I see the internet spats. The calling out. The dissension. The accusations. High profile leaders or high prolific tweeters are targeting and targeted. Social media is awash with charges and pointed fingers. We are doing the opposite of what Jesus did by shaking Judas and neglecting the greater mission. I have no doubt that this happens in real time as well. People are leaving churches and levying charges. We want our perceived Judases to hang for their crimes and destroying our Christian witness in the process.

During Holy Week, I read a devotional centered around Judas’ betrayal of Jesus in John 13:21-32. The premise of the devotional was how much Jesus loved Judas, even though he knew he would betray him and he did. Here is a snippet that I think speaks to heart of the devotional;

It is one thing to consider what Jesus would do in our situations. It is quite another to put ourselves into his life situations. When we do this, we focus on Jesus and the contexts of his decisions, instead of our own. In John 13:26, Jesus is serving the person he had just identified as his betrayer. If we were in the presence of someone we knew had planned harm to us, could we do the same? Jesus served Judas, literally and figuratively, without resentment or any effort to “get even.” Now that is love.

Our brokenness can cause us to struggle with showing love. We could feel and behave as if an “other” was a personified WMD (weapon of mass destruction) aimed at us, making us feel MAD (mutually assured destruction) in response. But we do not have to wonder WWJD. We know what Jesus did. We have his road map. Yet, his path for us may still cause us some internal struggle. We need not, even as good Christians, ignore that struggle. It is part of the process. Even Jesus was “greatly distressed in spirit, and testified, ‘I tell you the solemn truth, one of you will betray me’” (John 13:21). However, his love was greater.

Now I gleaned from the gist of the devotional that Jesus is showing us how to love our enemies. However, I found this angle a bit short sighted. Yes, Jesus did demonstrate love for Judas and overlooked the offense. But to leave it at that kind of misses the point of what was transpiring. Jesus saw Judas. He saw the betrayal. He turned the other cheek. Why? Because he saw more than Judas. He saw us. He was set to offer himself over as a sacrificial lamb to redeem those whom the Father called into his kingdom. There was something more at stake than dealing with Judas but to be the deal for mankind so that we could know the Father and reflect his glory.

It’s not lost on me that we’ll often be confronted with the same kind of betrayal that Jesus experienced. Not just betrayal of us per se, but what it represents: opposition to Christ’s kingdom and purpose. Let’s not be fooled into believing it’s something that just happens out there. Judas was in the inner circle. Judas sat at Jesus’ feet. Judas was part of the ‘leadership’ structure, if you will. Judas’ betrayal took the form of handing Jesus over to the authorities but betrayal to Christ and his mission can take on different forms–recalitrance, selfish agendas, dissension, backbiting, etc. These are betrayals than can trip us up and get us off kilter. When I see Jesus overlook Judas’ offense, it wasn’t just so he could turn the other cheek but because there was a mission and purpose that could not be stalled

Then I consider what Paul writes in Philippians 2;

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death upon a cross. (Phil. 2:3-8)

Jesus not only laid his life down for us but he did so overlooking soul staining offenses. He was more concerned about his bride than his pride, so to speak. Of course, being the sinless son of God he had none. But we surely can.

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