Could You Have Betrayed Jesus?
Good Morning Friends,
Ok today’s question is a tough one. But the reality is that none of us are as perfect as we would like the world to think we are. Part of the question is about whether we have changed after our encounter with Jesus. But the more pointed question embedded in today’s lectionary selection is whether we maintain our faithful walk with Christ. Judas pretended to be a disciple that loved Jesus, but he was there for the wrong reason. Could You Have Betrayed Jesus?
Scripture: After saying this Jesus was troubled in spirit, and declared, ‘Very truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me.’ The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he was speaking. One of his disciples—the one whom Jesus loved—was reclining next to him; Simon Peter therefore motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. So while reclining next to Jesus, he asked him, ‘Lord, who is it?’ Jesus answered, ‘It is the one to whom I give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.’ So when he had dipped the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas son of Simon Iscariot. After he received the piece of bread, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, ‘Do quickly what you are going to do.’ Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. Some thought that, because Judas had the common purse, Jesus was telling him, ‘Buy what we need for the festival’; or, that he should give something to the poor. So, after receiving the piece of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night. When he had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once.
John 13:21-32 (NRSV)
Message: Surely I would never betray Jesus. Surely you would never betray the Lord. Each disciple intently defended his faithfulness to Christ. As they relaxed together in the comfort and security of the upper room, in the intimate and profound presence of their Lord, in the light of the full moon, the disciples could not imagine themselves ever wavering in their loyalty to Christ. Yet they would almost to a man desert, deny or worse betray Jesus. There was a sense of urgency in Jerusalem during the Passover around 2000 years ago. Jesus was ending his earthly ministry but starting something that would extend out to all creation. He had entered the city riding upon a donkey as people threw and waved palm branches in his path. He was welcomed and praised as a conquering hero. But even then the draw to the cross was inevitable. So too we are drawn to the center point of all History. And there is something about it that is really bothersome and that, in part, I think is related to the betrayal that occurs. There’s no worse feeling in the world than to know that someone whom you thought you knew and that you could really trust, violates that trust and turns against you. Marriages and relationships are often split and destroyed because of the betrayal. I think that all of us have experienced betrayal in one form or another. It is a place of pain and also a place where the Body of a man…the body of God is broken so that creation itself might be reformed…Friends, it is here we discover that Christ’s separation was intentional… that Jesus died on purpose. The seed of God’s planting had to die so that so that new fruit might be produced. These are hard lessons for we are all sinners. So never forget how much God loves you.
Pray that Jesus can count on us to prepare for His entry once again into Jerusalem. Pray for our remembrance of how God miraculously delivered Israel from bondage and how Jesus delivers us from the bondage of sin. Pray that we share His powerful Word. Pray we believe and share what is true. Pray we promote love to God and to man. Pray we never lose our focus on the cross and its message of salvation. Pray
we guard our hearts. Pray we listen to the Lord’s warning. Pray we realize that the failure of the disciples is also possible with us. Pray we not be an unwitting tool of the devil. Pray we not love the world more than Jesus. Pray we are not led into the temptations of the world. Pray in the pressure of the moment our hearts heed the words of Christ.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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