BETRAYAL

Betrayal. I have been betrayed and I’m sure you have too. It is a pain that never seems to goes away. It is the consummate universal disease that exhibits every conceivable symptom. It generates anger, bitterness, loneliness, sleeplessness, confusion and worst of all, a feeling of spiritual and emotional helplessness. The eternal question of ‘why’ continually ransacks the mind. These feelings come at the most inopportune times. A random statement, a movie, a meeting with a friend, or a thousand other things can renew that gut-wrenching anguish. The sin of betrayal is the gift that keeps on giving. It has evidently perfected the art of ambush; just when you think you’re safe and calm, it assaults you with a vengeance. At once you feel less than human; you melt spiritually and emotionally, like a snow cone in the desert.

So what is betrayal? There are many forms of this nasty critter, but I will here concentrate on the kind that produces feelings that never go away. There are two prerequisites for this kind of extreme betrayal to occur. The first is time. One cannot be sorely betrayed by someone whom they have known for a short period of time. Relationships are like cement. They harden fast only over the passage of months and years. An acquaintance can hurt you but can hardly betray you. A second prerequisite is shared experience. When you have been through the war with someone and have taken a bullet with them, a certain trust develops. When the attack comes, you have seen that person watch your back at their own peril and you have done the same for them. You trust them implicitly. The down side is that time and experience in relationships make one vulnerable to betrayal. But there is a third mark of this worst form of betrayal and I call it intentionality. Many fail their friends or run from their friends in the heat of battle. This is sad, but it is not the most egregious form of betrayal. This kind arises from human weakness not malice. But when a so-called friend has been intentionally working against you behind the smiling handshake or the oft-repeated, ‘I love you so much’, then you have the makings of a betrayal that can destroy you.

When this happens, shock overwhelms you and this subdues the pain at first. But in time, the pain begins to grow and you begin to say, ‘I am no match for the pain of betrayal.’ Now you have officially entered the war.

You may call me a heretic but I believe Jesus also entered that war.

Now I say this with a bit of tongue in cheek for as the incarnate God, Jesus could never fall short in any area. How could God be hurt by betrayal? But let us remember Jesus was truly man. And yes, he felt betrayal and was deeply pained by it. I say this to comfort my readers who may be struggling with the pain of betrayal.

My argument is that there was no sin that Jesus ever endured that captivated His mind and soul as the sin of betrayal. In reading the gospels I find that Jesus never wrangles over any specific sin done against him except for the betrayals of Peter and Judas. I’ll leave Peter for another day. But let us look at how Jesus handled the Judas affair. I ask you, did Jesus ever mention anything the Pharisees did to him? As far as I know Jesus never mentions a specific sin committed against Him by the Jewish leaders. Nor does mention the sins of Pilate, or Herod, or the Roman soldiers. He understood the ways of the world and allowed sin to run its normal course without being shocked by it. But when it comes to Judas’ betrayal He mentions it with tears streaming down His sacred cheeks. Evidently betrayal was as tough for Jesus as it is for us. Let us examine some texts.

In John 6:70-71, after Peter confidently asserts his faith Jesus answers by saying,.

‘Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?” He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve.’

Its as if Jesus is almost saying, be quiet Peter. You think you’re so faithful to me. Even I, the Son of man, chose a betrayer to follow me! Don’t be overconfident Peter.’

In His high priestly prayer of John 17, Jesus continues to think about this impending betrayal. He prays,

‘While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.’

Jesus reminds the Father that He had kept the souls of all His disciples safe in His everlasting arms - except one; Judas Iscariot. He then goes on to note how this very event was prophesied in the Old Testament. Consider Psalm 41:7-9,

‘All who hate me whisper together against me; against me they devise my hurt.
An evil disease,” they say, “clings to him. and now that he lies down, he will rise up no more.”
Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.’

Judas was indeed a familiar friend of Jesus; a confident; the treasurer of his meager resources; a man Christ would have risked his life for. Yes Jesus loved Judas infinitely. Yet there would be a time where this ‘bosom friend’ would lift up his hand against Jesus.

Then we have Psalm 55 verses 12-14.

