Loving God, you give yourself to us in the hopes that our hearts will be transformed by your love and will turn back to you. Renew us this day by the power of your Spirit and strengthen our faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

It seems that Judas, as one of Jesus' disciples, has always generated discussion and interest because of his role as the one who betrayed Jesus. In fact, he was even in the news not so long ago, as we heard reports about the Gospel of Judas and its contents. Of course, this captured people's interest because it makes Judas out to be Jesus' favourite and most beloved disciple (the exact opposite of what the Scriptures describe). However, there are a few other things you should probably know about the Gospel of Judas.

First of all, there were many gospels written in the first and second centuries, most of which were not included in the New Testament. If you were actually to read any of these gospels, you would soon discover why they were not included. Many of them proclaim quite a different message from the gospel of Jesus Christ as we find it in the Scriptures. Many of them, including the Gospel of Judas, are what could be called "Gnostic" (that's g-n-o-s-tic). As such, they ignore Jesus' call to love one another as he has first loved us. In fact, the gnostic gospels ignore anything that has to do with how Christians are to treat other people. This is because, to the gnostics, the only thing that mattered was the "secret knowledge" that people could learn from Jesus. They taught that, as long as you had this special knowledge, you could do whatever you want with your bodies and simply pursue your own path. Other people just didn't matter.

Now certainly this teaching would be attractive to some people, but it has very little to do with the life and teachings of Jesus. Not only is much of Jesus' teaching ignored, but his death and resurrection are left out of the picture entirely. The Gospel of Judas which has been discovered actually ends with the arrest of Jesus. The events that followed are not deemed to be important, as the "secret knowledge" is to be found in Jesus' teaching, and resurrection and eternal life are not proclaimed at all.

Now, we've been hearing a lot the past few weeks from both the Gospel of John and the First Letter of John. You may have noticed that both of these books place a lot of emphasis on loving one another as Christ has first loved us. They also mention quite frequently the eternal life that is ours through faith in Jesus Christ. Part of the reason for the repetition of these things is that both John and 1 John were written in opposition to Gnostic teachings. And so, they go to great lengths to make sure that the message of Jesus Christ is clearly heard.

They talk about how God is the one who first loved us and who sent his Son, Jesus into the world in order that we might be saved through him. They talk about Jesus' great love in laying down his life for our sake. They talk about how all those who believe in Jesus will have eternal life. They talk about Jesus' command for us to love one another as he has first loved us, and the promised gift of the Holy Spirit who would enable us to love as Jesus loved. They talk about us been reborn by water and the Spirit, so that we might walk in newness of life. These things are the gospel - or good news - of Jesus Christ.

But what about Judas? What about the man who shows up again in today's readings as the one who was lost and the one who betrayed Jesus? When we take a look at what we know about Judas from the Scriptures, the picture that emerges is a strange one, indeed. We are never told what his occupation was prior to being called by Jesus. In fact, we are never told much about him at all. However, whenever Judas speaks up in the gospels, it always has to do with money.

When Mary anoints Jesus with costly perfume at her home in Bethany, Judas is the one who objects (Jn. 12:3-6). He sees only waste and announces that this perfume could have been sold for a large sum and the money given to the poor. However, the Gospel of John goes on to tell us that Judas didn't actually care about the poor. Rather, he was a thief who kept the common purse for Jesus and his disciples and used to take what he wanted out of it. Imagine that! Jesus putting a thief in charge of the money! Hmm. What did Jesus have in mind there?

Of course the next time we hear Judas talking about money is when he goes to the chief priests and asks them how much they would pay him if he were to betray Jesus to them. He accepts 30 pieces of silver and leads them to Jesus at the appropriate time. After Jesus has been arrested and condemned to be crucified, we hear in Matthew about the death of Judas.

Judas repents when he sees that Jesus is condemned, and he comes back to the chief priests and confesses his sin of having betrayed innocent blood (Mt. 27:4). The chief priests essentially tell him that they don't care. In despair, Judas throws the money down in the temple and goes and takes his own life. To me, it is of great significance that Judas repented in the end. He had learned from Jesus after all. He just didn't live long enough to discover the life-giving freedom of Jesus' forgiveness.

The gospel writers seem to see in Judas two things: the fulfilment of Scripture and the activity of the devil. As for the fulfilment of Scripture, several Psalms and part of Zechariah are quoted as having been fulfilled in Judas. We read there things like this: "Even my bosom friend..., who ate of my bread, has lifted the heel against me" (Ps. 41:9). "They reward me evil for good, and hatred for my love" (Ps. 109:5). "May his days be few; may another seize his position" (Ps. 109:8). "So they weighed out as my wages thirty shekels of silver... this lordly price at which I was valued by them" (Zech. 11:12-13).

As for the activity of the devil, we read that it is the devil who puts it into the heart of Judas to betray Jesus to the chief priests (Jn. 13:2). Two of the gospels report that Satan enters into Judas just before he goes to the chief priests to complete the deal (Lk. 22:3; Jn. 13:27). We can only assume that Judas' heart was far more receptive to Satan's influence than the other disciples were. Given that the only thing that we really know about Judas is his greed, this makes some sense. Biblical scholars and commentators have often written about how Judas must have hoped to get some sort of earthly gain out of following Jesus. His continued focus on how much he could get for himself made him easy prey for the devil's influence.

Yet, the question remains as to why Jesus would have called Judas Iscariot to be one of his disciples in the first place. Surely Jesus knew about Judas' greed and about how he would betray Jesus in the end. So why call him to be a disciple and even put him in charge of the common purse?

I believe that Jesus held out for Judas the same hope as he does for all of us. He held onto the hope that Judas' heart would be changed, and that, even if it was right at the end, Judas would repent and would understand and would believe. What we see in Judas, even now, is a foreshadowing of all those who would follow Jesus for the wrong reasons. Even today, there are those who profess faith in Jesus Christ only for the hope of earthly gain. I've seen them on TV. I've read about them. I've met them in person, and I've heard about them. I've known people who switched churches merely because their business contacts had dried up and they needed some new ones.

No - Judas is not the only one who would follow Jesus in the hope of some earthly gain. In fact, there is probably a little bit of Judas in all of us, just as there is a little bit of Peter and a little bit of Thomas and a little bit of Paul in us. Yet, Jesus welcomes all who come, and loves us, and teaches us, and gives himself for our life and salvation. He gives himself to us and waits for us to allow the Holy Spirit into our hearts, and to recognize his love for us, and to respond to him with the same love for God and for the people around us. Come, Holy Spirit. Amen.

Easter 7(B) Acts 1:15-17, 21-26
May 28, 2006 John 17:6-19
St. Luke's Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison Moore
? 2006 Lynne Hutchison Moore All Rights Reserved