Wednesday in Holy Week

[Jesus said,] "...one of you will betray me..."

Much has been made of the recent scholarly work on the "Gospel of Judas," which paints that biblical character in a way different light. Since I'm not up to speed on that research, I won't comment on it other than to say there is something to be gained from such study--but there are reasons why such books didn't make it into the canon.

I thought it might be fruitful, however, to think about Judas Iscariot for a while this morning.

How do you feel about this man? Was he evil incarnate? Did the devil make him do it? Was he part of a cosmic plan, and therefore had no free will? Would one of the other disciples have betrayed him had Judas decided against it? Does Judas deserve all the ill will directed his way if he was only a cog in the machine of salvation?

Here's my take on it:

I generally look upon the characters of the disciples as a composite of "the reader/listener," the one accessing the gospel narrative. The disciples model different responses to Jesus and his ministry. There's unbelief (Thomas), there's faith (Peter), there's inquisitiveness (Philip), and so on. The disciples serve as a literary device to help us understand our reaction to this event called Jesus. And one of those reactions is betrayal.

Judas betrayed because of greed ( the gospel says he was the money handler and skimmed a bit). But he also did it because he thought he knew better--that was his biggest sin. And it is ours as well.

We think we know better when it comes to what we "need" to live.
We think we know better when it comes to how to treat others.
We think we know better when it comes to how Jesus should be God.

We think we know better--and Judas is the embodiment of that.

Judas realized his mistake after the fact. Because of Judas, we have the opportunity to confess our prideful-ness and not betray our Lord. And we have Jesus' assurance that, even if we do betray him, deny him, crucify him--he will forgive.

"Father, forgive them--for they know not what they do!"

Amen