An Anatomy of Betrayal

It is Holy Thursday and again, we will dust off our ripping of Judas to make ourselves look righteous. One of my seminary professors once said that betrayal can occur when you give someone more than they can handle or more than they deserve. Not that any of us needed him to tell us, but he went on to say that betrayal is painful. It is a common occurrence in the world in which we live but it is harder to fathom and move through when it occurs in Christian leadership and ministry. 

 

Betrayal is to have someone you trust turn on you, or to turn on someone who trusts you. Betrayal is when you share your truth with someone, and that someone weaponizes that truth against you, or when confidentiality is broken. It is when you see a smile but feel the knife. Betrayal is spreading information about people that you know will wind up another blot against them. It is not necessarily the act of telling a lie; sometimes, betrayal is telling the truth – for the wrong reasons.  Betrayal can also happen when you expect your knees to work, and they give out on the dance floor. Betrayal.

 

Judas was counted among Jesus’ inner circle. Truths were exchanged. Dreams were exposed. It was the ultimate covenant group. The prophet Robert Nestor Marley said, “Your friend knows your secret and only your friend can reveal it…” A betrayer, therefore, is usually an enemy with intimacy. Judas and Jesus were tight. Yet, the betrayer does not need to be tight with the betrayed to betray them because treachery is not limited by mere proximity.

 

Judas. The name that means “Praise” has been retired. No-one names a child Judas. I want to invite Judas to talk with us so that we might get to know him beyond what we have heard about him. He was from Kerioth, which is a warrior culture. He was a revolutionary. This is why he associated with Jesus, except that his methods were not the same as Jesus’. Judas’ people’s daily wear included little knives with pointed edges that they would use to stick into a Roman soldier whenever they got the chance. That was their way of subverting Roman rule. So, when Jesus came on the scene and called Judas, Judas was more than happy to follow Him because in Judas’ own mind, it was finally going to happen – Rome was finally going to be overthrown. But Jesus was not from Kerioth. His subversion was of a different ilk. Sizing up the situation, Judas thought that if he forced Jesus’ hand, Jesus would act as the warrior that he knew was in there.

 

It is interesting that Jesus knew who Judas was yet invited him into his inner circle and when Judas acted the way he knew how, Jesus did not try to stop him. It sounds like a set-up to me. It is also interesting that unsolicited, unprompted, and uninvited, Judas went to the religious people to broker the deal. He asked a strange question: “What are you willing to give me…?” He Judas, the one with the rare commodity left it up to the dealer to make a price. And they settled on the price of a slave. 30 pieces of silver. Betrayal is an equal opportunity destroyer and is not always motivated by money. Judas did not care about money. The story of Judas’ betrayal is therefore a warning to the church. There is always the possibility that we are willing in the end to betray the Christ; to side with oppressors in the name of evangelicalism; to quickly disclaim any association with freedom if it looks as if our budgets will shrink. If we think that it will not possibly ever be us, I would warn us that Judas is in the mirror.

 

Ultimately, is this really only, or even about Judas? Have we not scapegoated Judas enough? Look again at the wanton behaviors of exclusion, the refusal to listen to the lives of others, the penchant for standing in the way of an economic structure that will relieve the oppressed, the refusal to make sensible gun control laws, the refusal to make the church a healing entity, the comfort of sitting in the seat of the scornful, the plan to remove DEI from the medical field, the banning of book/truth from the education system, the dumping of harmful chemical waste in so-called 'third-world' countries, the occupation of these U.S. lands, making higher education inaccessible for some people, the refusal to forgive student loans, the refusal to pay equitable and living wages (from the church to Walmart), the demonizing of people's sexual orientation, the occupation of Palestinian lands. Yes. Look again in the mirror. Lynchings - I mean crucifixions continue as unarmed people of Color are murdered by empire using guns, chokeholds, prison systems, et al, laws to suppress the votes, laws to co-opt my womb into schemes of new enslavement, and the list goes on. Yes. Look in the mirror at the betrayer that looks back. For those who are suffering, the rending of life gets worse. "Woe to the downpressa!" (Bob again). More tables here to flip, Jesus! 

"One (or many) of you," says Jesus. "Not I," we cry. "Lies" I say. To those who oppress: hear again 1 John 1:9 which says that if we confess our sins (meaning if we own the shit that we do, and turn away from them and towards a more excellent way) God who is faithful, just and will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

#holythursday #maundythursday #judas #betrayal