Judas, who betrayed him, said, "Surely not I, Rabbi?" He replied, "You have said so." (Matthew 26:25 NRSV Bible)
I remember a story of a mother who heard a startling scream from her four year old son. She rushed into the playroom to see what was happening. There he sat while his baby sister yanked on his hair with all her might.

"Don't be upset," said his mother. "She doesn't know that it hurts you."

Several minutes later, the mother again heard sharp screaming, this time from her little daughter. Once, more in the playroom, she asked her son, "what's wrong with the baby?"

"Nothing much," he said, "except now she knows that pulling one's hair hurts."

It is hard to understand the pain of some act without experiencing it. Jesus in our scripture reading today had experience the hurt and pain of betrayal. Judas had betrayed a friend.

It might be shocking to realize that Judas was hand-picked by Jesus to be a disciple. Jesus went off by himself and prayed fervently all night before selecting that inner circle of followers. Jesus obviously trusted Judas, for Judas was the group's treasurer. He bought the supplies. He paid the bills.

Judas may have been an idealist. It was he who protested when Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, used expensive ointment to anoint Jesus feet. "This ointment is worth 300 denari," Judas cried. "Why wasn't it sold and given to the poor?"

Many Christians have asked similar questions when it has come to spending money in the church. We must realize that there has to be a balance between feeding souls and feeding bodies. Judas may have been an idealist, but the writer of John suggests that Judas was not interested in the poor at all. He was a thief and had been embezzling money from the treasury.

Still, it is shocking that after all he had witnessed, after all he had heard, after all he knew about the Jesus, that he would betray God's son and his trusted friend.

How have we betrayed Jesus?

Dear Jesus, forgive me for betraying you. Thank you for giving me forgiveness through your death on the cross. Through my failures help me to help those in need. Amen.

Ron Newhouse

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