Re-post: The betrayal of Judas

An old blog post that held up well, I think

[This is a post I wrote way back on April 18, 2011, on my old Posterous blog, right around this time of the liturgical year. I just reread it, and I think it’s worth sharing again, especially since today is Good Friday.]

⁴⁷ While Jesus was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, came. With him was a large crowd carrying swords and clubs. They had been sent by the chief priests and elders of the people. ⁴⁸ His betrayer had given them a sign: “ Arrest the man I kiss. ” ⁴⁹ Just then he came to Jesus and said, “ Hello, Rabbi. ” Then he kissed him.

⁵⁰ But Jesus said to him, “ Friend, do what you came to do. ” Then they came and grabbed Jesus and arrested him.

⁵¹ One of those with Jesus reached for his sword. Striking the high priest’s slave, he cut off his ear. ⁵² Then Jesus said to him, “ Put the sword back into its place. All those who use the sword will die by the sword. ⁵³ Or do you think that I’m not able to ask my Father and he will send to me more than twelve battle groups ^l of angels right away? ⁵⁴ But if I did that, how would the scriptures be fulfilled that say this must happen? ” ⁵⁵ Then Jesus said to the crowds, “ Have you come with swords and clubs to arrest me, like a thief? Day after day, I sat in the temple teaching, but you didn’t arrest me. ⁵⁶ But all this has happened so that what the prophets said in the scriptures might be fulfilled. ” Then all the disciples left Jesus and ran away. (Matthew 26:47-56, CEB)

I've been in community theatre productions of Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell (in the former, I played Judas, and in the latter, Jesus).  So I can't help picturing this scene in the way it's portrayed in those musicals: the master betrayed by his best friend.  Now, nowhere in the Bible does it actually say that Jesus and Judas were "best friends."  Sure, Jesus calls him "friend" immediately after being greeted with a kiss, but a kiss as a greeting was apparently quite common in those days.  Still, the drama is always heightened in the theatre when the friendship between Jesus and Judas is highlighted.  As I read the passage closely, the almost casual way in which Jesus responds to the betrayal makes the whole thing even more poignant.  As dramatic as the moment has been in the theatrical productions in which I've been involved, the moment in Scripture is almost mundane.  Almost.  Judas greets Jesus, Jesus calls him friend, a very normal thing.  The CEB's rendering of "Hello, Rabbi" is particularly interesting here.  No "Greetings, Rabbi!" or "Hail, Master," as the ESV or KJV render it.  No, Judas simply says "Hello," as he most likely did every single day.

Then, of course, the drama quickly increases: as one of the disciples attacks a member of the arresting party, Jesus utters his famous words, "All those who use the sword will die by the the sword."  And then he speaks of the scriptures being fulfilled, a statement that is so prominent in Matthew's gospel. And this may be why the story is so popular a subject for films or Broadway musicals.  If the scriptures are being fulfilled in this act of betrayal, then it had to happen this way.  And that is a difficult thing for us to wrap our heads around.  Especially if we're the kind of people who naturally believe in some sort of "free will."  One of the things that always fascinated me about Jesus Christ Superstar is that it grapples very directly with this very issue: if Judas had to betray Jesus, was he a pawn, was he a necessary cog in the machine?  Many Christians do not want to deal with that question.  They look at the question as accusing or challenging God himself, I guess.  But I don't think asking the question is improper.  After all the debate between Calvinists and Arminians has been raging in some theological circles for centuries.  Many sincere people, Christians and non-Christians, want to know why? why did it have to happen this way?  

When I played Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar, one year after playing Jesus in Godspell, some friends found it ironic that I would go from playing the hero to the villain, so to speak.  But I didn't look at it in that way at all.  Since I was a teenager, and first listened to the original album of Superstar, I had been fascinated by the problem of Judas.  I think I was a bit surprised later in life, when I actually read the Bible more closely, that Judas was such a "minor role," in a way.  Yes, he commits an act that has earned him the loathing and hatred of all kinds of people for twenty centuries.  Dante dealt with him particularly harshly in his Inferno.  I even remember my sweet grandpa saying quite matter-of-factly, "Oh, I have no doubt, Judas is in Hell for what he did to his Savior."  But I find it interesting that the Bible never actually states that.  On the contrary, in Matthew's gospel, at least, Judas expresses grief and regret at what he has done.  He realizes that he has betrayed an innocent man.  Sadly, he ends his life before he is able to be a witness to the Resurrection, as his friends would be.  So why do so many people assume he earned himself the hottest spot in Hell?

The thing we have to realize, and what I thought of many times as I played the theatrical role of Judas, is that we all betray Christ in some way.  We deliver him into the hands of his enemies when we use him to further our own agendas, when we live in a way that is contrary to his example, and most of all, when we don't love God as he loved God, when we don't love our neighbor as he commanded that we do.  The last sentence in the passage above is telling: "Then all the disciples left Jesus and ran away."  Sure, Judas had betrayed him directly, but the rest of the disciples betrayed him just as surely.  The rest of the apostles went down in history as great martyrs, witnesses to their faith in the Lord.  Judas has gone down in history as perhaps the most hated individual who ever lived.  Doesn't seem too fair.  That's why I recommend putting yourself in Judas's place, as I had the chance to do in that community theatre production so many years ago.  Ask yourself, how have I betrayed Jesus in what I've said and done?  Or perhaps, in what I've not said and done...