The Betrayers
Mark 14:1-11
On Wednesday of The Last Week, Judas agrees to betray Jesus, but his betrayal is only one among many…
Every good story has a villain—an avatar of evil, if you will, that makes the hero seem more virtuous and the story more interesting. It’s interesting, too, that in the movies it’s often the actor portraying a villain that gets the Oscar nomination. A nasty villain seems to be fun to play and fun to hate, maybe because they are a dumping ground for all of our own fears and hungers.
Go through a list of famous villains and, inevitably, you come to the name of Judas Iscariot. When we in our country think of traitors to the cause we immediately think of Benedict Arnold, who changed sides and fought for the British in the Revolution. At the time, however, people in the colonies saw Arnold as Judas—that’s how pervasive the name is in connection to villainous treachery.
As we continue our series on the Last Week, we have this story from Wednesday about Jesus visiting the home of Simon the Leper in Bethany, up on the Mount of Olives. The story of the woman pouring the ointment on Jesus’ feet is, as Jesus says, “a beautiful thing”—an act of love and sacrifice. It is really a story of anointing—anointing Jesus for burial but it is also, in some sense, the kind of anointing one does for a king. It’s an expensive, lavish gift—one that “some who were there” saw as a waste. In John’s version of the story, it is Judas who complains about the waste and John gives us a aside that Judas didn’t really care about the poor but was a “thief” who kept the disciples’ money purse and helped himself to what was in it (John 12:1-8)
Why did Judas betray Jesus during the last week?
While it’s important to read each of the Gospels in their own voices, I can’t help but wonder if Mark has this in mind since he frames the story about the anointing with two mentions of the plot of the temple authorities and the betrayal of Judas who, both Mark and John tell us, is in it for the money.
Indeed, at one level, Judas betrays Jesus for money. We could say that it was simple greed that led Judas to hand Jesus over like a kind of secret bounty hunter.
But that might not be the only reason. The motivation of Judas has been a debate for biblical scholars for generations. Some believe that Judas is really representative of all the other disciples and their ambitions—that they all want, in some way, for Jesus to finally enact a violent revolution that will depose the Romans and begin a new era of Jewish independence. Jesus had the popular support, but the disciples were probably wondering why he didn’t use it to his advantage and seal the deal. After all, what was all that riding down the Mount of Olives on a donkey on Sunday about if not a royal claim? By getting Jesus arrested, so the theory goes, it would finally force his hand. Jesus would have to fight back and the people would join him. In this theory, Judas was simply trying to get things moving—it wasn’t that he didn’t like Jesus, it’s that Jesus wasn’t following his timetable and expectations—the same timetable and expectations that the other disciples had, too.
One of the supports to this theory has to do with the term “Iscariot,” which some scholars think is connected to the term “sicarii” or “dagger men” (though other historians note that the sicarii didn’t emerge until several years after Jesus’ death). The connection goes that Jesus knew that Judas was a revolutionary and would eventually act this way, thus predicting the “betrayal” which, in the mind of Judas, is really more of a motivational technique. Judas was simply trying to further the agenda that he and the others had thought they were carrying out all along. Notice in 14:47 that one of the disciples cuts off the ear of the high priest’s servant when Jesus is arrested in Gethsemane. Why do they have swords unless they think that they’re about to start a war?
It’s interesting to think about Judas in this way. Was he trying, at least in his mind, to be braver than his peers and force the issue there in Jerusalem, getting Jesus to act with the divine power they all knew that he was capable of? The moment was slipping away and, in the mind of Judas, now was the time to take advantage. Could it be that he comes to the chief priests, then, as a kind of double agent, wanting to use their hatred of Jesus against them? He agrees to take them to where the band of disciples will be for the night outside the city, out of the sight of the crowds and maybe, he hopes, that they will quietly begin their revolution.
But then it all goes wrong and Judas becomes the villain. The truth is that he’s not the only betrayer among them, as Thursday night will prove. Here’s where Matthew’s version, which is largely taken from Mark and expanded, can help us.
