Grace and Peace to you from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
What do the names Benedict Arnold and Peter Quisling have in common? If you know your history at all, Benedict Arnold betrayed the American nation to the British during the Revolutionary War. Quisling betrayed Norway, his nation to the Nazi’s during World War II. Betrayals are so offensive to us that their perpetrators soon become nouns in our language. Quisling is synonymous with a traitor, a Benedict Arnold, a collaborator, and the word and name Judas are universally known as the friend or intimate who betrays.
I always find myself puzzling over Judas as we enter into Holy Week. The gospel of John clearly marks Judas as a thief and a traitor and pointedly says that Jesus knew he would betray him. Here we see one of these complex pressure points of our understanding of Jesus as both God and Man, human and divine. As God, Jesus was and is omniscient – that is knowing all things. He knew from his first acquaintanceship with Judas that he would betray him. So, the question for me is how can Jesus allow himself to love Judas. Judas has the checkbook, he carries the 1st century equivalent of the credit card. How can Jesus allow himself to let Judas into the family circle?
We have these feeling, I think, because we like our world to be simple. We like to divide the world into two groups the good guys and the bad guys. The one’s with white hats and those who don black hats. The truth however, is much more complex. We, all of us, from the best of us to the worst of us, have both good and evil in our hearts. We might appear good, generous and righteous to everyone around us, yet in our private thoughts remember having done mean things to others. We may appear loving and kind to everyone but harbor resentments toward family members we should love. We human being are a mixed bag – and that is why Jesus’ words “Judge not lest ye be judged,” rings so true in our ears. The Pennsylvania Dutch has a folk expression that goes “When I point the finger of guilt at you, there are three more pointing back at me from my own hand.”
The disciples did not form as a group, a band of icons of perfection. Jesus also knows that Peter is going to deny him and tells him so at the last supper. John and James argue with each other on the road coming to Jerusalem about which one of them is going to be the big shot when Jesus brings in the Kingdom of Heaven. Their first concerns are with power, prestige and influence. Thomas has doubts about Jesus’ power though he had seen Jesus raise people from the dead. While all these may not be as bad in our eyes as Judas betrayal of Jesus, if we are looking for lambs without spots or blemishes we are in the wrong flock.
That is, in part, what makes tonight such an awesome night. Jesus knows when Judas is going to betray him and yet loves him even in the betrayal. Jesus knows when you and I are going to betray him too, and yet loves and understands and has compassion on us as well. We don’t know about Judas’ upbringing. We are all formed and shaped by events that we often have no control over.
We recently watched a movie at my house called “Blood Diamonds” a disturbing film about the realities of war and exploitation in Africa. Leonardo de Caprio plays a diamond smuggler who will use and exploit anyone to get rich. As the movie begins he seems callous, cold, calculating, and the consummate con man. A pretty young American reporter tries to get him to help her expose the big diamond companies who exploit this terrible situation, and at first she sits in judgment over him. Yet, as the story unfolds, we learn that he is an orphan and that his father and mother were brutally killed when he was just a teen. We discover that he has survived by his wits and street smarts and has himself been exploited and used, and we find our judgment of him softening.
Tonight’s service reminds us that we live in a fallen world, a broken world. Since Adam and Eve first questioned God and refused to trust Him, we have reaped the whirlwind of our mistrust, our fear and the subsequent alienation.
That is why we call tonight Good Friday; bad for Jesus, but ultimately wonderful, marvelous, and great for us. Judas is understood. Peter is pardoned, James and John reprieved and all of us forgiven.
In Jesus’ Name
Who We Are