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John 13.21-32
After saying this Jesus was troubled in spirit, and declared, “Very truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me.” The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he was speaking. One of his disciples—the one whom Jesus loved—was reclining next to him; Simon Peter therefore motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. So while reclining next to Jesus, he asked him, “Lord, who is it?” Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” So when he had dipped the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas son of Simon Iscariot. After he received the piece of bread, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “Do quickly what you are going to do.” Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. Some thought that, because Judas had the common purse, Jesus was telling him, “Buy what we need for the festival”; or, that he should give something to the poor. So, after receiving the piece of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night.
When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once.
During Holy Week, we think about Judas and his role in this drama on Maundy Thursday. It is interesting to note that he is heard from in the periscope that comes before today’s reading from the Gospel of John. Judas wants to know why the perfumed oil with which Mary anoints Jesus feet was not sold for 300 denarii and why the money was not given to the poor. Judas asked this because he had become a thief. Judas was a disciple with an agenda, but he was a necessary disciple. We always think we are picking the best people who will hold up the values of our organization, but there is often someone with ulterior motives. Judas’ was money, as far as we can tell. He could be bought, but what others meant for evil, God meant for good. Judas was always going to play a large part in the story of Jesus. Jesus already knew about Judas. You can feel in your spirit when someone is against you.
Some people like to believe God scapegoated Judas and make him the completion of God’s plan. I believe God was trying to drive another kind of message about betrayal.
Judas was a necessary disciple. Sometimes people come into our inner circle, as great enthusiasts, then turn on us and become the people who get bought. That is what makes Judas so interesting. Her is not an outsider. One cannot be a betrayer if one is an outsider. As an insider, Judas had cared about the plight of the poor—the plight of the disinherited about whom Jesus cared so much. But at some point, he turned his heart and his eyes away from the disinherited and this is what John called out in the gospel. The poor are the disinherited, and they were the focus of Jesus’ ministry. When Judas took the 30 pieces of silver out of the treasury, for what was he using it? When he turns his eyes back to the poor, when he takes the money back, in an attempt to get his soul back and intact, it is too late, for Jesus has already been crucified.
So if we focus on the betrayer without connecting it to Jesus, we only get to ourselves. This necessary disciple turned on Jesus because he could not get his own way or live out his agenda. The turning takes place in us. We betray ourselves before we betray God or other people. Judas followed Jesus, his true heart; he wanted to free the minds of the community, but Jesus’ agenda clashes with Judas’ agenda, as Jesus was not being the Messiah Judas wanted him to be. When Judas stops focusing on why he became a disciple, he betrays himself. We betray ourselves when we stop focusing on why we are followers of Jesus. We actually betray God first, then we betray ourselves and we betray the other. When we do that we betray our soul. That Judas sells Jesus is the mark of the betrayer. When he sells Jesus, he is really selling his own soul.
There are three marks of betrayal here:
The First Mark: When he decides and then takes the money
The Second Mark: When he kisses Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane
The Third Mark: When he betrays the community
He could have taken the money to save society. That would have been a disappointment, but not a betrayal .
We share the kiss of peace with one another during the exchange of the peace in non-Covid seasons in church, but that is not the kiss of betrayal.
So many agendas get communicated in a wink or a kiss or a handshake or as kick under the table in our present day.
Judas betrayed his community when he turned his eyes away from the needs of the poor. He still stays focused on getting rid of the rulers/oppressors, but he does not include the needs of the disinherited. Judas betrayed when he took his focus off the people God came to save; he only wanted to free the affluent, which is often the agenda of people who get into difficulty.
In those three marks of betrayal everyone suffers. Judas suffered and died. God suffered and died and their community suffered as they found out that the religious leaders did not have their best interest at heart. The saddest part of this experience, for the victims in the community, the disinherited, is that they never get to hear their story verified by the truth.
In this Holy Week, I pray that you might think of Judas in a deeper way than he is usually presented to us. What are the ways that we, in our own life and time, are betraying or have betrayed our God, Our Self and Our Community? You cannot pray for your enemy if you do not know who your enemy is. Whenever we have destroyed all our expectations or others have destroyed them, we look to Christ. Perhaps we need to remember that the betrayal in our lives can be the the thing that awakens us from our comfort zone, moves us to a place that God needs us to be and to the action that will make any evil mischief become God’s work for good.
So let us recognize that from betrayals in our lives can come good, reflect on the ways that we betray our own values, God, the people around us and let us give thanks for the God whose death represents salvation, forgiveness, reconciliation, hope and an extravagant love that will never ever let us go.