“What We All Have Felt” (Betrayed)
Text: Mark 14:10-11, 44-46
I want to talk to you today about something that is NOT funny. If we could have worked it out I would have showed you how NOT funny it really is on the screen by showing you a video clip from the PASSION OF CHRIST. I'll share an experience instead.
I was pastoring a church for the very first time on the west side. After a few months my wife had been speaking to a friend she was teaching with who remarked she and her husband were looking for a church. Her husband was a singer and worship leader at their previous church and we needed one of those. We believed it would be nice to have them join us in ministry. So they attended our church, we wined and dined them and before long he was leading worship at our church. In less than a year, this young man betrayed me. I was told by some men in the church that he was meeting with them and for some reason was speaking bad about me and was trying to turn people against me.
Betrayed. A word we might forget about during the Easter season—but it is how Jesus’ march toward Calvary is sealed. It satisfied the religious leaders; it came into play with the political leaders; and even the spiritual leader of this darkened world, Satan himself, got to inhabit the main player—Judas, and give Jesus a betrayer’s kiss goodbye.
If you didn't know what the word meant, you may try to understand it by tearing it apart. BE-TRAYED = be placed on a tray =To be handed over. Actually it comes from the word be+traitor…to be “treated” as the teenage slang infers today.
The bible tells us that Betrayal happens
1. In the dark. The words we use to celebrate communion begin with the words, “On the NIGHT Jesus was betrayed…” I had a interim professor from Zimbabwe who told my class that betrayal always happens in the dark. YOU DON’T KNOW IT IS GOING ON! You are caught by surprise! “In the dark”
You feel it when you’ve been called into the office at work and you are fired. You may not have even done anything wrong, but someone needs to be blamed, things need to change, and you are the scapegoat.
BUT you had no idea of what was about to take place when you were called in. Betrayal happened to you and you were… in the dark.
The bible also tells us betrayal happens
2. By someone you’ve trusted. Your enemy has no such tool to use against you. It is an inside job --only a friend can betray –a cloaked weapon found in the hands of one you love.
In a sense it would have been better to be betrayed by a stranger or an enemy so that you would be a victim of circumstance --but you are not. You are a victim of a friend.
Perhaps you know the feeling:
• An unsigned letter by your spouse stating he’s left you for someone he’s had an affair with for the past two years.
• Your drug addicted son you've allowed shelter in your home has stolen money from you.
• You move your family to another state for a job promised to you but it does not materialize.
• The “ex” stops by to pick up the kids with her new boyfriend.
• A seven year old girl who becomes infected with HIV virus and says she hates her mother.
• A teenage girl accusing her youth pastor of sexual harassment.
Betrayal is more than REJECTION which opens the wound; Betrayal pours in the salt.
It is more than LONELINESS which leaves you in the cold; Betrayal closes the door.
It is more than MOCKERY which jabs in the knife; Betrayal twists it.
It is more than INSULT which attacks your pride; Betrayal breaks your heart.
Where there is an opportunity for love there is the opportunity for hurt --and betrayal.
What do you do when betrayal comes your way? What do you do when you are seen as a threat to the advancement of someone else's agenda?
What do you do? Get out? Get angry? Get even and take revenge?
Jesus was betrayed seven times:
1. Judas did 2. All the disciples did.
3. Religious leaders did. 4. Peter did.
5. Pilate did. 6. His own, The Jewish people did.
7. Everyone did. The whole world turned against Jesus.
You know, you may have been betrayed in your life, but if you are honest, you have done your own betraying too!
Every time you believe Satan over Jesus you betray the Christ!
Every time you sin, you betray your Lord!
Every time you act in disbelief and go the way you want to go and deny the name that saved us—we betray.
Every time we turn away from God and play the prodigal we give him a Judas kiss—we betray him.
Every time we trust in the world and all of its clubs and groups and parties and bars and associations to give us what only JESUS can give us, we betray HIM!
