St Margaret's Church Prestwich

Rev Helen gave this sermon on Wednesday 16 April 2025:

It’s Holy Week, this is a week of high drama, there is a lot happening but it’s a good story to tell, it’s an epic tale. The story from Palm Sunday to Jesus being in the tomb the twists and turns, high rejoicing, epic lows and everything in between. This story has been told and re told in many ways, there are several versions of the bible which tell this story beyond the usual. You have the Gnostic Gospels, not official Cannon but have some interesting versions of this week, Walter Wangerin wrote ‘The Book of God’ which is the bible written as a novel, there’s the infographic bible which is the bible diagrams. If you’re like me and you like comics, graphic novels, manga then try the action bible, the bible as a graphic novel, there is even a Tabloid Bible, the bible as a tabloid newspaper written by Nick Page. It’s an interesting thing, I’ve put these at the back if anyone wants to have a look at them. It’s also been made into Passion Plays, television series, films, cartoons (my personal favourite was the Story Keepers), even two very successful west end musicals. There are no limits as to where this story is and where it can be taken!

It’s also got some great characters. You have Jesus who is the hero of this story, the main character who the whole drama hinges around. You have Peter, the sidekick who is also slightly flawed but by Jesus side, until he wasn’t. Pilate the anti-hero, the one who has the power and has to do something that…doesn’t sit well with him shall we say, but it doesn’t stop him sentencing Jesus to death, you have Mary who anoints Jesus ready for his burial, the one who sees what is coming and of course his mother, standing at the foot of the cross watching her son die!

But the person I want to talk about today is Judas, who is spotlighted in today’s gospel as the one who betrays Jesus. One interesting thing is if you read the gospel accounts of this meal you’ll notice Judas gets more and more evil per retelling, so by the time you get to John, which we’ve just heard, you have Judas as full on baddie, it reminds me a bit of how Shakespeare portrayed Richard III or even a pantomime villain. We had the reading a couple of weeks ago when Mary anoints Jesus and Judas is more concerned about the cost and waste, but it is revealed to us the reader that Judas, despicable and conniving Judas, is stealing money from Jesus and the other disciples, Naughty! Then after todays reading in John you have Jesus saying someone is going to betray him, he literally hands Judas a piece of bread, the devil enters Judas and he shuffles off to commit this despicable act. You almost want to shout boo loudly after him as he leaves the scene. Does Judas deserve the reputation that he has had places on him? He is the archetype of evil in this narrative and beyond, who here is not called or thought of someone who has wronged them as a Judas. The other disciples don’t really show the best of themselves here either! Peter denied Jesus but he seems to weather the storm, the other disciples scattered and abandoned Jesus but who is all the responsibility for setting into motion the events leading to Jesus death piled on? Who is the worst and most despicable of them all the disciples? Judas.

I think there is one question that is often neglected within this story and I want to look to make Judas a more rounded character than just ‘the baddie’ and that is why did Judas do it? Let’s look for a motive but even that’s not easy as there are several. Greed is one thing, in Matthew and Marks account Judas did it for money, 30 pieces of silver, they recon today that’s about £10,000, that’s a half decent reason if you’re that way inclined. Was Judas just an immoral person, he’s stealing money from the communal purse so he’s likely to do this too? The devil made him do it and from todays reading we see that, Satan enters Judas or was he disillusioned by Jesus movement? Jesus was going against authority, maybe Judas though he would be leading a revolution, over throwing the Roman oppressors but Jesus hasn’t done that he speaking in a spiritual way and now saying that he’s God, you can see why Judas might be dissatisfied and wanted Jesus to stop, what ever the cost! I’m going to read an extract from Stephen Cotterell’s the Nail. It’s looking for who is to blame from Jesus death and this is a little bit of Judas’ defence:

‘I really believed that Jesus might just be God’s Messiah. He spoke with authority. He knew the Scriptures. He was the first person I had ever met who hungered for the kingdom of God like I do. Not like the religious leaders, with their diplomacy, their tact, their compromise. But Jesus was different, and it seemed that he would take them on, take us forward. But then things changed. He seemed to speak as if he was more than an anointed one, even as if he was God himself; as if he had some sort of special purpose from God. Then last night things reached a head. If I’m honest, I think he saw my disgust, maybe even guessed what was in my mind, even said that someone sharing the bread with him was a betrayer. Well, at that point I left. I wasn’t betraying anything.  I was faithful to all we believed in; he was the one who had changed. We had left everything to follow him and now it seemed like he didn’t care, not the Messiah he was meant to be. Not the Messiah we need. Because you don’t change the world by loving your enemies. You don’t change the world by turning the other cheek. You don’t change the world by loving people. I didn’t see what happened next. I was far away, but the strange thing is this. He did go on loving, did go on turning his cheek – even when the nails were hammered in. That’s what people said: he loved until the end. And it’s funny. I feel so cold, like the shadow of his cross is upon me.’

Judas is an interesting character, I can’t defend or excuse what he did but I don’t think I would lay the whole blame for what happened to Jesus on his shoulders. I do think Judas feels genuine remorse for what he did, especially in Matthew’s account, he feels it the guilt of what he has set into motion. Judas is a difficult one and you’ll have to make up your own mind what you think of him. his betrayal is the tipping point of the week, it sets into motion the events of Jesus final day. Maybe that’s why he did it, it was all predestined? Just a thought!

Holy week tells a good story, especially when you really dig into the events and characters, however you might see or hear it! We keep telling this story, every year we rehear and immerse ourselves in it. We remember Jesus’ pain, hurt, being betrayed by one of his closest friends, probably things we can all relate to in some way. So as the drama of Holy week really ramps up we walk with Jesus, never take what he did for granted, keep telling and retelling this story to inspire others as it has us. Amen