Lent 2025 Day 37: Wed 16 Apr
Matthew 26:49-55
49 Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, ‘Greetings, Rabbi!’ and kissed him. 50 Jesus replied, ‘Do what you came for, friend.’
Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him. 51 With that, one of Jesus’ companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear.
52 ‘Put your sword back in its place,’ Jesus said to him, ‘for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. 53 Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?’
55 In that hour Jesus said to the crowd, ‘Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? Every day I sat in the temple courts teaching, and you did not arrest me. 56 But this has all taken place that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled.’ Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.
Jesus betrayed by a kiss, Michael D. O'Brien
It had to happen this way. Yes, Jesus could have called on a detachment of angels to protect him had he wished. He did not do that, because it had to happen this way. Jesus allows the arrest to take place.
He berates the crowd, which we assume is the people who had come along as part of the arresting party that had disrupted the stillness of that Gethsemane night. Why had they come under cover of darkness? Why didn’t they arrest him when he was teaching in the Temple courts? Surely, they could have pulled up a charge of heresy or blasphemy against him and whisked him off?
Any scheming chief priest could have devised a plan to arrest Jesus once the Passover festival was over and the crowds had left and the city would have settled down again from the nationalistic fervour that accompanied the Passover festival. There were plenty of opportunities. They could have arrested him outside Jerusalem, in some small town somewhere. It wouldn’t be difficult to monitor his tracks and seize a good opportunity. But then, they may have relished the significance of killing him in front of so many present. And, of course, Jesus the Lamb of God is destined to die at Passover.
The Scriptures needed to be revealed, understood and fulfilled. Matthew the evangelist was keen to show scriptural fulfilment in his account of Jesus’ life. Everything came to pass the way the Scriptures had foretold. The Scriptures are not secretive, magical writings – they are revealed by God himself to his prophets and chroniclers. The Jews must have wondered about the meaning of many of the prophetic scriptures. It’s not easy to understand Isaiah 51 until after the event.
Jesus understood more clearly than anyone that things had to happen this way. He was not seeking to support the Scriptures by slavishly ensuring they came to pass but he allowed them to happen as they foretold.
Judas would otherwise be unessential to their fulfilment.
Was Judas predestined to be the one who’d betray Jesus? If so, would Father God have placed Judas amongst the disciples with this in mind. Jesus had to die, and the Scriptures had to be fulfilled. Jesus had to be betrayed/handed over to those who would secure his death. If Judas was predestined, then he didn’t stand a chance of doing anything other than what he did – this Calvanistic view does not sit easily with my concept of the gift of free will. Perhaps there’s some sort of middle way, in which Judas was drawn to betrayal but he chose to go along with it.
His level of remorse after Jesus’ arrest (not his death) reveals his deeper sense of right and wrong. He’d done wrong, and he admitted it in his way. It might not look like confession as we know it and, for a man intent on killing himself, the notion of repentance – turning away from sin and living – is a problem.
He has been marked as sinful because he killed himself. He is depicted by artists as the ugly one, the one who has a pointy beard like Satan. His effigy is burned or hanged or shot at with arrows every Easter time in far too many countries in the world. In some places he is portrayed as a demon-figure.
Judas has had his entrails inspected by theologians of all traditions over two millennia. Was his intent evil or misjudged? Was it the money that attracted him? Was he hoping to kickstart a revolution? Who knows?!
Has he become the scapegoat in the place of Jesus, that is, was his sin so great in our eyes that we lose sight of the man who took away the sins of the world? This was the man who, according to Matthew, addressed his betrayer as “friend”.
Whatever the theologies, the viewpoints and opinions, whatever the unusual practices, placing too much attention on Judas leaves less room to marvel and wonder at a man on a cross, bearing all our sins, including those of the people who plotted his death.
Father God, your greatest act of kindness towards us is demonstrated in the appalling suffering of your Son, Jesus, on the cross. You plumbed the depths of sorrow to bring us the heights of joy. Thank you, Father. Amen
2:26:33 Am Abend (Arioso)
64. Recitative B (Chorus I)
In the evening, when it was cool,
Adam's fall was made apparent;
in the evening the Saviour bowed himself down.
In the evening the dove came back,
bearing an olive leaf in its mouth.
O lovely time! O evening hour!
The pact of peace with God has now been made,
since Jesus has completed his Cross.
His body comes to rest,
Ah! dear soul, ask,
go, have them give you the dead Jesus,
O salutary, O precious remembrance!
Ends at 2:28:27
Paul