Luke 22:47-48

47 While he was still speaking a crowd came up, and the man who was called Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him, 48 but Jesus asked him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?”

Sermon

We are taking a look tonight at Judas and his betrayal of Jesus. This event is one of the great betrayals in history. Marcus Brutus betrayed Caesar on the day we remember as “the Ides of March” (March 15). My grandfather always wanted me to know about Benedict Arnold growing up. I have no idea why, it was important to him. Ephialtes betrayed the Spartans.  

If you appreciate fiction betrayals, you’ll think of the Cipher from the Matrix, or one of my personal favorites, Lando Calrissian in the empire strikes back.  

Yet Judas is unique. No one has ever betrayed such an innocent, wonderful man.  

Charles Templeton – friend of Billy Graham – became an agnostic.  

“How do you assess Jesus?” “He was,” Templeton began, “the greatest human being who has ever lived. He was a moral genius. His ethical sense was unique. He was the intrinsically wisest person that I’ve ever encountered in my life or in my readings. His commitment was total and led to his own death, much to the detriment of the world. What could one say about him except that this was a form of greatness?” 

How can Judas’ betrayal give us God’s greatness?  

One of the first things everyone says is that you and I are basically just like Judas.  

Why is this important?  

  • Some would say, you’ve got to get your values and your priorities right. And they’re right. If you are a Christian who wants to worship God first, then you have to say, “Maybe I could be like Judas and betray or at least turn my back on the Lord.”  

  • If you a more secular person, and honestly, I think for all of us, you’ve got to say this to yourself: 

  • Judas lived in a society that was very communal. It was less important what I believed. What we believed was more important. We are much more individualistic.  

  • Am I more likely or less likely to choose according to our values? We’ve said, I reject the pull of my family and community to define our values. Not as much in this town or this community, but I still hear a lot of people saying, I’ve got to find my own way. I need to make my own choices. That’s okay. Really!  

  • The question is, are you, relying on your own strength more or less likely than Judas to choose according to your values? 

Because one of the things this COVID-19 does is make us realize, maybe I don’t have as much of a foundation as I thought. Maybe my values aren’t what they should be. Then if I realize that I’m not as good at making decisions according to my values as I thought, or to put it another way, my decision making process isn’t as healthy as I assumed, where does that leave me?  

See? I think it matters if you and I are basically like Judas. Is it the case that you and I are basically like Judas?  

  • JD Greear, “All of us have [a price]; or have had [a price] where our commitment to Jesus stops and you sell him out.  

  • Martin Franzmann puts it this way, “Every person has a “savior,” something that he thinks saves his life from nothingness.”  

I would say that it’s better to say, “everyone has the capacity to do what Judas did”. I always think, would I have done what Jesus did? Honestly, I have no idea. 

Remember everything Judas saw the week before 

  • Triumphant entry 

  • Jesus cleanses (wrecks) the temple 

  • Jesus argues with (and defeats) all the religious leaders 

  • The Passover and Jesus instituted a new covenant “This is the new covenant in my blood”.  A new religion. 

You have to imagine, you are a deeply patriotic person. Someone has marched on Washington DC. They have wrecked the White House and driven out the president. They went down to Congress, both the House and the Senate, and won all the debates on the floor. They went to the Supreme Court and made a mockery of the judges. And then that person went to St John’s Episcopal Church, “The Church of the Presidents”, won arguments with the bishops and cleaned the church out.  

Some people would cheer. Some people would be rightly absolutely terrified. They would say, we have a tyrant on our hands worse than we could ever imagine.  

Would I have done it? I have no idea. But here is what you can’t say. 

You can’t say Judas was just a bad guy. You can’t say he was a bad apple.  

  • The Bible tells us he was a thief (John 12:6). Petty theft.  

  • Jesus accepted him.  

  • He sent him out on mission trips. Multiple trips. That already puts him in a special category. A lot of us don’t have service or mission trips under our belts.  

  • He was fiscally minded and a good steward of the resources. “Hey, do we really need to spend money on that?” 

  • There is absolutely no evidence that he was a murder, an adulterer, an abuser, an embezzler (not a Bernie Madoff) And the theft he committed was petty theft.  

You can’t say Judas missed out on the Holy Spirit.  

  • He performed miracles. He went healing, casting out demons, preaching and teaching just like the rest of the disciples.   

You can’t say he just made one big, bad mistake. Something no one else would ever do. That’s definitely not accurate because betrayal happens all the time.  

