The King Betrayed
Lenten Season: Wednesday, 12 March 2014.
Rev. Bruce Skelton, Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Highlands Ranch, Colorado
Some sins are considered “hot.” They are ones where you just lose it, like outbursts of rage or anger, lust or a mad craving for what is forbidden. Think of Adam and Eve craving and grabbing the forbidden fruit that was not theirs to have. Or think of David, burning with lust for his loyal soldier Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba. Or think of anxious Peter, slashing away with his sword and taking off the ear of the high priest’s servant.
Other sins are considered “cold.” They are the ones that coolly planned and plotted, those sins that take some thought, some scheming and some calculating. Picture Adam thinking quickly on his feet in the garden and handing over his own wife to God’s judgment. “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Think of King David plotting the death of Uriah, to cover up his affair with Bathsheba. Or think of cold-blooded Judas, one of the Twelve, scheming with Jesus enemies and then betraying his Lord with a kiss. Now that’s cold.
Dante would agree. In his fictional work, Inferno, the author reserves the innermost circle of hell for betrayers. That’s where he locates Judas’s soul. But surprisingly, Dante doesn’t surround his soul with flames. Dante places Judas into a lake of ice. His plight is to spend eternity frozen in the ice, because he had such a frozen heart when he lived.
Consider how his cold heart plotted. It started out with his greed for money which St. John highlights in chapter 12 of his Gospel which reads:
Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it.
No doubt Judas had become weary of the humble life of being a disciple of Jesus, so he was looking for a bigger payday and wondered what he could get for His friend and Rabbi. He had to get all his ducks in order and somehow keep it a secret. There would have to be hypocrisy and deception, “Is it I, Lord?” he asked with the other disciples in the upper room after Jesus announced he would be betrayed by one of them. Then he’d have to figure out the best time and place for Jesus’ enemies to arrest him. Since it would be at night, He had to think of a way to identify Jesus to the men he brought with him.
Judas was just the man Jesus enemies were looking for, at last they would have him in their grasp as they had long dreamed of and it would be with the help of one of the one of twelve men Jesus had chosen, befriended, taught, fed, and even sent out with his own authority to heal the sick, raise the dead and proclaim the kingdom of God. One he had loved.
So Judas handed the one he had called his Lord over to his enemies, singling him out with a kiss, a sign of warmth and affection. Now that’s about as cold as it gets.
But before we say, “How could he do that to Jesus?” we must take the temperature of our own icy hearts and our own evil schemes and plots. Have we ever stabbed anyone in the back? Have we ever smiled and joked with a co-worker, fellow student, friend, neighbor or family member, while at the same time spreading gossip about them behind their back. Perhaps you recall what Luther wrote in his explanation of the eighth commandment, if not, let us turn to page 321 in the front of our hymnals. Please read with me:
We should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way.
Do we do that always? I think if we are honest, we must say that we do not. We have all betrayed someone, even as we have all been betrayed ourselves and we all know how much that hurts, yet is doesn’t stop us from being cold-blooded gossips.
Judas got 30 pieces of silver for his betrayal of Jesus. We have betrayed others for much less, perhaps just to feel better about ourselves. As British playwright Somerset Maugham once told a friend, “Now that I’ve grown old, I realize that for most of us it is not enough to have achieved personal success. One’s best friends must also have failed.” There it is again, the coldness of the human heart.
Beloved that is why we all need to repent. Whether they are “hot” sins or “cold” sins, they all come from a heart that is opposed to God and capable of all sorts of evil. From King David’s lust and murder to Judas’s betrayal they and we have all earned for ourselves nothing but God’s present and eternal punishment and a spot in hell’s inner circle.
But tonight, God in His grace and mercy has gathered us together so that we might sit in wonder as we ponder the good news of how He deals with betrayers through His Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior. He is merciful with them to the end. Notice that Judas really does not catch Jesus by surprise. In fact, Jesus knew all along that this betrayal was coming because it was prophesied. Psalm 41: My enemies say of me in malice, “When will he die, and his name perish?” And when one comes to see me, he utters empty words, while his heart gathers iniquity; when he goes out, he tells it abroad. All who hate me whisper together about me; they imagine the worst for me… Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.
Also a full year or more before Jesus came to Jerusalem, after His the feeding of the 5,000 and his great “bread of life” sermon in John 6 there is this related this little incident:
After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the Twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the Twelve, was going to betray him.
You see Jesus knew what was going to happen to Him. He was and is God after all. He didn’t put up a fight. He didn’t say, “Here comes Judas, the traitor.” No, he let Himself be kissed and even called the betrayer “friend” and told him, “Do what you came to do.” He put up no fight when they seized Him, because He knew that he was there as the One who would be betrayed and handed over so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled, so that all sinners, yes even betrayers, like Judas and us could be saved.
We stare in awe and wonder as we see the will of God the Father being carried out. The Father whose love for sinners drove Him to come up with a plan to deliver man. A plan he had conceived from the foundation of the world. He coolly plotted how He would save us from the threatening peril of our sins and eternal ruin. His love for us drove Him to do for us what no other Father would ever do.
What Father would be silent while his only-begotten son was betrayed and sent to die on a cross? What Father wouldn’t spare His Son the mocking and injustice? What Father wouldn’t muster up all his strength and to stop it? Only One, God our Heavenly Father, who is so faithful about His promise to save us that He delivered His own beloved Son into death in our place. God, who forsook Jesus, deserted Him, and abandoned Him, or our sake.
Yes, it seems that when it came to our salvation, there was no one more cold-blooded than God, who allowed His Son to be handed over for sins He did not commit. You might say, He was willing to be the chief of betrayers for our sake.
Yet the Father’s plan was exactly what Jesus was eager to carry out. The Father’s plan called for Him to be betrayed in the garden and handed over to the high priest, then handed over to Pilate, then handed over to those who crucified him. And Jesus willingly submitted himself to His Father’s will, so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled and so that we might be handed over from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of light.
The Father’s plan called for Him to bear on the cross all our sins—the “hot” ones, the “cold” ones, and all the ones in between—and then triumph over them in His resurrection, because only by being handed over could His blood be shed, the blood that atones for all sin and the kingdom handed over to us and all who would believe.
Ever loyal to His Father, our King, Jesus, willingly let himself be betrayed and given to the enemy, that we might be baptized into his death and resurrection, and presented before our Father as faultless and holy. He was a far better king than craving Adam or lusting David could ever be. Jesus was and is our crucified King, willing to be handed over to die so that we might live forever. There is no better King or Lord than He. Long may He live and reign in our hearts and minds. Let Him reign forever. Amen.