As Wednesday bleeds into Thursday and Friday there are two events happening. Jesus is arrested and Peter follows him at a distance to the house of the High Priest, Caiaphas. When in Jerusalem, we go to the traditional site of Caiphas’ house in Jerusalem where the original steps Jesus and the arresting mob would have walked up are to this day. Inside the house was a courtyard and there Peter, who is considered to be the leader of the disciples, betrays Jesus three times.
Judas betrayed Jesus once, Peter denied him three times!
While he disappears from the narrative at that point in Mark’s Gospel, Matthew tells us that Judas, the one who betrayed Jesus only once, almost immediately regretted his action. He boldly marched back before the powerful, corrupt officials and proclaimed Jesus’ innocence to their faces, throwing their bribe money back at their feet for good measure.
Look at the contrast: Peter, the other fallen disciple, betrayed Jesus on three separate occasions then ran off and hid, seeking anonymity and seclusion. Interestingly that first disciple, Judas, has been named through out history as the prime example of all that is contemptible, corrupt and deceitful in human nature. (How many kids do you know named Judas?) That second disciple, Peter, is honored as the father of the church and is designated a “saint. ” (How many kids do you know named Peter?).
How did such a disparity of interpretation occur? What distinguishes Judas’ action so starkly from Peter’s?
Perhaps the simplest way to understand is to look at their motives. Judas’ treachery, we declare, was premeditated, calculated, even paid for. Peter’s act of betrayal, on the other hand, was a cowardly, spontaneous burst of emotion that profited him nothing. But there remains the unpleasant fact that Matthew tells of Judas returning the blood money, defending Jesus’ innocence before the tribunal and realizing his mistake – and all while Jesus was still alive. In contrast, Peter only sneaked back to the disciple’s fold as a mourner after the crucifixion frenzy had passed and the tomb was sealed.
The only real difference between these two betrayers – Judas and Peter – was their perception of how Jesus must see them. Judas was overcome with guilt. Although “he repented” (Mt.27:3), Judas could only envision a wrathful, Judgmental Jesus declaring him cursed according to Deuteronomic law, which put a curse on anyone who accepts a bribe to kill an innocent person (Deuteronomy 27:25). Have you ever done anything with good, if self-serving, intentions that went bad and that you immediately regretted? Could you imagine anyone possibly offering you forgiveness for your actions in those first moments of guilt and regret? That’s where Judas finds himself. Hearing only condemnation ringing in his ears, Judas cut himself off from the healing capabilities of God’s grace and, then, in an agonizing fit of self-Judgment, went out and hanged himself—the guilt was just too great.
It’s frightening sometimes how self-absorbed we can be, so much so that we only hear what we want to hear and see what we want to see. How did Judas feel? Maybe he felt like the young man from a wealthy family was about to graduate from high school. It was the custom in that affluent neighborhood for the parents to give the graduate an automobile. ‘Bill’ and his father had spent months looking at cars, and the week before graduation they found the perfect car. Bill was certain that the car would be his on graduation night.
“Imagine his disappointment when, on the eve of his graduation, Bill’s father handed him a gift-wrapped Bible! Bill was so angry, he threw the Bible down and stormed out of the house. He and his father never saw each other again. It was the news of his father’s death that brought Bill home again.
“As he sat one night, going through his father’s possessions that he was to inherit, he came across the Bible his father had given him. He brushed away the dust and opened it to find a cashier’s check, dated the day of his graduation – in the exact amount of the car they had chosen together.”
How does one recover from that kind of guilt? Judas did not and, in his self-pity, could not, so he decided to relieve himself of the guilt by taking his own life.
The difference is grace…
Peter, though, is nearly as much a betrayer as Judas, but he would react differently to what he had done, but maybe that’s because he had been listening to Jesus all along. Undoubtedly he replayed his own three pitiful denials of Jesus over and over again as he scurried off into the night. After leaving the courtyard both Mark and Matthew say that Peter dissolved in tears of guilt (Mt.26:75). Surely Peter also heard himself promising Jesus he would never deny him, even if it meant facing death (Mt.26:35).