‘For it is not an enemy who reproaches me; then I could bear it. Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me;
Then I could hide from him. But it was you, a man my equal, My companion and my acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together,
And walked to the house of God in the throng.’

Jesus considered Judas his equal. What condescension! They walked to the temple side by side and sung in the same choir. They ate meals under the starry night and fell asleep on adjoining rocks. Then suddenly, without warning, came the reproach! It must have hit Jesus like a lead weight. It only intensified at His arrest.

You remember that night of infamy. Judas came to the place Jesus often prayed. Judas could have simply pointed out Jesus and been done with it. Rather he accosted Him with the most intimate of all human acts, the kiss. In complete incredulity Jesus barely speaks, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” Jesus had loved this man perfectly. And now this man with a dagger hidden under his friendly smile will level the fatal blow of betrayal.

Even when speaking to Pilate at the bar of justice we find Jesus is still thinking about Judas’ betrayal. Pilate of course was the man who gave permission to crucify Jesus. He boasts that Jesus’s fate was in his hands. Jesus demurs and adds, “you could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.”

This is what Jesus meant, ‘Pilate, your sin is small potatoes compared with what Judas did. You were only doing your job as a Roman governor. You didn’t really know me anyway. We had no relationship. It does not surprise me that you dispatched me to the howling wolves. No, Pilate, the greater sin by far lies at the feet of Judas, a man who claimed to love me, who served with me, who walked at my side for three years, did miracles in my name and spoke fondly about me to everyone he met. Yet deep inside was this hatred for me as he plotted my demise. This is not about you, Pilate, this is all about Judas.’

If you have been betrayed and the pain just doesn’t seem to go away, know at least that you share company with Jesus. No sin ever affected Him like this one. There will never be a sin done against you that will bring with it as much anguish as betrayal. The hard part about betrayal is that it is rarely repented of. Betrayal is a premeditated plan to destroy and thus contains a certain level of self-righteousness. Self-righteousness always resists repentance. We can even hear in our inner ear how those who betray us love to defend themselves. In Judas’ mind, Jesus was a phony messiah who seemed bent on allowing everyone to get rich at his expense. But Judas wanted earthly wealth and power. Jesus stood in his way. So he plotted the downfall. And when he saw that his plans had failed he was filled with self-pity and threw those paltry pieces of silver back at the priests. To Judas Jesus was an only as innocent slob, not the Messiah of God before whom he must bow.

That helps us understand why betrayers rarely repent. When their plans go awry they are filled with regret but they still find a way to justify their betrayal. This resistance to repentance helps us understand why the pain of betrayal rarely goes away. It remains an unresolved issue; the wound is never healed. And so the betrayer goes on with life feeling fully vindicated while you lie in a bog of confusion wondering how you can ever go on.

Now the good news. Though Jesus felt the deep anguish of betrayal, He also provided the solution to it. How so?

When Jesus went to the cross he not only died for our sins, but also for the pain of being sinned against. He died for the sting of our own sin which we committed against a holy God which He wiped out by burying it in the depths of the tomb at Calvary. But he did more. He also took away the sting of the sins committed against us. For sin no longer has the capacity to harm us permanently, no matter how egregious it is. Even the sins of others will be tried in the court of heaven and will be judged once for all. None of this lessens the temporal pain of sin. I realize that. But God’s timing is perfect and we must understand that all sin will be destroyed at the consummation of the age. In the meantime we repent for what we have done as we sin daily, and we place the sins done to us on the divine docket where they await full and final sentencing in the future. Christian, if you have been betrayed, I can tell you no more; but what I tell you is true. The pain will still be there, but the day is coming it shall never be felt again. And think of this; there will never be betrayal in heaven. In that place we shall only experience a pure, happy, mutually trusting, eternal relationship with our perfectly faithful King Jesus. In addition, our relationships with others will never be stained by betrayal. Can we wait for that day? So when Judas hits us hard, we are permitted to say ouch. Jesus said ouch. But then let us hasten to the waiting room of God’s eternal plan and wait patiently for Him to make all things right in the Age of Restoration. Amen.