At supper with his friends, 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."
It’s important for me to tell you the truth, so here goes:
I have succumbed to the Kate Middleton drama online. And not just a little bit. I suspect I have seen every meme, every theory, every side-by-side photo analysis. What initially seemed like a rookie PR mistake has grown to epic proportions on social media. Whatever your theory, should you have one, about her whereabouts and status, you can certainly find someone who will agree with you and provide evidence for it. The rabbit hole is deep, my friends. I caution you to avoid it if you can.
These are the days of rapid conspiracy theories. Just this morning my X app, formerly known as Twitter, fed me all kinds of possibilities about the Baltimore Key Bridge collapse after it was hit by a large cargo ship yesterday. Was it an accident, or was it a move by fringe extremists to make a point in an election year? Is the ship captain from Ukraine? Is it because of the covid-era lockdowns? Social media has made it all too easy to spread theories, whether grounded in reality or in conspiracy, but of course conspiracy theorizing is nothing new. After all, did a man really land on the moon? Who actually killed JFK? Was Diana’s death an accident?
Similar conversations and questions about Judas’s betrayal of Jesus have arisen over the years. Scholars and laity alike discuss various possibilities to explain Judas’s motives. We could spend a long time wondering about whether Jesus and Judas planned this all along together or if Judas was a social revolutionary, or if God predestined his betrayal, or if he really was, as John says here, entered by Satan. The implications of such conversations are important and worthwhile (so long as they are grounded in reality), but they are not required for us to grasp what we can understand with the information we are given in this story. If we spend all our time wondering about Judas, we will miss what is given to us here, and perhaps that John’s intention. Today, rather than get lost in trying to understand a wild move on Judas’s part, we can focus our eyes and ears on what is true about God in these few verses.
First, Jesus is united with us in body and in spirit. Our God knows what human feelings are like. In just these few verses, Jesus experiences a troubled spirit, feels love for his friends, and connects with his friends through their bodies. All five senses are engaged on this final night of Jesus’s life: he touches his friends, he hears and sees them, he tastes and smells the meal set before them. Our bodies matter. They are not an afterthought. The rituals we share that utilize our bodies and aid our union with God in very important ways. And it’s when we taste and touch Jesus through the Eucharist that we know God’s grace and salvation. God was embodied in the person of Christ, and this story reminds us that our bodies matter, too.
Second, two things are true of Judas, as two things are true of all of us. We are capable of both darkness and light. Jesus is troubled because he knows and loves Judas. And after the betrayal, Judas is grieved because he knows and loves Jesus. Whatever the reason for Judas’s betrayal, it is through that act of darkness that God’s ultimate light is revealed. Life and death, sin and reconciliation, joy and sorrow, good and evil, hope and despair are within all of us all the time. We are more than any one thing. And even in our sinfulness, God’s glory is made known.
The good news is that despite Judas's betrayal, of which we are all capable, Jesus chose to dine with him and the disciples. Jesus washes the feet of the doubtful. Jesus does the very human and ordinary thing of sharing a meal with his beloved friends. And in so doing, God is and will be glorified. Light prevails. Grace abounds. It is Jesus’s love shown on this night and on the cross that is the hallmark of our faith. This Good News is not a conspiracy. It is a reality that compels us to embody our faith, turn toward the light, and bear witness to God’s glory made known in Christ Jesus.
Amen.
https://www.robertbuchanan.co.uk/html/sel4.html