Mark 14.1-2, 10-11, 43-46

JUDAS

(Mark 14.1-2, 10-11, 43-46)

There is no doubt that poor old Judas gets a very bad press in all four gospels.

We are only given the barest of facts concerning his life. We know that he was honoured amongst the apostles because he sat at the place of honour, beside Jesus, at the Last Supper.

He was also the Treasurer, and was naturally concerned at the apparent waste of money when the woman anointed the head of Jesus with expensive oil in the house of Simon the Leper.

He also came to an unfortunate end. Either he committed suicide by hanging himself, or else his bowels gushed out whilst in a field which he had bought with his ill-gotten gains.

However, the one fact that everyone knows about Judas is that he betrayed Jesus to the chief priests for thirty pieces of silver. A sum worth about £5 by today's standards.

Why then did Judas betray Jesus? Various answers have been given to that question over the centuries.

The gospel writers suggest that he was under the influence of the power of evil. So, St Luke says, ‘Satan entered into him', and St John says, ‘The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas lscariot to betray him.’

Elsewhere, it is suggested that he betrayed Jesus for financial gain, since he was a thief.

Others point out that, in the apocryphal book, The story of Joseph of Arimathea, Judas is described as being the son of the brother of Caiaphas, the High Priest. It is therefore suggested that Judas was never a genuine disciple of Jesus, but rather a 'plant', an 'infiltrator' or an 'under-cover agent' working for Caiaphas.

Jealousy has also been suggested as a possible motive for the action of Judas since he was never included in the inner circle of Jesus' disciples, which included only Peter, James, and John.

Or perhaps it was racial inferiority that moved Judas to do what he did in the Garden of Gethsemane, since all the disciples came from Galilee, except Judas who came from Judea.

Finally, instead of Judas being disloyal to Jesus, it is suggested that he was in fact too loyal. Let me explain. The word, 'lscariot', comes from the word, 'sicarus', and 'sicarii' were dagger bearers. These were members of a Jewish Nationalist party, who with their concealed daggers, sought to overthrow the occupying Roman forces.

It is therefore suggested that what happened in the Garden of Gethsemane was a final attempt by Judas to encourage Jesus to declare openly his intention to overthrow the Roman occupying forces. But Jesus refuses to become the person Judas wants him to become, and therefore flees from the garden a very disappointed man.

'Satan possession', financial greed, disloyalty, jealousy, racial inferiority and misguided loyalty have all been suggested as possible reasons why Judas betrayed Jesus. I leave it to you to decide whether any of these motives make sense.

But so far, we have only looked at the situation from the point of view of Judas. We have not looked at the situation from the point of view of Jesus.

Whether we like it or not, Jesus invited Judas, in the same way as he chose the other eleven, to be a disciple.

Now l don't know about you, but l find it very hard to believe that Jesus chose Judas in order to betray him. Likewise, I also find it hard to believe that Jesus chose Judas, knowing that he would betray him. To accept either of these suggestions is to imply that Jesus deliberately placed Judas in a position where deadly sin was inevitable.

Again, we are no further in knowing why Judas betrayed Jesus. It remains a mystery.

ooOOOoo

A few years ago, I had the privilege of being able to officially queue jump in order to see Leonardo da Vinci's mural of the Last Supper, on the refectory wall of the Dominican convent of Sta Maria delle Grazie, in Milan.

For years the painting had not been seen by the general public whilst artists sought to restore it to its original state. Hence the enormous queue.

The originality of the picture is that it does not depict the institution of the Last Supper, but rather the moment of the betrayal. The sublime figure of Jesus dominates the scene, filled with emotion and agitation.

It is said that Leonardo da Vinci used the same model for the face of Jesus as he did for Judas.

In other words, it reminds us all that we have it within us to be as Jesus, but we also have it within us to be as Judas. Each name begins with the letter 'J', and each name has the same number of letters.

So in the silence which follows, I invite you to consider to what extent you are like Jesus and to what extent you are like Judas.

Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace: through the same thy Son Jesus Christ. Amen