Dear Friends,
The lectionary reading for this Wednesday of Holy Week is John 13:21-32. Please take some time and read this account of the interaction between Jesus and Judas at the Last Supper. We’ll read the rest of the story of the Last Supper tomorrow, Maundy Thursday.
Imagine this dinner, at which a small band of men who have given up their families and livelihoods to follow Jesus celebrate the Passover together. Their sharing of the age-old celebration of the liberation of the Israelites from Egypt is made even sweeter by their jubilation at Jesus’s recent triumphant entry into Jerusalem.
And then, everything goes silent and still. All talk and eating ceases abruptly when Jesus interrupts the festivities with his shocking announcement that “one of you will betray me.” (John 13:21) This is entirely unexpected, incomprehensible, even scandalous. In the abrupt silence, they look at each other with astonishment and disbelief. They are frozen in place, reclining at a low table, as is customary for the Passover seder. Peter disturbs the silence when he motions to the disciple reclining next to Jesus to signal that he, “the one whom Jesus loved,” (John13: 23) should ask Jesus to explain his extraordinary statement.
Jesus’s response is exact and precise. “It is the one to whom I give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish,” he says in John 13:26. John continues in the same verse, “So when he had dipped the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas son of Simon Iscariot.” Surely, the disciples held their respective breaths, staring in disbelief at their companion, who had walked countless dusty roads with them and listened to Jesus preach from hillsides, plains, towns, and boats. At that very moment, “after he received the piece of bread, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, ‘Do quickly what you are going to do.’” (John 13:27).
Even after Jesus’s dramatic words and his absolutely unambiguous actions with the bread, the disciples still could not yet fully comprehend that one of them would betray Jesus. They made plausible excuses, possibly more for their sakes than for Judas’s. In the continuing silence, and without a word, but with apparently mutual understanding between himself and Jesus, Judas goes out into the night.
All of this unfolds with Jesus’s knowledge and acquiescence. Although this year we won’t read John 13:18-19, Jesus had said, “I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But it is to fulfill the scripture, ‘The one who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’ I tell you this now, before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am he.”
Do you recall that feet were regarded as contemptible and filthy? And do you recall the depth of humility Mary showed when she washed Jesus’s feet with her hair? When Jesus speaks of the one who has lifted his heel against him, he is highlighting the lowliness of feet even more. In middle eastern and Asian cultures, to expose the sole of your foot to another is a sign of great disrespect, even contempt. It’s a taboo that exists to this day in many parts of Asia. One cannot lift one’s heel without exposing the bottom of one’s foot. Jesus is well aware that Judas is to lift his heel in contempt and betrayal. And Judas complies.
Scholars speculate endlessly about Judas’s complicated reasons for being such a willing player in this tragic drama. Some think he’s a revolutionary who wishes to set off the first salvo of rebellion against the tyranny of the Romans, and/or of the Sadducees, who were seen as complicit, power-hungry cooperators with the Romans. Others think he is simply a mole, collaborating with the Roman overlords. John the gospel writer speculates that Judas is just a low-life. In John 12, when Judas questions Mary so severely for using costly perfume to wash Jesus’s feet rather than selling the oil and helping the poor, John make his own bias and thoughts about Judas clear, saying “He [Judas] said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.” (John 12: 6)
Whatever Judas’s character and motives may have been, Jesus is fully aware of what he, Judas, will do. He completely understands that betrayal and treachery are to come from one of his own small band of disciples. And yet, he allows him to go forward.
Betrayal is an overwhelming failure of faithfulness. It is devastating. Those of us who have experienced betrayal in our lives recognize that such an act shakes the very foundation of our being. Relationships that give us meaning and values, bonds that were the solid building blocks of our trusted sense of humanity, are torn apart. The very notion of trust itself is radically called into question. And if it is we who have betrayed someone, we may find ourselves living with pain far greater than physical distress, until and unless we’re able to pursue reconciliation. Knowing how we ourselves deal with betrayal makes the complexity and intricacy of this part of the story, and of Jesus the man, even more compelling for people of faith.
Two thousand years after this Last Supper, Christians still cannot grasp “the why and wherefore” of Judas’s apparent contempt for Jesus. But even at this very low point, the gospels remain the “good news of Jesus Christ.” Jesus knows full well that Judas’s betrayal would cost him his life; but he also knows that such a betrayal was to result in the glorification of the Son of Man, and of God. Indeed, Judas’s betrayal launches the glorification. After Judas leaves the Upper Room to carry out his task, Jesus says, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once.” (John 13:31b-32)
Thanks be to our God who humbles himself unto death and indeed, freely offers himself up in the glory that defeats death.
I ask you again to pray intentionally every day of this Holy Week. Remember the one who unites us as a people of faith by tracing the cross on your hand as you wake or go to sleep. Let us pray now together,
Holy God,
We seek to open our ears and hearts to your call to us to sustain the weary and protect the oppressed. Uphold us in our concerns for all others on the earth, and strengthen us, that we may not only speak our prayers but act on behalf of their fulfillment. Help us to understand the depth of Jesus’s humility and to know that his acceptance of the searing pain of betrayal by one of his own followers is what brings us to salvation and to you, triune and triumphant God.
We pray for all who are impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, including ourselves. Give us the strength and courage to overcome our fear and anxiety and to offer help to those in need, even while we receive it from one another. We give thanks for all those who risk so very much every day in order to comfort and help heal those who are sick.
We lift a prayer in solidarity with our Jewish neighbors and friends and all the Jews around the world who begin Passover celebrations this evening. May they find wholeness and togetherness despite the enforced pandemic separated-ness on this most family-oriented of holidays.
Most Holy One, grant that we may be counted as members of the great cloud of witnesses who live with justice and compassion, and reveal your divine glory before all people. Amen*