Sermon Sunday 17th March, 2013 Lessons St John 12: 1-8 Prayer of Illumination Let us pray. Grant us faith, O God. Open our heart and mind to Your Presence, Wisdom and Guidance. In Jesus' Name, we pray. Amen. Almost three years ago to the day, I preached a sermon about Judas Iscariot in which I challenged conventional thinking about him. Among other things, I questioned whether Judas was a thief because, although that claim is stated boldly in the Gospel of John, it is not mentioned (by Peter) in the Book of Acts, which was written some decades earlier. There is a question as to whether Judas hanged himself. According to the Gospel of Matthew, he did, but in the Book of Acts we are told that Judas 'fell forward, his middle burst open, and his entrails spilled out'; as colourful as that account is, hanging is not mentioned. There is a question about the thirty pieces of silver which Judas was allegedly paid to betray Jesus to the Jewish authorities. Faith narrative carefully weaves together fragments of history, theology, liturgy and mythology. In the Old Testament, Joseph is the saviour of the Hebrew people and in that story there is a betrayal and thirty pieces of silver. Have the Gospel writers borrowed from the Torah? Taken together, there may be more to the story of Judas than first meets the eye. 1
According to conventional thinking, Judas is a thief; he stole from the common purse. He cared only for himself and not for the poor. He sat at table with Jesus, received bread and wine from the hand of Jesus, then left the Upper Room later betraying Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane with a kiss. For two thousand years he has been despised. Theologians have spoken of Judas' 'vile betrayal.' This morning I want to explore in a slightly different direction from last time but again not along conventional lines. Let's explore this biblical character imaginatively. If we step away from a literal interpretation of Scripture, if we explore the possibility that the entire gospel story is a faith narrative with numerous layers and meanings, is it possible that Judas is not a historical character at all and that, somehow, Jesus and Judas are two halves of the same revelation? This is all to do with how we interpret Scripture. If the story of redemption happens in here, inside our soul, not 'back then' in history, is it possible that the figures of Jesus and Judas live inside us? Are they two faces of the same revelation? St John of the Cross, one of the greatest cartographers of the spiritual life, says 'Our greatest need is to be silent before God.' We enter the land of silence by the silence of surrender. 1 Within each of us there is deeply embedded resistance to allowing the sacred to be discovered and to flourish. St Paul 1 Martin Laird Into the Silent Land p3 2
speaks of the 'hidden self', the sacred within. Is it possible that the sacred within us is the Spirit of Jesus and that the old self, the self tied to this world and its promise, is the spirit of Judas? There is more to Judas than meets the eye. In this spiritual exploration, it is important to notice that both Judas and Jesus die on the same day. If they are two faces of the same revelation, it is no surprise that they die within hours of each other. Perhaps the resurrection of Jesus is only possible once Judas is dead? In the Gospels, Judas is portrayed as a Zealot. Zealots were members of a radical Jewish movement which sought to overthrow the Romans. Many Jews hoped for the end of the Roman occupation of their land but the Zealots were prepared to take up arms to achieve that. The Zealots wanted political freedom and, in turn, economic, social and religious freedom. The possibility of a messiah, a military leader, a revolutionary, to lead the armed militia against Caesar's army and the collaborating Jewish authorities would have excited Judas and given him hope. Judas wanted freedom and salvation by means of force. There is something very deeply human about Judas. In Hebrew, the name Judas is Judah and embedded in the name Judah are the four consonants of YHWH, the name of God. In the Old Testament, YHWH is Saviour, Liberator. Knotted together then in the character of Judas we have zeal and passion for the Living God and a burning desire to bring real change in 3
the lives of the people. Much in the teaching of Jesus will have appealed to Judas: Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. Do not believe that I have come to bring peace on earth, for I bring the sword. I have come to set son against father, daughter against mother...your enemies shall be members of your own family. I said at the outset that there is a parallel in the story of Judas with the Old Testament story of Joseph, in particular, a betrayal and thirty pieces of silver. There is an even stronger parallel than this. In the Old Testament, Joseph is betrayed by his brothers and sold as a slave to Midianite traders on their way to Egypt. I use the word 'betray' as do many translations of the Bible but, in fact, in both stories, the correct translation is 'handed over'. Joseph and Jesus are 'handed over'. Of Joseph's eleven brothers, which one handed him over to the Midianites and, in turn, the Egyptians? It was Judah. It was Judah or Judas who handed over his brother Joseph. The final parallel with the story of Joseph and Jesus is that it is by the actions of Judah and Judas the plan and will of God is brought to fruition. In the Old Testament, it is because Joseph had gone to Egypt and risen to the rank of governor that he is able to save the tribes of Israel. Joseph explicitly says so. Joseph is the saviour of his people. In the New Testament, God's plan of 4
