In the name of the
Risen Lord. Amen.
Have you ever wondered why there is
no St. Judas Episcopal Church? Now, perhaps, you think the reasoning for that
is rather obvious. After all, Judas betrayed Jesus and handed him over to the
authorities. And he even did it with a kiss, a cruel perversion of a usually
loving act. But you can find plenty of churches founded on the namesake of
Thomas, Peter, and Mary. And so, in light of the transformation of the Resurrection,
with all things being redeemed, why is it that there is no St. Judas?
And then there is Peter, who was appointed
by Jesus as the rock upon which the Church would be built. But on the night
before his death, Jesus asked him to pray with him. However, Peter and the
other disciples fall asleep, abandoning their mentor in his hour of despair and
agony. And then as the night progresses, after having sworn to Jesus that he
would be with him to the end, he denies even knowing Jesus three times. In John’s
accounting of the story, he denies being a disciple of Jesus, which is an even
more bitter rejection. It is as if to say “Oh, yeah, I’ve seen that Jesus guy,
but I have no interest in him; I wouldn’t be caught dead being his disciple.”
And on that Easter morning, when he first hears of the report that Jesus has
arisen, he doesn’t believe it. But his sins of denial and doubt are redeemed
and St. Peter is perhaps the most popular of all the saints and we find him preaching
a powerful sermon in today’s reading from Acts.
And then we come to the character in
today’s gospel passage- Thomas, who was called the Twin. For once and for all,
I want to set the record straight- Doubting Thomas is an inappropriate name for
Thomas, mostly because he never doubted. The text doesn’t say that he doubted,
but rather, he was a-believing. In John, belief isn’t about what you think; it’s
not about intellectual assent to some idea. Instead, belief is about being in a
relationship with God. It wasn’t that Thomas couldn’t comprehend the idea that
Jesus was again alive, but rather that he was struggling to be in a relationship
with someone who he thought was dead, but was now arisen.
When Jesus died, their relationship as teacher and disciple ended. What
Thomas was seeking wasn’t evidence of the Resurrection, but rather, a rekindling
of the relationship. When Jesus told his disciples in chapter 14 that he was
going to the Father, and everyone was just smiling and nodding, pretending to
understand Jesus, it was Thomas who had the belief and desire for an ongoing
relationship with Jesus, and so he said “Lord, we don’t know the way.” And
Jesus responds by saying, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” And when
they heard that Lazarus had died, and the disciples were afraid of going to
Bethany because of persecution, Thomas is the one who spoke up and said “let us
go, that we may die with him.” Thomas didn’t doubt, so let’s put that
pernicious lie to rest once and for all.
That being said, Jesus says “Have you believed because you have seen me?
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” This isn’t
an indictment against Thomas, but simply an affirmation of those who wouldn’t
have the benefit of a physical encounter with the Risen Lord. Thomas seems like
a concrete thinker, someone who needs empirical evidence; and there is nothing wrong
with that. But the Resurrection isn’t the sort of event for which we can have
those sorts of hard facts. Thomas asked for that evidence to rekindle the relationship,
and he has not been banished from sainthood for his actions that day, many
churches bear his name even today.
And the more we think about it, the more we can come up with examples of
people who don’t seem to be the best role models for Christianity, and yet, God
has lifted them up to be leaders in the Church. We hear that in the
Crucifixion, the Lamb of God took away the sins of the world. In the
Resurrection, we celebrate that God’s power of love and redemption conquers the
powers of sin, death, and fear. But still, there is no church named after
Judas.
So what is the difference between Mary, Peter, or Thomas and Judas? The
difference is that they stuck around, while Judas bailed out. Had Judas been in
the room that day, I firmly believe that, just as Thomas and Peter and Mary
found redemption in the Risen Lord, so too would have Judas. But Judas wasn’t
there; he didn’t stick around to find the redemption of God.
Now there is a very obvious issue with what I’ve just said, and I’m very
aware of it and the sensitivity of the topic. Judas was not there because,
after he had betrayed Jesus, he hung himself. Let me be very clear, Judas’
mistake was not being out of options, it was certainly not the depression that
led him to take his own life. The point I am making is not about the way in
which Judas left the story, but rather the fact that he cut out early.
After Judas betrayed Jesus, he went to the Temple authorities to return
the blood money. The Bible then says that he repented, and as the renowned New
Testament scholar Raymond Brown notes, “his remorseful change and return of the
silver [points toward repentance].” The point is this- judgment is reserved for
God, and Judas’ ultimate fate is not our concern. However, what this aspect of
the narrative does invite us to consider is, in the words of Stanley Hauerwas, “whether
any of us, Judas included, are capable of facing as well as acknowledging that,
given the opportunity, we would be willing to betray Jesus for thirty pieces of
silver.”
Judas’ death is a painful reminder of the tough reality of suicide.
Estimates are that 25% of all US adults will have some instance of serious
depression in their lifetime. Now, we all have fears and concerns, and we all
have days where we feel down in the dumps, but clinical illness and emotional
suffering is an important issue for us to address. The Church has a sad history
of dealing with issues of depression and suicide. We’ve adopted a “don’t ask,
don’t tell” policy, and that is the true sin.
