How easy would it be for you to show love to someone who wanted to do something very bad to you? To make the point, try to imagine you have been taken off in a car by two men who say they are going to take you to a room full of people in which they will blindfold you, hit you, spit on you, and kill you. On the way to this room, you are in a car accident. You look around and realize that you are fine, but the two mean men have been seriously injured and are barely alive. What would you do?

Wouldn’t you be tempted to get away from there as fast as you could, leaving those men to suffer and die in the same way they had wanted you to suffer and die? It would take an amazing amount of love to show mercy to those people who had threatened you and to remain at the scene and care for them and pray for them and get them help.

That is somewhat of an extreme example. But, it can help us to understand our Savior’s wondrous love in the upper room on the night he was betrayed and denied by two men who were part of his group of disciples. This betrayal and denial were all part of an evening in which Jesus was blindfolded, hit, spat upon, and the next day put to death. Yet on this somber night, Jesus took charge of the situation and showed wondrous love to that betrayer and denier as He ministered to them with his Words of law and gospel. Let’s learn of the Wondrous Love in the Upper Room where Jesus predicted his betrayal.

Put yourself in Jesus’ shoes as He was enjoying this important Passover meal, this last meal with his disciples, when He would institute his New Testament Supper. He knew that the next day he would be giving his body and blood on the cross for the forgiveness of everyone’s sins. He also knew that the one who would get the ball rolling that night would be Judas, who for 30 pieces of silver (today, we might say in approximate terms $10,000 to $15,000) had agreed to put the hated Jesus into the sacrilegious hands of the religious leaders of the people.

Think of how Jesus could have had every right and ability to say: "I know what you’re planning to do, Judas, but too bad. I’m not going out to the Garden of Gethsemane tonight. I’m going to go to Jericho. I’ll let the soldiers of the chief priests and elders decide what to do with you once they have come to the conclusion that you’ve double-crossed them."

No, Jesus said instead: "The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born." This is one of those statements that simply baffles our human minds. Jesus was going to go to his death. He told Judas He would be there! And the Scriptures had predicted one of his own would betray him for 30 pcs. of silver. He assured Judas He knew what Judas had planned. Yet God holds responsible those who go against him, even though He knows exactly what they are going to do.

One thing this warning is meant to do for each and every one of us is to bring us to our knees in humble awe of God, who loves us so much that He gives us such a warning. In this warning the Lord makes it abundantly clear that we always need to be on guard so that we never try to find an excuse to go against God, no matter how much silver, money, popularity, or enjoyment might be held out to entice us.

Resisting such temptations is difficult. We know that. It truly is enticing to follow the cries of those we want to please, who want us to do things that will displease our Lord by in effect betraying his name. Those may be temptations to lie for someone or to cheat for someone or to misuse our bodies sexually with someone. Falling to those temptations means betraying the name of Jesus, who, by enduring things like the betrayal of Judas, made us part of his dear family.

Or those temptations may be temptations that are even more direct in their efforts to get you to betray Jesus: "Why follow a Savior who has made it clear He doesn’t love you? Why else would all these bad things happen in your life?" "Why follow a Savior who has made it clear He has no power to help you or anybody else? Why else would all these bad things be happening in the world around you?" "Why follow a Savior who has made it clear that the words in the Bible that He says are his Word are obviously only the words of men? Why else would people, even in churches, keep arguing about them and fighting over them?" These temptations seek to have you betray Jesus by handing Him over to the feeble opinions of human beings who are all part of the world Jesus came to seek and to save.

What wondrous love Jesus showed Judas that night when He said to his betrayer, "Yes, it is you." In effect, Jesus was saying: "Don’t do it, Judas. I came to live for you and to die for you. I came to show my love for you. I came to give you power to live for me." What wondrous love in the upper room where Jesus predicted his betrayal.

And What Wondrous Love we see in the Upper Room where Jesus predicted his denial. Jesus was actually on his way to the Garden of Gethsemane when He predicted that tonight, all his disciples would desert Him. When Peter assured Jesus he never would, Jesus warned him: "Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times." Again, Peter wasn’t content to say he wouldn’t disown Jesus. He also said he was willing to die with Jesus!

What wondrous love that Jesus didn’t draw the sword, the way Peter did later on, and use it in righteous anger against Peter for his arrogance and foolish boasting. As it turned out, Peter couldn’t even stand up to a young servant girl, let alone suffer a martyr’s death for his Lord. Peter, of course, did exactly what Jesus said he would do, something that led Peter to bitter tears of sorrow.

Whether it seems like it to us human beings or not, Jesus was in complete control of this situation. And that can help us make a direct application of Jesus’ wondrous love in that upper room to our lives today. Isn’t it true that Jesus knows every single thing you’re going to do in the future, just as He knows every single thing you have ever done in the past? And when Jesus looks into the future, what does He see? Probably things you don’t want to think about! Things that are displeasing to God and cause us to, in effect, deny the name of our Lord: things like:

By committing such actions, we become guilty, like Peter, of denying our Lord. We end up saying, in effect, "I don’t know the man."

But isn’t it also true that our Lord Jesus displays the same kind of wondrous love to us as He did to Peter and to Judas, by calling Judas to repent of the deed he was planning to commit and by trying to prepare Peter for facing his temptation to deny him. Jesus certainly does. Saint Paul once said to the Romans: "God demonstrates his love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." The apostle John, who saw so much of this night unfold, wrote in his first letter, "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."

This is another one of those things that are simply incomprehensible to us: God knows what I’m like as a weak sinful human being. God knows what I will continue to be like and what I will continue to do. Yet God loves me. And in love He calls me to repentance, and He forgives me. He holds out his arms to me and says every day: "Come on back into my loving embrace so I can hold you and keep you safe at my side. I died for you and rose for you, and I’m waiting for you in heaven. Now go and love other people deeply from the heart, having a sincere love for all those people for whom I have done the very same thing."

Dear friends, no matter what others might do to us or think of us or say about us, we have as our Savior the one who doesn’t hate us for the things we have done, thought, and said against Him. And it is in that wondrous love, which Jesus has for us, where we find the power to do to others as we would have them do to us. The wondrous love in the upper room of Jerusalem is love that is part of our every step through life. Enjoy that wondrous love that has done the wonderful thing of enduring the betrayal and denial of men, so that you and I might never have to worry that God would ever betray or deny us! Amen.

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