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Sermon: Holy Week Refelections - Wednesday
St Alban's Anglican Church Epping 7:45 pm - 20th April 2011
Last year my wife and I were able to attend a performance of the Oberammergau Passion Play. It was most impressive. The play was performed before an audience of about 4,000 in an auditorium shaped like a large aircraft hangar. It began in the early afternoon and finished at 10.00 pm. There was a single interval for a tea break.
What was of particular interest was the representation of the main characters, both visually and in their spoken parts. For example, every representation on film that I have seen of Pontius Pilate has depicted him as an elegant Roman leader; the kind of person who might read Virgil before going to sleep at night. In the play, he was a rough, tough Roman soldier reminiscent of Russell Crowe in “Gladiator”. The Jewish leaders wore hats shaped like mushrooms each about a metre high and a metre wide at the top. Very few of the lines in the play spoken by Judas Iscariot are to be found in the New Testament.
The spoken text was more extensive than the sayings as recorded in the gospels but attempted to be in character with the persons involved, as recorded in the Biblical text.
Tonight’s reading from John deals with the betrayal of Christ by Judas Iscariot. Judas is an enigma partly because the gospels tell us little of him and his motivation is puzzling. I cannot recall hearing a sermon on him.
We first hear of Judas when Jesus appoints the twelve apostles.1 Judas is the last in the list. Matthew and Mark add after Judas’s name “who betrayed him”. At some stage, Judas became in charge of the funds of the apostles.2 John accuses him of pilfering the funds.3 Judas was present when Jesus supped with Martha and Lazarus in Bethany just before the Passover.4 John says Judas protested at Mary anointing Jesus with nard and falsely asserted that the nard should have been sold and sale proceeds given to the poor. According to Matthew, more than one disciple protested;Mark does not identify the protestors.5 Immediately after the Bethany, Judas went to the chief priests and made a contract with them that, for a fee, he would betray Jesus to them.6 Luke and John provide a reason for the action of Judas, namely, that “the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas …. to betray him”.7 The betrayal is effected, Judas identifies Jesus and Jesus is arrested in the presence of Judas.8 Matthew records that Judas later repented andbrought back the fee (thirty pieces of silver) to the chief priests and elders, saying “I have sinned in betrayinginnocent blood”. When the offer is rejected, Judas discarded the pieces of silver, left the temple and committed suicide.9
What should one make of this? What can we learn from it?
Was Judas motivated by the love of money? Was he upset by the incident at Bethany?
The play depicted Judas as a zealot, that is, one of those Jews who revolted against the Roman rule of Israel, who sought to expel all foreign rule and re-establish the kingdom of David of 1,000 BC when Israel was powerful and independent. The zealots expected a military messiah.
There is nothing in the gospels to suggest that Judas did not follow travels of Jesus with the other disciples. If so, he would have seen the miracles, such asthe feeding of the multitudes, the healing of the sick, the conferring of sight on the blind, and the raising of Lazarus. These were all actions that might be expected of a messiah sent by God.
However, Matthew also records that shortly before the Bethany incident, Jesus said to his disciples : “Your know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of man will be delivered up to be crucified.”10 If Judas had thought that Jesus was the expected military messiah, those words should have convinced him that he was wrong. The “real” messiah, in Jewish thought, was not to die and certainly not to be crucified.
Did Judas follow Jesus for political reasons? Did Judas think that, if he could trick the Jewish leaders into moving against Jesus, he could force Jesus into leading a political revolt? Was his repentance and suicided motivated by the failure of his scheme?
We do not know.
Some commentators assert that Judas may have been mentally deranged.
Whatever the motivation of Judas, one can say that thi actions were a denial of the love which heshould have had for Jesus as the leader of the group and for the other disciples.
In both Old and New Testaments we are taught to love one another.11 The writer of Hebrews urges his readers to: “Let brotherly love continue”.12
So much of what we read of happenings in our community and elsewhere are an obvious denial of love by one person or group to another or others. What can we do?
We can be an example to those we know, we can pray for those we so know who are injured and we can pray for those we do not know who are injured.
One may expect that many of those who read the letter to the Hebrews in the time when it was written or who heard it read would not have known writer except, perhaps, by reputation and would not have been known to writer of the letter. One may also expect that the writer of the letter hoped that the letter would be read by many and read to many. Yet, the writer of Hebrews asks his readers to pray for him in his troubles.13 We can do that. We should do that. We can pray for those we know and for those we do not know.
For example, my wife and I regularly pray for Christian missionaries, that they may persevere in the face of opposition or indifference and that they may not be troubled by civil disturbances.We also pray for Christians minorities in countries where there is anti-Christian behaviour. We may know little or nothing mostly of the particular people that we pray for.
When Jesus called Judas to be one of his disciples, Judas must have regarded him as a potential follower and disciple. Judas failed him.
We must not fail to help our fellow Christians.
Neil Cameron
1 Matthew 10.4, Mark 3. 13, Luke 6.16
2 John 13.29.
3 John 12. 6.
4 Matthew 26. 6 – 13. John 12. 1 – 8.
5 John 12. 6, Matthew 26.8, Mark 14.4.
6 Matthew 26. 14-16, Mark 14. 10-11, Luke 22. 3-6
7 Luke 22. 3 and John 13. 2.
8 Matthew 26. 17 – 56, Mark 14. 43 – 50, Luke 22. 47 – 54, John 18. 3 – 12.
9 Matthew 27. 3 4
10 Matthew 26. 2.
11 For example, Luke 10.27.
12 Hebrews 13. 1.
13 Hebrews 13. 18.