But Peter had also heard Jesus talk over and over again about forgiveness. It was Peter who asked Jesus, “How many times should I forgive someone? Seven times?” No, Jesus said, “seventy times seven”—forgiveness is offered again and again. Indeed, Jesus often healed people by telling them their sins were forgiven. He told his disciples his blood was being poured out for the forgiveness of sins. He even would forgive those who nailed him to the cross. Both Peter and Judas had heard Jesus talk about forgiveness over and over again, but, to his credit, only Peter seemed to really understand that in the end. Later, John tells us, Jesus would restore Peter and forgive him. Even in the moment of his own betrayal, Peter must’ve held on to that possibility.
Judas did not do anything that every single one of the disciples and that everyone of us have not done. We have denied Jesus’ lordship in our lives, we’ve sold out to the worship of things instead of worshipping God. We’ve chosen to make Jesus fit our agendas rather than listening and obeying his agenda. We’re all guilty. But Judas forgot one thing, and this one thing was the difference between life and death. Judas forgot that he was only one in a long, established, distinguished tradition of God’s failed faithful. Moses, Aaron, David, Thomas, Paul—and a host of others– all committed grievous acts of betrayal against God. But each one found their way back to God’s side through the back door of grace and forgiveness.
Judas died, stigmatized by his own heart as a betrayer. Why? Because he never even tried the door. Judas couldn’t see the gift of grace. He could only see himself and his guilt. With those 30 pieces of silver, Judas thought he could buy his way into God’s presence – as if by forcing Jesus’ hand through the arrest, Judas thought the messianic age, the new kingdom, could be hurried along.
Faced with the consequences of his monumental mistake, Judas then sought to buy his way out of his betrayal by throwing that same silver back at the feet of the chief priests. But Judas could not control the tidal wave of events his actions had unleashed. In panic, Judas’ final controlling act was to take his own life. He never dared to check that back door of grace that God always leaves unlocked – and even pushes open for us.
The door is always open…
How many times have you seen someone squirming on one of life’s particularly viciously barbed hooks? How many times have you seen people self-destructing because they can’t find a way out of their guilt? And how many times have you piously thought, “There but for the grace of God go I”? That old adage should be absolutely banned from every Christian’s lips. Acknowledging the saving nature of grace in your own life is fine, but denying the possibility of its presence in the lives of others is a judas-ism. It is not ‘There but for God’s grace go I.” It is rather the redemptive cry of “There am I… with God’s grace” and then the missional cry of “There go I … for God’s grace.”
The message of the gospel is that God’s grace is available to all, that the back door to God’s loving presence is always open. In many ways, Judas is the middle name of each one of us. And Judas becomes our first name not when we betray and deny Christ, but when we deny the redemptive power of God’s grace that Christ offers every one of us.
If you’re feeling like a traitor this morning, if you’re feeling like you’re far away from God, if you’re feeling like your situation is hopeless, that God can’t forgive you, then I invite you to move from your heart to your head and think a moment. If Jesus can forgive someone who betrayed him and left him alone at a critical hour, if Jesus can forgive those who unwittingly contributed to his death—don’t you think that he can forgive you? And if Jesus can forgive you, and will forgive you, why can’t you forgive yourself or that other person who has betrayed you?
God’s grace, which Jesus offers, is never far away. The one who was betrayed will never betray us. Judas thought he could sell himself for freedom. Jesus offers us freedom, forgiveness, grace, as a free gift.
Theologian Robert Ochs says there are three ways to take a gift: It may be taken for granted, it may be taken with guilt or taken with gratitude. God is offering us all, even the Judases among us, the gift of grace.
Will you receive that gift?
Source: “The Unforgiven,” Homiletics, April 4, 1993
