The John and Judas In Each of Us
Mar 31, 2010
Glenice Robinson-Como
The John and Judas In Each of Us
(John 13:21-32)
I must admit I was not too excited about preaching from John today. John's gospel has always been a bit challenging for me, I am not sure why. If ever I am given a choice of readings, John has usually been at the bottom of the list. I once had a professor who loved the Gospel of John. She felt it was the richest of all the other Gospels. She did not just express her love of John to the students but also to her colleagues. Year after year, we would remind the first year students, "don't forget, she really loves John"... so we began to call her, the beloved professor of John. Whenever I have to preach from John, I think of her and try to push through the many layers of this often difficult text.
There is a story about woman who decided she would allow God to show her the specific verse she needed to read each day for inspiration. So she closed her eyes, opened her Bible, and placed her finger on a verse. Opening her eyes, she read, "So Judas went away and hung himself." She quickly closed the Bible again, and, shutting her eyes, she flipped through its pages, and once again put her finger on another spot. This time she was again disappointed to read, "Go and do likewise." By then the woman was certain God would lead her to just the passage she needed, so a third time she followed the same procedure. This time she read: "What you are about to do, do quickly!" As hard as she tried she could not get away from Judas, but it is obvious that even this woman who looked for encouragement in the scriptures, in no way wanted that encouragement to be centered on Judas, the disciple who betrayed Christ.
In John's reading today we find Jesus in the center of his text as always, but there are two other participants-the beloved disciple, who is presumed to be John, the author of the gospel and Judas. As we remember, John is the disciple who sits next to Jesus in the position of honor. He is the disciple Jesus entrusted his mother to at the cross. He is the one who ran to view the empty tomb and the beloved disciple is the one who recognized Jesus by the Sea of Tiberias. John appears to be the disciple who exemplifies traits of loyalty, goodness and light. With a resume like John's we all should hope we model his example.
And then there is Judas, the one who walked miles with Christ, the one who attended the wedding in Cana to witness water turned into wine and it is Judas who Jesus predicted would betray him. In Matthew, Mark and Luke, Judas betrays Christ with a kiss. In John Judas hands him over in silence. In either scenario, I guess you can say his resume is not looking too favorably just yet!
None of us wants to be identified with Judas. But my brothers and sisters in Christ, we may be surprised but we each are a lot like Judas. You see, Judas represents us, the good faithful community. We too want to follow Christ as Judas wanted to. We too think we are following Christ, when actually we our following our own selfish images of who Christ should be for us. As a community and as individuals we often betray Jesus time and time again. It is hard for us to visualize our lives reflective of being an image of Judas or as one who would betray Christ. But if we deny being a Judas, then we deny sin. And if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Paul says, "Whoever is born into sin, is a slave to sin" and that means each of us.
When I look into the face of Judas and see myself, I remember that Judas started his walk loving Christ. Judas wanted to be a disciple so much that he too left his family and possessions. But somewhere along the journey Judas turned away from Christ in ways we all share in common such as greed, envy, doubt and fear. If we can be honest, Judas is a bitter sting which reminds us of the brokenness of our lives and how this brokenness leads us to betrayal. When we betray others, we betray Christ. When we disregard the needs of the poor, we betray Christ. When see systems of injustice and ignore them, we betray Christ; and when we do not treat one another with love, we betray Christ. In our actions of betrayal, we are at our weakest, but we can rest in knowing that it is Christ who is strong.
The Johannine Jesus will always respond to our weaknesses in love, mercy and grace. Christ loves us so, that he overcame death in order to bring new life to us, while knowing at some time we each would betray him, just as Judas. Although Christ was betrayed by Judas, the response to his betrayal was based on love and compassion. This is the very same gift Christ offers to each of us and it is also the gift Christ wants us to apply in our relationships with others.
When Jesus says in John that he will be glorified, he is pointing to the cross where all of our betrayals will be transformed and forgiven. This is why Holy week is necessary for us, because when we are in betrayal mode, we need to be reminded that we are in constant need of God's love and care.
Our message this morning is as my 98 year-old grandmother, a great theologian would say, "no one is all good and no one is all bad." I believe that would translate into, "we are both Judases and Johns". Our hope from our Gospel reading today, invites us to claim both the Judas and the beloved disciple as a part of who we are. If we forget that we are like Judas, we forget sin which distorts our reality. If we forget that we are like the beloved disciple, than we block the possibilities of hope and transformation through the power of the Holy Spirit.
As the beloved and forgiven children of God, may we embrace the freedom and grace of Christ, by realizing that these two disciples represent dialectic parts of who we truly are. So perhaps my professor was justified in her love of the beloved disciple. Perhaps today brother John presents us with an opportunity to strive to be the beloved, but to also remember when we are the betrayer, Christ stands right beside us offering love and forgiveness. AMEN.
