“Merciful Father, as you have sent the Holy Spirit on Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, to write all that You wished and wanted, we pray You, send the same Holy Spirit on us, so that we may understand, appreciate Your Word, and make it our plan of life. This we ask for the merits of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.”
24 …. Before having lunch or dinner we prepare at table the necessary cutlery; depending on what we are about to eat; fish knife, spoons, forks, knives and the rest. Now, the Orientals never used cutlery. Especially fork and knives. These were considered as tools, weapons of war, being pointed or sharp objects. In fact, at table, Jesus, as all Jews did, cut, broke the bread with His hands, as we find in Matthew, 26:26:
“Jesus took the bread, broke it, and gave it to His disciples….”
The bread would look like a round thick sheet, the size of a plate. They Master used to cut pieces from it and pass it to those at table. The bread used to be folded it in such a way, so that they could scoop up liquid from the dishes, like soup or gravies. They dipped bread into special sauce made of vegetables. With this same bread they used to wipe their mouth.
This was their reasoning; once God gave us ten fingers, we use them, to eat with them. Meat or fish was eaten with the fingers.
The giving of the ‘sop’. What did this actually mean? When was it given? To whom was it given? To begin with, at table they never sat down, as we normally do. They had divans, close to the tables, on which they reclined, lengthwise, resting on the left hand elbow, whilst their right hand was left free to pick up the food and eat. Having this arrangement in mind, you can imagine that the person on your right-hand side will be very close to you, almost resting on your chest. Do you recall the Last Supper, John resting on the Master’s chest?
Now BEFORE, starting their meal, the Master, the host followed the custom of giving the ‘sop’ to his esteemed guest, this meant that who received it felt highly favoured. It was a sign of great respect for whoever received it, and, we read that Jesus gave it to Judas Iscariot.
Let’s make one thing clear. It was believed by some, and unfortunately some do STILL believe it, that Judas had committed a mortal sin because he received the Body of Jesus and then went to betray Him. Judas, did commit a grave offence, because he betrayed a dear friend, his Master, and the Son of God. But, not because he did that act after receiving the Body of Jesus, Jesus had not yet said those words of the first Consecration: “Take and eat for this is my Body”. The ‘sop’was given BEFORE the start of the meal, as was normally done.
What is more important than committing a sin or not, is the fact that Jesus gave the ‘sop’ to Judas. That means that Jesus was treating Judas to a special treatment by giving him a sign of friendship,. Yes, the giving, or presenting of the ‘sop’ was a symbol of great esteem, Jesus was telling him in other words, “Judas, you are the most esteemed guest at my supper”. And THIS is very important.
But can we imagine to what extent Jesus loved Judas, on the eve, a few hours, or minutes before Judas went to betray this same friend, his Master, who was showing him his love, respect and esteem? How difficult, if not impossible it is to understand the state of mind, Judas was in, during those few minutes…from the moment of receiving the sign of love, the ‘sop’ till the moment of betrayal…and realization of the gravity of his action.
So Jesus was trying, even on the eleventh hour, to try and show His love and esteem to Judas. But, the man from Kerioth, had decided otherwise.
It is worth looking at the Biblical Text to keep in line with the Gospel Accounts. Both, Mark and Luke did not mention anything about this ‘morsel’ or ‘sop’. But Matthew did report this in 26,23:
“Jesus told John: ‘He that dips his hand with me in the dish, he shall betray me.”
As we know the piece of bread, the morsel, was given by Jesus to Judas, as was customary…the Master breaks and distributes the bread. Judas took it from Jesus’s hand and dipped it in the sauce bowl.
Now let’s have a look at John’s account of the same happening in 13,26:
“He it is to whom I shall reach bread dipped. And as He had dipped the bread He gave it to Judas Iscariot.”
Both Quotations are taken from the Latin Vulgate. So, as we can imagine, that this action could take place, Judas must have been sitting very close to Jesus, otherwise, because of the seating arrangements in those days, it would have been impossible for Jesus to give the sop to Judas. We shall talk about this point later on. / 25
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