The Church is a not a social club for the well, but rather a hospital
for the sick- maybe that’s why Jesus spent so much of his ministry healing. And
so today, I invite you to leave behind phrases such as “why can’t he just get
up off the couch” and “why does she always seem to be upset.” Would we say the same
if they were missing a limb or dealing with cancer? And for those for whom the
darkness seems to overcome any hope of there being light, the Church needs to
be here to let the love of God shine. We say that we believe that Jesus came
that we might have life, and have it abundantly. But for some, Judas included,
that just doesn’t seem possible. Let it be our task this Easter season to reach
out to those whom we know are struggling and help them to see the light again.
I know it can be a sensitive topic, but the Resurrected Jesus goes before us in
these holy conversations.
That was a necessary detour in this sermon, but back to what
differentiates Judas from the others, focusing on not how Judas gave up on God,
but the fact that he did. What Judas did is not beyond the forgiveness enacted
in Jesus’ crucifixion; Judas’ death is not and cannot be the last word about his
life or our own. But Judas never knew this reality, and that is what separates
him from Mary, Peter, and Thomas. You see, he didn’t stick around for the
blessing. “Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ After
he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples
rejoiced when they saw the Lord…When he had said this, he breathed on them and
said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’”
St. Francis is an interesting church, in that the front door isn’t near
the parking lot, and there are windows along the sidewalk. So those of you who
leave church after you receive Communion, and we know who you are, let this be
a lesson- sometimes the greatest gift comes when you stick around to receive
the blessing.
Thomas had every reason to skip out. Jesus had died, and though some
reported having seen him alive again, Thomas wasn’t there to see it. It’s easy
to miss this detail in the text- but it was a whole week later before Jesus
again appeared to the disciples, this time including Thomas. They were in the room
with doors shut in fear. Why was Thomas hanging around still? He could have
left and no one would have blamed him for thinking it was some cruel joke.
Maybe he figured he’d wait a day to see if Jesus was truly arisen, but nothing
happened. Then day two. And three. And before you know it, a whole week passed.
What we see in the Passion of Jesus, in his Crucifixion and
Resurrection, is God’s solidarity with us. As today’s Psalm proclaims “I have
set the Lord always before me;
because he is at my right hand I shall not fall. My heart, therefore, is glad,
and my spirit rejoices; my body also shall rest in hope. For you will not
abandon me to the grave, nor let your holy one see the Pit. You will show me
the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy, and in your right
hand are pleasures for evermore.” The Resurrection is the fulfillment of the
promise of Emmanuel: God with us, no matter what. Despite the darkness of the
night, despite the seeming finality of the grave, despite the impossibility of
resurrection, God does not quit on us.
So our Easter response is to, with God’s grace, not quit on God. Judas
did, but Mary, Peter, and Thomas hung in there. I mentioned earlier that the
text says that Judas repented, but it is not the normal word for repentance.
Instead, it is a related word that means “to change one’s mind.” The literal
meaning of the word “repent” is “to turn from.” The question is, “what did
Judas turn to.” He realized that had made a mistake, but it seems that he did
not turn to God. Perhaps he turned to anger at the Scribes and Pharisees, perhaps
he turned to self-loathing, perhaps he turned to trying and failing to fix the
situation. But he did not turn to God. Judas thought that he was irredeemable.
What the Resurrection shows us is that all can be redeemed. But Judas never
encountered this reality in the Risen Lord because he left before the blessing.
He thought the story was over; he gave up. But with every fiber of my being, I
believe that God won’t give up on us, regardless of how many times we give up
on God. I wish that Judas had stuck around to know that reality, and I pray
that each of you know and rejoice in it.
Now this doesn’t mean that life is going to suddenly become easy. As I’ve
said many times before, what God gives us is maximum support, with minimum protection.
Notice that when Jesus comes to bless the disciples that he still has the scars
and wounds from his Crucifixion. The Resurrection is not an undoing of what
happened, but it is a rewriting of the importance of those events. Pain is
turned to glory, and suffering to redemption. The Crucified One is the
Resurrected One. The scars remind us that God will meet us in our suffering. Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, writing from prison and battling his own dark night of the soul
before his execution wrote about the fact that most people think that God should
fill the gap of loss and grief with compensation and inspirational thoughts,
but in reality, God keeps those scars and gaps open so that we may continue in
communion with the Crucified and Scarred One, even at the cost of pain. Jesus
knows our sufferings and fear, and yet, as he says before he departs from the
disciples the final time: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Easter
is the fulfillment of the Christmas promise of Emmanuel.
It’s not so much that Judas’ sin of betrayal precludes him from being
known as a saint, but rather he didn’t stick around to receive the blessing of
God’s redemption and Resurrection. His death is a grave reminder of the
darkness that some of our brothers and sisters live in and is a call for us to
reach out in compassion to them. The Resurrection is God’s ultimate answer to the pains of betrayal, fear, sin, and death; and that answer is “alleluia.” In
Jesus, God redeems all that has been broken and shows that God will never, ever
quit on us. This season of Easter, I pray that each of you is deeply aware of
God’s abiding presence with you, and I pray that God gives us the grace and
strength to, despite the challenges of life, hang in with God. Amen.
