(Opening of the sermon is the dramatic reading script ?Father Forgive Them? by Elaine Aadland for the Lenten Series, ?Watchers on the Hill,? produced by Creative Communications for the Parish © 2003)
What do you do with the story of Judas? How do you reconcile Jesus? calling of him to be one of the twelve with this tragic situation? How do you reconcile Jesus? act of salvation with Judas? acts of betrayal and suicide?
We need for a time this morning to go behind the scenes of this tragic event and look at Judas? motivation for what he did ? both in his betrayal and in his act of suicide - because there are some important lessons from this tragic event that we need to learn this morning.
First, we need to establish a couple of things that take place in the gospel of Matthew from which our main text is taken. One thing that we need to establish is that Matthew records four separate occasions when Jesus foretells of his betrayal and death.
The first occasion, recorded in Matthew 16:21- 23, comes after Peter, in response to Jesus? questions of ?Who do people say that the Son of Man is?? and ?Who do you say that I am?? to which Peter replies, ?You are the Messiah the Son of the Living God.?
?From then on,? writes Matthew in verse 21, ?Jesus began to tell his disciples plainly that he had to go to Jerusalem, and he told them what would happen to him there. He would suffer at the hands of the leaders and leading priests and teachers of the religious law. He would be killed, and he would be raised on the third day.?
The second time that Jesus foretells of his death and betrayal is in chapter 17 and verses 22 and 23 ?One day after they had returned to Galilee, Jesus told them, ?The Son of Man is going to be betrayed. He will be killed, but three days later he will be raised from the dead.? And the disciples? hearts were filled with grief.?
Notice that the word betrayal appears in this second passage but not in the first. Jesus begins to clarify the picture a little more, as to what would happen to Him in Jerusalem. He would not only be killed but someone would betray Him as well.
The third recorded occasion when Jesus mentions His death and betrayal takes place in Matthew 20 and verses 17 through 19. This discussion takes place on the way to Jerusalem when Christ would be arrested and crucified. It is His final journey to Jerusalem with the twelve before His death. ?As Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem,? notes Matthew ?he took the twelve disciples aside privately and told them what was going to happen to him. ?When we get to Jerusalem,? he said, ?the Son of Man will be betrayed to the leading priests and the teachers of religious law. They will sentence him to die. Then they will hand him over to the Romans to be mocked, whipped, and crucified. But on the third day he will be raised from the dead.?
Now the picture becomes even clearer than before and it would be interesting to note how much time had taken place between these three pronouncements. It is safe to say, based on the commonly accepted view that Jesus? ministry lasted three years, that these recorded conversations about Christ?s betrayal and death took place over that three-year period.
The second thing we need to establish is that in each of these texts the identity of who the betrayer is is not made clear. Until we read Matthew 26:12, ?While they (that is Jesus and the twelve) were eating he said, ?The truth is, one of you will betray me.? Now it gets personal. Now it becomes clearer. The foretelling of betrayal and death becomes clearer than before.
Now we have a better understanding of the shock of the disciples at this statement. Eleven of the twelve then ask Jesus, ?I?m not the one, am I, Lord?? To which Jesus responds, ?One of you who is eating with me now will betray me.? Now as they all were eating together, this did not narrow the field to one suspect.
However, Judas asks, ?Teacher, I?m not the one, am I?? And Jesus responds, ?You have said it yourself.?
Questions come flooding into my mind, ?What does the difference in the question mean? Eleven say, ?Lord? and one says ?teacher.? Why the difference? Is this indicative of a change in Judas? attitude toward Jesus?
An even bigger question to me is, ?Why did Jesus choose Judas to be one of the Twelve? Why didn?t He choose someone else who would have been faithful and loyal??
A possible answer is that somewhere along the line, Judas changed his mind about Jesus. Why?
In Matthew 26: 6 ? 13, there is the story of the woman who anointed Jesus with a jar of expensive perfume. Matthew says that all of the disciples were upset at such a waste. Mark says that some of those at the table were indignant. Luke says nothing about this at this point in his account. But John mentions Judas by name in his recording of this account as being the one who expressed indignity over this action along with this comment in verse 6 of chapter 12, ?Not that he cared for the poor-he was a thief who was in charge of disciples? funds, and he often took some for his own use.?
One assumption for the betrayal (and there are many) is based on this statement and on the belief that Judas had really expected Jesus to assert His power and authority to re-establish the Kingdom of Israel. When He did not, Judas decided to help end His life or, as other Bible scholars have thought, to force Jesus to use His power to resist arrest and fight back.
Which brings us to the first lesson that we learn from Judas: We are as close as Judas was to betraying Jesus when our motives for doing so are not the right motives or when we decide that Jesus? plan needs to be changed.
Peter?s denial is an illustration of this lesson. All of us are a short step from betraying our Lord. In Luke 22:3, we read, ?Then Satan entered Judas Iscariot who was one of the twelve disciples, and he went over to the leading priests and captains of the guard to discuss the best way to betray Jesus to them.?
The Evil One is always very close by ready to tempt us to betray the Lord. The temptation of Christ gives us some clarity here because had Jesus given in to the temptations, He would have betrayed the Father.
Why do you follow Jesus? Patrick Morley has some important things to say about our answer to this question. "The American gospel has evolved into a gospel of addition without subtraction. It is a belief that we can add Christ to our lives, but not subtract sin. It is a change in belief without a change in behavior."
Examining our motives is an important spiritual discipline. Let us learn from life of Judas.
Finally, we need to learn a lesson about God?s grace from this disciple?s tragic story.
Probably the most quoted prophetic passage about Jesus? death is Isaiah 53. It contains the memorable quotes that we hear when we are reminded in song or word of the Savior?s great love for us. But in the middle of this chapter, there is an interesting question that we need to ask aloud this morning, (verse 8) ?But who among the people realized that he was dying for their sins-that he was suffering their punishment??
I think that Judas did. I think that Judas realized that the love and grace of God was behind Jesus? action before any of the other disciples, even Peter, realized it. Unfortunately, his response to the grace and forgiveness of Christ was to reject it by letting his guilt and shame overwhelm him. Matthew describes this attitude in verse 3 of our main text with one word -remorse.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines remorse as a gnawing distress arising from a sense of guilt for past wrongs. (c) 2000 Zane Publishing, Inc. and Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. Remorse eats at you. It makes you wring your hands in despair and anxiety.
The record of Judas? state of mind at this point (and it would be interesting to know how Matthew found out about it) leads me to believe that Judas? plan for Jesus to take control shattered when he realized that Jesus was, as Matthew says, condemned to die.
Judas could not handle the outcome. His grief and guilt, his gnawing distress drove him to despair and death? That is not what Jesus wanted to have happen. He cared for Judas just as much as He cared for the other eleven.
Though Jesus said in Matthew 26:24, ?But how terrible it will be for my betrayer. Far better for him if he had never been born,? it was not God?s will for Judas to end his own life. It was God?s will for Judas to hear and experience the words of Jesus, ?Father Forgive Them.?
This is the most important lesson for us today: That no matter who we are or what we have done, God?s forgiveness through what Jesus Christ did on the cross makes forgiveness possible to everyone.
Again I close this morning with a question, Is there a single human being who is beyond Christ?s salvation? Is there someone who Jesus did not die for?
(The Morley quote is from his book Walking with Christ in the Details of Life, page 14.)