salvation is brought about because Judas handed over Jesus to the authorities. Jesus and Judas die on the same day. In handing over Jesus to the authorities, is Judas the most faithful of all the disciples? Did Jesus single him out for this task because he was the most faithful and courageous disciple? What is going on in this faith narrative? Judas was present when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Judas heard Jesus say to Martha, 'I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.' 'I am' in that saying is a rendering of the name YHWH. The Orthodox theologian, Jean-Yves Leloup, says: Judas was profoundly impressed by the power of these words of the Teacher, and took them to heart. They meant that whoever, like [Jesus], discovered within themselves the presence of I AM, or YHWH, would never die, for they were already resurrected. 'Then [Jesus] is already resurrected...and I, too, am resurrected! What does it matter if we die? In the vision of the Transfiguration of Jesus, Moses and Elijah have already been raised from the dead. In an argument with the Sadducees, Jesus declares that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are alive: God is the God of the Living. Here He tells Martha that He is the resurrection and the life and all who discover the Spirit of I AM, of YHWH, within themselves will live and never die. No longer tied to this mortal nature, we can taste eternity now. Judas heard that 5
and believed it. Perhaps for the first time in his life, he tasted eternity. This is what faith is about: tasting the Spirit of YHWH and living from that. If Judas is in all of us, what does he represent? It maybe that, driven by compassion, Judas dreams of a God who will break into history and right the millions of wrongs in the world, that the God of justice will punish those who do wrong, that evil will be explicitly confronted and suffering will finally stop. It maybe that Judas wants God to end the political, economic, social and religious oppression of the Roman Empire, to lead the revolution. But force, Judas is the one who does; he acts. The God of Jesus is not what Judas imagines. If we say that God is All-Powerful, it is the power of love, invitation and intimacy. We are called to surrender ourselves into the hands of God, as Jesus does. It is not the power of force, coercion and destruction. The Bible is a spiritual writing, not a historical one. It teaches us about life in the Spirit. The Judas in us must die. We need to let go of the passions and priorities that would easily consume us if we let them. It is our love of power that keeps us captive to power, our love of money that makes us think that money can heal the world, and our love of this world that keeps us from surrendering to I AM. Though in some measure we need power, money, sex and property, they easily seduce us. Moved by compassion for our fellow human being, we are drawn to 6
walk with those who suffer but our salvation comes in experiencing resurrection in this life and letting go of this world. Jesus said to Pilate, 'My Kingdom is not of this world... You have no power at all against Me...' Our Western culture is going through a period of austerity but, by the standard of history, we are fabulously wealthy in material terms, in terms of scientific knowledge, health, communications and travel; yet, we are hardly a happy or contented culture. We will not find our salvation in material well-being. The Augustinian Friar, Martin Laird, tells the story of a young prisoner who cuts himself with a sharp knife to dull emotional pain. The young man said, 'As long as I can remember, I have had this hurt inside. I can't get away from it, and sometimes I cut or burn myself so that the pain will be in a different place and on the outside.' In prison, the young man contacted the Prison Phoenix Trust, whose aim is to address the spiritual needs of prisoners. It teaches prisoners to pray and meditate. After learning how to meditate and practising it twice a day for several weeks, the young prisoner speaks movingly of what he has learnt. He says, 'I just want you to know that after only four weeks of meditating half an hour in the morning and at night, the pain is not so bad, and for the first time in my life, I can see a tiny spark of something within 7
myself that I can like.' In prison of all places, the young man discovered the Spirit of Jesus within him. Learning to be silent in the silence of God brings the Presence of the I AM into view. It is a vertical relationship which transfigures and transforms our perspective and our whole life. Judas tried to find salvation in this material, physical universe through material, physical means; he has a conventional understanding of God, of God as all-powerful, capable of carelessly intervening in historical events but salvation is found in Christ, in tasting the Presence of I AM in this life. It is not that we are to abandon this world, turn our back on suffering but, as Pope Francis says, 'We are more than compassionate NGOs.' The spiritual life is a life of surrender to the silence of God, allowing that silence to descend ever deeper within us. The more sensitised we are to the Spirit, the more we will see God everywhere and in everything. In this spiritual exploration this morning, Judas clings to this world, his hope is in this world; he is a man of this earth, politiking, prone to violence and dreaming of an imaginary god, whereas each of us on our own path must journey beyond that, further than that, deeper than that. Judas must die, then the way of spiritual surrender and salvation is open to us. Amen. 8