John 13:21

John 13:21. When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and bare witness, and said, Verily, verily, etc. All the expressions of the verse indicate how deeply the spirit of Jesus was moved, the ‘troubled in spirit,' the ‘bare witness,' the ‘Verily, verily.' Compassion, however, is not the leading feature of His mind at present. It is rather horror and indignation at the thought that over against His glorious mission of love to the world there should now appear in their utmost intensity the worldliness, the selfishness, and the sin that would fain defeat it all. Therefore He was ‘troubled' (comp. on 3 John 1:12; 3 John 1:12; 3 John 1:12:27), and troubled ‘in spirit,' in the highest region of the spiritual life. Therefore He ‘bare witness:' not simply were His words plain, as compared with His previously obscure intimations of the approaching treachery (John 13:10; John 13:18), but He was now delivering a part of that mystery of the will of His Father which it was His mission to proclaim, and which announced the thickness of satanic darkness no less than the brightness of heavenly light. And therefore also He said ‘Verily, verily;' so solemn, so awful, so full of deep and far-reaching meaning, was the fact about to be realised. The same three-fold statement shows the greatness of the impression made upon the mind of the Evangelist.

I say unto you, That one of you shall betray me; sad, painful words, but as yet not understood by the disciples.