through His disturbance.

Namely, it is necessary to bear false brethren and thus to endure the tares among the wheat in the Lord’s field until the time of harvest.

If some urgent situation compels separation from them before the harvest, this cannot happen without disturbance in the Church.

The Lord, as though foretelling this future disturbance of His saints through schismatics and heretics, showed it figuratively in Himself.

When the impious man Judas departed, he had been mixed with the wheat, and had long been borne with there. When his clear intention to separate appeared, the Lord was troubled not in the flesh, but in spirit.

For His spiritual members are troubled in such situations not because of malice, but because of love.

They fear that, when some tares are removed, some stalks of wheat might also be pulled up with them.

Therefore Jesus was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said: “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me,” Jn 13:21.

“One of you” in number, not in merit. In appearance, not in virtue. By bodily mingling, not by spiritual bonds. By the association of the body, not as a companion in unity of heart.

“Therefore he is not one who is truly of you, but one who is about to go out from among you.”

For how could what the Lord testified and said be true, “one of you,” if what the author of this Gospel says in his Epistle is also true?

“When Jesus had said this, He was troubled in spirit.” Here the Evangelist calls strong grief and agitation over the destruction of the betrayer “spirit.” From intense compassion for him Jesus Christ was troubled, because He grieved deeply over him. In explaining the words “He groaned in spirit” (Jn 11:33) in the narrative about Lazarus, we said that “spirit” there means intense agitation. “And He testified and said, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me.’” “He testified” means that He openly announced the betrayal.

In the narrative about the disclosure of Judas as the betrayer, there is the following difference among the Evangelists. Luke, who relates this history very briefly, says that after Jesus Christ's prediction about the betrayer, the disciples "began to question one another, which of them it could be who would do this." John also points to this circumstance, saying that "the disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom He spoke" (22). Matthew and Mark do not indicate this circumstance. They assert that the disciples were deeply grieved and began to say to Him, each one of them: "Is it I.

The sorrow of Jesus over the betrayer. The presence of Judas at this farewell supper troubled Jesus. Judas had to leave, leaving Him alone with the remaining Apostles. But he did not leave and shamelessly looked at everyone. Wishing to show him that he was out of place there, Jesus addressed all the Apostles and said: "Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me. Yet so it must be, for everything in the life of the Son of Man happens as it was foretold about Him. But woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been better for that man if he had not been born" (Mt 26:24).

The disciples did not give proper attention to this indication, and after the washing they took their places at supper. The Teacher took the middle and principal place. John reclined on His right, and Judas Iscariot apparently reclined on the Savior's left. He had brazenly taken this place himself, claiming some precedence over the other disciples as keeper of the common purse. Peter's place was apparently at the edge of the next couch, to the left of Judas. When the supper began, the Savior started to explain to them the meaning of His action, namely as a visible lesson in the humility with which they must treat one another. But His gaze fell on Judas, and His spirit was saddened.

"He was troubled in spirit" (cf. the notes on Jn 12:27; 11:33, 38). The indication of the disciple-betrayer had already been made by the Lord during the Paschal supper, and it had been made directly (cf. Mt 26:21 and following; Mk 14:18 and following; Lk 22:21 and following), though quietly. The dispute over primacy that arose among the disciples, and the Lord's washing of His disciples' feet, somewhat effaced the heavy and troubling impression of this indication. But Judas, even after the direct indication that he was the betrayer, which the disciples did not notice in their confusion, continued to recline at the supper, hiding behind hypocrisy and brazenness.

If Judas’s betrayal appears shocking even to a pure human soul, what was it for the God-man? The purer and holier the soul, the more repulsive sin is to it. “The agitation of Jesus is a movement against the impiety of the betrayer,” says St. Cyril. On the other hand, could the loving heavenly Teacher fail to grieve over the destruction of one of His chosen disciples? Bitter future! Yet the prediction of it was necessary for believers (Jn 13:19).

The same words at the end of verse 21 are also recorded by the first two Evangelists, and of course they were most deeply engraved in the memory of the disciples' hearts: "Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray Me" (Mt 26:21; Mk 14:18). In Luke the Evangelist the same thought is expressed in other words: "But behold, the hand of him who betrays Me is with Me on the table" (Lk 22:21). Or, more precisely, only the Lord's introductory words to the sorrowful disclosure, or words that supplement it, are recorded. But only John the Evangelist notes that sorrow of the Lord's human soul which took hold of Him when He revealed this to His disciples. Concerning the expression "He was troubled in spirit," compare the study of verse 27 of chapter 12.