Then one of the Twelve, the man called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, ‘What will you give me to betray Jesus to you?’ They weighed him out thirty silver pieces. From that moment he began to look for an opportunity to betray him.
On the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came and asked Jesus, ‘Where would you like us to prepare the Passover for you?’ He told them to go to a certain man in the city with this message: ‘The Teacher says, “My appointed time is near; I shall keep the Passover with my disciples at your house.”’ The disciples did as Jesus directed them and prepared the Passover.
In the evening he sat down with the twelve disciples; and during supper he said, ‘Truly I tell you: one of you will betray me.’ Greatly distressed at this, they asked him one by one, ‘Surely you do not mean me, Lord?’ He answered, ‘One who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. The Son of Man is going the way appointed for him in the scriptures; but alas for that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would be better for that man if he had never been born.’ Then Judas spoke, the one who was to betray him: ‘Rabbi, surely you do not mean me?’ Jesus replied, ‘You have said it.’
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The donkey Jesus rode into Jerusalem was organised without the disciples knowing, and so too, it seems, was the location for the Last Supper. Arrangements had already been made, in great secrecy we may assume. It was important that Jesus had this time with his disciples before he was taken from them.
The main emphasis today, though, is on the man who betrayed him, and whose name has been given to every betrayer since: Judas, son of Simon Iscariot. Judas had lost faith in Jesus; I used to think that he had therefore turned against him and decided to make whatever he could out of betraying him, and that may indeed be the situation here. When we idolise someone and then they turn out not to be what you thought they would be, adoration can turn a full 1800 into hatred.
But it may equally be that Judas, who like all the disciples was still thinking in terms of what Jesus had come to Jerusalem to do in terms of military victory and political change - the Romans out, the kingdom of David restored - was the one among them who was prepared to force the issue. He couldn’t understand why Jesus had held back from raising the rebellion he (and the crowds who shouted hosanna) had expected. So perhaps his aim was to force the issue, and to place Jesus into a situation where he had to fight. Only then could the rebellion begin.
I used to have a bit of a problem with those words of Jesus, “It would be better for that man had he never been born.” It sounds as though the Lord of forgiveness is saying that for this man there can and will be no forgiveness. It sounds harsh, it feels wrong. But now I see it differently: Jesus is speaking as he does out of compassion and understanding - he realises just how totally wretched Judas will feel when he realises how wrong he has been, and how stupid and futile his actions were that night. Whether he betrayed Jesus with good intentions or bad is in fact not important. He came to his senses, and realised that he had caused the death of the man he had followed as teacher and Lord. He could not understand that in fact this was what was bound to happen, this was the road Jesus had chosen to travel; so there was nothing to assuage his sense of worthlessness and guilt - he had destroyed all his hopes and dreams as well. He could not go on.
The story of Judas continues - and ends - with these verses from chapter 27, which we will take here out of sequence :-
Matthew, chapter 27, verses 3 to 10
When Judas the traitor saw that Jesus had been condemned, he was seized with remorse, and returned the thirty silver pieces to the chief priests and elders. ‘I have sinned,’ he said; ‘I have brought an innocent man to his death.’ But they said, ‘What is that to us? It is your concern.’ So he threw the money down in the temple and left; he went away and hanged himself.
The chief priests took up the money, but they said, ‘This cannot be put into the temple fund; it is blood-money.’ So after conferring they used it to buy the Potter’s Field, as a burial-place for foreigners. This explains the name Blood Acre, by which that field has been known ever since; and in this way fulfilment was given to the saying of the prophet Jeremiah: ‘They took the thirty silver pieces, the price set on a man’s head (for that was his price among the Israelites), and gave the money for the potter’s field, as the Lord directed me.’
Pray for those who are tempted to force the issue, or to create situations of conflict; and for those who for whatever reason become betrayers, or let down friends and colleagues. And pray for those who are betrayed, or forced into situations not of their choosing.
“We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you,
because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world”
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