The Rev. Canon Anne E. Kitch
May 28, Easter 7B
Acts 1:15-17, 21-26
One of the highlights of my childhood was the annual Feast of Lights pageant in my parish. It was like a Christmas pageant except it covered more of the story and was presented on the Feast of Epiphany (January 6). It began with creation and followed our salvation story through the birth of Christ to the beginning of the Church. As such it included the calling of the twelve apostles. One of the featured roles was that of Judas. The older children in the pageant each carried a lighted candle. When Judas was named as the one who betrayed Jesus, that person dramatically blew out his candle and ran from the church. He would return later in the pageant dressed as Mathias (an envied costume change).
To this day, I still remember what it felt like to hear “and Judas who betrayed him” and watch that boy blow out his candle. It was as if the light of Christ within him had been extinguished. It was as if Judas no longer existed, as if he had been Xed out.
In her beautiful children’s book The Wind through the Door, Madeline L’Engle writes about a young girl named Meg who meets a cherubim. They are sent on a special mission and Meg learns that she is called to be a Namer: someone who recognizes the true self of others and names them. She is called to help people know who they are. As the Cherubim explains the chief weapon of the fallen angels is un-naming—making people not know who they are. Meg is given the difficult task of naming Mr. Jenkins, her high school principal whom she deplores (and with good reason).
“If I hate Mr. Jenkins whenever I think of him, am I Naming him?” she asks the cherubim.
“You’re Xing him,…when people don’t know who they are, they are open either to be Xed, or Named.”
Did Judas know who he was? Did he fall prey to a fallen angel, to Satan? Was he unnamed? Who was Judas called to be?
Judas has received much attention recently due to a 1700-year-old codex containing a writing called the Gospel of Judas. A brief history: for several hundred years after the death and resurrection of Jesus many people wrote about what they saw or heard or thought had happened. Part of the work of the early church was sorting through these accounts and deciding which had veracity, which held truth and contained God’s revelation. One of these many accounts written was called the Gospel of Judas. This Gospel does not purport to be written by Judas, but rather to be a secret account of a conversation between Jesus and Judas a few days before the crucifixion. Scholars knew it was out there somewhere because other early writers referred to it; most notably Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon, in 180. So why did this come to light now? Because the document containing this gospel was lost for more than a thousand years. The codex was discovered in Egypt (preserved by the dry dessert heat) and sold as an antiquity. Written in Coptic, it was stored---untranslated. It was sold again and put in a safety deposit box in New York for 16 years--where it deteriorated. Someone found it, restored it, pieced it together, and translated it. This spring it hit the front page of local newspapers. You can read it online or in print from the National Geographic Society---it is only about seven pages long.
One reason at least that this was big news is the number of people who thought it might shed some light on this betrayer of all betrayers. After all, the name Judas is notorious. To be a Judas is not a good thing. The question in almost every news report was, “Was Judas destined to betray Jesus?” But I think our question is an even deeper one. Can Judas be redeemed?
It seems that the early Church was satisfied with the explanation that Judas was somehow preordained to be a betrayer. This is what Peter says in the Book of Acts; “Friends, the scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit through David foretold concerning Judas who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus.” Scripture had to be fulfilled. It’s a fine thing for Peter to say. It’s not like he ever betrayed Jesus---or denied him three times, after he swore he never would. It’s not like the other members of “The Twelve” were deserters--who ran away after Jesus was arrested and left him to die on the cross alone (it is the women, and the one beloved disciple who are found at the foot of the cross).
It is after all convenient for Peter, and for us, to have someone to pin it all on. We don’t have to think of our own capacity to deny, to betray. After all, we didn’t do what Judas did. We didn’t betray Christ. We have never disappointed someone we loved, never made a bad choice, never felt pressured by those in power. We have never been less than who we are, never been vulnerable and open to unnaming. We have never been beyond redemption. This is what I truly believe is behind our fascination with Judas. This is what is behind the question, can Judas be redeemed. Can someone who failed so miserably in the very face of Christ be redeemed? Can we be redeemed? This is the real question. Where is the point of no return? When have I crossed the line and am beyond God’s loving salvation?
From the Cherubim Meg learns that the way to name someone is to love them. Not to feel love for them, naming is not an emotional thing, but to love them. To make loving choices towards them. To act with love. How do we love Judas? How do we love Peter? How do we love those who betray us? How do we love ourselves when we betray our very souls? Are we ever beyond redemption? Beyond love? Unlovable? Unnamed?
Judas has captured the imagination of others before now. In 1928 Thornton Wilder published a volume of 3 minute plays (which he wrote in high school and college). One is called Hast Thou Considered my Servant Job? The three characters are Satan, Judas, and Christ. Taking its title from the Book of Job (in which God tells Satan that he may test his faithful servant Job) the prologue of this play suggests that Judas is the servant of Satan, evil and faithless. As God allowed Satan to tempt Job, so Satan allows Christ to tempt Judas. The setting is after Christ’s death. As Christ ascends to his place he pauses by the realm of Satan. Satan expresses his surprise and delight at Christ’s defeat. He can hardly believe how all betrayed this Son of God. And where is his beloved fiend Judas? Judas appears, black ligature marks still visible on his neck. Satan welcomes him home. But rather than crossing to him, Judas casts the thirty pieces away from him in revulsion.
Satan speaks, “What have they done to you, …why don’t you speak to me, my son, my treasure!”
Judas is silent, eyes downcast.
Christ says to him, “Speak to him then, my beloved son.”
Judas speaks softly to Satan, “Accursed be thou, from eternity to eternity.”
The two mount upward to their due place. And Satan remains to this day, uncomprehending, upon the pavement of hell.
After all, Judas did repent. What is offered to all who repent? Where is the end of God’s redeeming power? There is no end to God’s love.
