“There was at the table reclining in Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved.”  This is the first time John thus speaks of himself.  He never uses his own name.  His place was at the right of the Lord.  There he reclined during the meal, once changing his position, as we shall see.  Judas was probably next to Jesus on His left.  This allowed them to talk together without others knowing what they said.

John begins his story of the upper room as a supplement to Luke’s record of the contention.  He first tells two things about Jesus,—­His knowledge that His hour “was come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father,” and His great and constant love for His disciples.  With these two thoughts in mind, how grieved He must have been at the ambitious spirit of the Apostles.  He had once given them a lesson of humility, using a little child for an object lesson.  That lesson was not yet learned; or if learned was not yet put into practice.  So He gave them another object lesson, having still more meaning than the first.

But before making record of it John, as at the supper in Bethany, points to Judas.  We are reminded of the traitor’s purpose formed while Mary anointed and wiped Jesus’ feet.  So awful was that purpose, so full of hatred and deceit, that John now tells us it was the devil himself who “put into the heart of Judas ... to betray Him.”  “Humanity had fallen, but not so low.”

John seems to have well understood his Master’s thoughts and interpreted His actions in giving the second object lesson.  He noticed carefully, and remembered long and distinctly, every act.  Was there ever drawn a more powerful picture in contrast than in these words,—­“Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He came forth from God, and goeth unto God, riseth from supper, and layeth aside His garments; and He took a towel, and girded Himself.  Then He poureth water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded.”

This was the service of a common slave.  It is easy to imagine the silent astonishment of the disciples.  The purpose of Jesus could not be mistaken.  It was a reproof for their contention.  The object lesson was ended.  John continued to closely watch His movements, as he took the garments He had laid aside and resumed His seat at the table.  The very towel with which the Lord had girded Himself, found a lasting place in John’s memory, worthy of mention as the instrument of humble service.  What a sacred relic, if preserved, it would have become—­more worthy of a place in St. Peter’s in Rome than the pretended handkerchief of Veronica.

[Illustration:  THE LAST SUPPER Benjamin West Page 158]

Christ’s treatment of one of the disciples at the feet-washing left a deep impression on John’s mind.  With sadness and indefiniteness the Lord said, “He that eateth My bread lifted up his heel against Me”:  one who accepts My hospitality and partakes of the proofs of My friendship is My enemy.  For that one whoever it might be, known only to himself and to Jesus, it was a most solemn call to even yet turn from his evil purpose.  But the faithless one betrayed no sign; nor did Jesus betray him even with a glance which would have been a revelation to John’s observant eye.