Maybe you could say, he made a special mistake. One that is very unique to his circumstances. I’m not even sure if that is accurate.  

People always sin according to their circumstances.  

People sin in ways that are appropriate for their normal condition in life.  

I mean I grew up in an intact, two parent household. I don’t think I ever really lacked for anything of any substance in life – food, clothing, a roof over my head, or even an education. Along with that all, I was safe. I was secure. I was not afraid.  

What does that mean about sin in my life? Well, for various reasons, sin tends to show up for more as arrogance, self-righteousness, coldness of heart, passive aggressive snark, and sarcasm. Sin for me is not usually theft or adultery or more outwardly harmful actions. I don’t have any need for them. It’s not even adultery.  

It’s not stuff that has to do with me physically having a place in this world. It has do with me relationally securing my place in the world.  

Compare me with someone born in where I used to live and work in Milwaukee, like the 53206 zip code which is the highest incarceration rate zip code in the country. They have the exact same sinful pride as I do. The same amount, the same strength, give or take a little.  

What is his sinful pride going to look like? It will probably look very different. He will probably be violent. He’ll fight to secure his place in the community. He’ll act out in other ways that lead to incarceration. 

What I’m saying is, while it’s possible that someone makes one big “oooops”, that’s not really how life works. People sin according to their situations. If you’ve made a big “oooops”, it’s probably because you’ve made a lot of little oops leading up to it. No one becomes a thief, adulterer, or drug addict over night.  

You know what is really frightening?  

John Gottman, marriage researcher. Spent a ton of time investigating why some marriages and others don’t. Why do some people stay faithful when others fall apart? He can predict divorce with 91% accuracy.  

“happy marriages are based on deep friendship”.   

(Is there something about nothing intrinsically different?)  

Everyone has the capacity to do what Judas did. Everyone has the capacity to turn on our best friend.  

Part 2  

But if that is all that we are getting out of this, we are missing the point. What should we really see?  

In verse 47, Jesus says “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” He actually calls him out for what he is doing ahead of time.  

I think to really get these words, we need to remember what happens this day.  

  • Jesus just celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples. Passover is an ancient meal dating back to the Exodus from Egypt.  

  • A key element of that meal was the Passover Lamb. One lamb from that meal was sacrificed for the family. That blood was used to cover over the sins of the people. 

  • It was at that very meal where Jesus said, “What you are about to do, do quickly.” We even hear that the disciples thought he was supposed to buy something for the dinner.  

  • The next time we meet Judas he is in the Garden of Gethsemane with an armed guard.  

  • That armed guard will hand Jesus over for “examination” or testing, and then  

What Jesus is saying with these words is, Judas, you think you are betraying the Son of Man. Let me tell you what is really happening here. You are handing over the Passover Lamb.  

An old pastor, John Gerhard, says it this way. “Judas was no ordinary Christian; … he is brought to the point where he betrays His Lord and Master and leads him to the table of blood.” (Johann Gerhard, History of the Suffering and Death, pg 75)  

You see what this? If what is in Judas is in all of us, and Judas is the one who hands over Jesus for us, then it’s no different from each and every one of us saying, “here is my sacrificial lamb. Here is the sacrifice for my sins.”  

Each and every one of us can say, “there go my sins. I’m handing over my lamb for sacrifice.”  

Part 3 

And when you see that, that is the one thing that will keep you from doing what Judas did – to yourself, to your friends and family, or to Jesus.  

We are so driven by guilt.  

Anyone a fan of Matthew McConaughey? McConaughey actually had this really good insight in HBO’s TV show “True Detective”. McConaughey said, “Look – everybody knows there’s something wrong with them. They just don’t know what it is. Everybody wants confession, everybody wants some cathartic narrative for it. The guilty especially. And everybody’s guilty.” http://www.mbird.com/2014/02/everybodys-guilty-on-true-detectivei/ 

And this is something that a man named James KA  Smith, one of the better philosophers in America today has pointed out. “here is a truth...: people want to confess.”  

You want to get rid of your guilt so you can be joyfully, gladly loyal and faithful to him?  

Listen to him say, “Are you betraying? No, you silly Judas, I’m handing myself over. I’m your Passover lamb.” He is here to take away your sins.  

And if you need someone physical, flesh and blood to listen to your sins, you find yourself a good friend or pastor who will point you to Jesus and say, “Look, there go your sins.” That’s God’s greatness.