We don’t talk about Judas, but…
We cannot tell the Christian story without him. Here’s why.
One of the reasons for the success of the Disney movie Encanto is that we can all relate to the theme of secrets in the family. These secrets can be about money, love, or betrayal. Or a combination of all three. When that happens, the silence can be complete. Or so it seems, for the movie contains a catchy song that begins with the line “We don’t talk about Bruno, no, no, no, but…”, and then we learn quite a lot about Bruno actually. I think it is a funny yet true observation about family secrets. They are there, and you cannot really understand the family without sensing where the secrets are.
He who is not being mentioned
As a church community, we carry our own family secrets. One secret sticks out above all others. Like the Encanto song about Bruno, we do not talk about it, but…we mention it every time we celebrate the Eucharist. We all know what happened. The combination of ambition, disappointment, and money that led to the betrayal of Jesus by his friend. This story has been so traumatic that it still influences our otherwise secularized cultures. The name of the person who betrayed his friend seems to have been cursed forever. Ever since that betrayal, no parent in their right mind would call their child Judas.
We don’t talk about Judas, and yet we cannot tell the Christian story without him. Even when we celebrate the Eucharist, Judas and his actions are recalled when the priest mentions how the Eucharist was given to us on the night Jesus was betrayed. But his name is left out.
And yet, I think there are three important reasons why the Church cannot stop talking about Judas: the memory of our own imperfection, the lasting friendship with Christ, and the power of God’s mercy in moments of despair.
Betrayals in the dark
First, it reminds us that we will never be able to celebrate a perfect Eucharist. Except for Christ, all the rest of us are sinners, capable of betraying our faith at any moment. Remember that all the disciples betrayed Jesus later that evening. Judas was the first, and then all of them fell asleep in the garden of Gethsemane when Jesus needed them in his agony. Furthermore, they all fled away – one of them even running away naked – in order not to be captured as well. Finally, Peter was to betray Christ not one, but even three times that night. But what makes the difference here is that they all came back, except for Judas. They all repented except Judas, who could not believe that Jesus was still his friend after what had happened.
Christ’s enduring friendship
This brings me to my second point. Precisely at the moment of betrayal, Jesus calls Judas his friend. That is not Jesus being cynical. In 1958, Don Primo Mazzolari, an Italian priest in Bozzolo, preached about this, saying:
“Friend! This word, which expresses the infinite tenderness of the Lord’s charity, explains why I just called him brother. In the Cenacle, he said, I will not call you servants but friends. The Apostles became the Lord’s friends: it doesn’t matter whether they are good or bad, generous or not, faithful or not, they are still friends. We cannot betray Christ’s friendship, Christ never betrays us, his friends; even when we do not deserve it, even when we turn against Him, even when we reject Him, in his eyes and heart we will always be friends of the Lord. Judas is a friend of the Lord, even when he consummates the betrayal of his Master with a kiss.”
Remember, Jesus is God. Elsewhere it says in the Bible, in the letter to the Hebrews, that it is impossible for God to be lying, and that fact is an anchor for our souls. Therefore, when during the betrayal in the garden, Jesus calls Judas his friend, He is not lying. Here we can learn how God is reaching out to a soul in deep trouble. And that is, I think, what the Eucharist has always been about, an offer of love and friendship from God to all of us, who, through our own actions, may think we have become unworthy of such love.
Snatched from the hands of despair
After his deed, Judas despairs. He tries to undo what he has started, even offering the blood money back to the people who paid him for his betrayal. But they won’t take it. What has been done, has been done. It is too late. There is no going back. In utter despair, Judas kills himself. But Psalm 51 reminds us that God will not spurn a humble and contrite heart (Psalm 51, 19).
Will Judas be saved? I don’t know. But I wonder. Every time we pronounce the Creed, we mention how we believe that Jesus descended into hell after the crucifixion before rising on the third day from the dead. What was Christ doing in hell? I hope and pray that He went looking for his friend.
A non-violent covenant
You see, this is what the new covenant of the Eucharist is all about. The end of violence, the end of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. When Christ is innocently crucified on the cross, he does so without any anger towards those who made it so “Father forgive them, they do not know what they are doing.” When Christ died, He said “it is finished” (John 19.30). Jesus has shown that there is no violence, no hatred in God, only mercy to the very end.
Therefore, it is important that we remember Judas' betrayal every time we celebrate the Eucharist. For, in an unexpected way, it contains good news for us. The new covenant that Jesus instituted is not a reward for good behaviour but a medicine to heal us from our failures, to cure us from the wounds of our own betrayals of God. To hear, even in our darkest moments, the voice of Jesus calling us his friends. He will not take it back. God does not lie to us.
That, my friends, is not a small thing. So every time we receive the Eucharist, let us listen for the voice of Jesus, saying to each one of us: my friend, no matter what you have done, I still love you. I died for you so that you can live. Now get up, repent, and live!
Sermon preached at the Eendrachtskapel (Rotterdam) on Maundy Thursday 2023.