And when we allow the body, the church of Jesus Christ we are members of, to believe we are supporting them, loving them, honoring our promises to them—but it is all pretentious lie—because behind the church’s back, and outside these walls we are orchestrating our own agenda.
Oh sure, we want to look good to everyone, but the TRUTH is we have a betrayer’s heart. “Oh pastor, now you’ve gone from preaching to meddling!”
Petra’s Greg Voltz sang these words about what it might be like when God’s children sin, “It must be like another thorn stuck in your brow; it must be like another close friend’s broken vow; It must be like another nail right through your wrist. It must be just like Judas’ kiss.
Ray Boltz sang, “Does he still feel the nails everytime I fail? Does he hear the crowd cry crucify again? Am I causing Him pain, then I know I’ve got to change. I just can’t bear the thought of hurting him.”
Anyone here today feeling betrayed this morning?
Are there any betrayers here this morning too?
When I think of Judas’ betrayal of the Lord, I always think of someone else who denied Jesus the honor he was due—Peter. But why did Peter get off from his betrayal and Judas didn’t?
Judas went away in guilt. Peter went away in sorrow.
Judas went back to the Pharisees. Peter went back to the disciples.
Judas gave the money back. Peter had nothing left.
Judas hung himself and took his own life. Peter found life again in Christ.
And Jesus came that one day to Peter and sat with him and while eating some fish-n-chips asked him three times—on purpose to remind him of his three denials—“Do you love me?” Then feed my sheep.
After Pentecost, Peter preached at his first attempt to feed the Lord’s sheep and 3,000 were brought into the kingdom that day and baptized into a body. Through the act of forgiveness Jesus washes us. And through the act of baptism we acknowledge outside what has happened to us on the inside.
It took a couple of months—almost a year for that young man to come around to apologizing to me for what he did. It took even longer for me to be able to initiate conversation with him because of the pain I felt. But I did it.
Why? I know what it’s like to be betrayed. AND I know what it’s like to have betrayed others…and stand in need of forgiveness too.
Today, as we continue to walk the Via Dolorosa with Christ through the STATIONS OF THE HEART, we stop at the scene of the betrayal and ask ourselves—have I betrayed the Christ? Am I betraying the Lord in the faithless way I am living? Am I betraying this church, HIS body on this earth, by making them think I care, that I am devoted, that I am committed because I come here—but when I am out there, I am not the same person; BUT …I …WANT TO BE!
There is grace for you today. There is forgiveness. There is restoration for us betrayers.
When my best-friend Tyler heard that I gotten fired he called me and we talked. And when I got through sharing with him about it and it came time for us to say good-bye because of time he said these words to me, “Kent, I know you know this, but I’m going to tell you anyways… “Jesus Loves You!” I don’t know why, but those words went straight into my heart. They were exactly what I needed to hear!
The truth today is: you are a part of the body of Christ if you have renounced your dead life for the true life Christ gives. It is by faith you have been saved through faith!
Salvation is still being offered! And the Lord says, “if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts!” and “today is the day of salvation” and, “He is not lax concerning his promises, but patient towards you, not willing that any should perish, but that ALL should come to repentance.”
As an act of repentance of your betrayals; as an act of forgiving those who have betrayed you; you are asked to come forward today and take part in this means of grace and remember your baptism— insert your hand into the water of this font, and remember WHO you are and WHOSE you are!
As you walk past, touch the towel and receive the blessing I pronounce upon you today (Jesus loves you). If you desire to kneel at the altar before coming you may; if you desire to kneel at the altar after coming you may…but this is your time to receive the grace of God in your life to work God’s work in your life!
Fellow betrayers—because of the cross, I offer you …grace. Grace for your heart! Grace for your hurt! Grace for your pain! Grace for your bitterness and your hate and your depression! Why? Because Jesus knows what it is like to be betrayed…and HE loves you!
