Betrayal

John 12:1-11 (see at end of text)

As the passion of Christ gets closer and closer there is an intensification of emotion, of love but also of danger and threat.

The first thing to note is that Judas is close to Jesus; he is intimate with Jesus too, like Mary and Martha; a disciple, who shares his table. He is also someone who takes on responsibility within the group, he keeps the common purse. So whilst there are attackers on the outside, waiting to kill Jesus and Lazarus too, on the inside, around the common table is the greater threat – the betrayer.

The second thing to note is how evil intent is shrouded with the veneer of good intentions: ‘why was this perfume not sold and given to the poor?’ Less we imagine that evil is ugly and blatant, let us remember that the great deceiver is cunning and charming, covering his tracks with a kiss, here with a feigned care of the poor.

Jesus is not in any way living in a bubble of love and coziness; he is living in the midst of human relationships, he is right in the middle of life, with friends, and with enemies. Judas was a disciple, a close follower an intimate with Jesus – intimate with God, no less.

So, here is Jesus intimate with friends and foe. It reminds us of certain unpleasant realities, for example,  that most people are murdered or raped not by strangers but by people they know. An unhappy and unpleasant truth, but one we are called to confront and reflect upon because of Jesus’ story, because Jesus leads us right into the heart of human experience.

Christian communities are often shocked and appalled when they find that sin exists not outside the community but inside it. We imagine that Christian community should be safe and good, but if we are attentive to the story of the Cross we may see a different and harder truth, that those who are intimate with God, eating at the table with Jesus, are the ones who can betray him. Indeed, to betray by definition requires friendship.

And yet, we of all people in the world, Christians who worship a crucified God are called to see evil, with its machinations, with its hold on our own lives. It is our duty to know its face and to steer away from it and to help others steer away from it. It is to recognise that there is a choice, a battle and danger. There is no way to avoid this danger; it must be confronted in our hearts, whoever we are. Perfection Jesus shows us lies in faith, devotion to God, weakness and suffering; not in power, control and the authority of this world.

The Christian story, then, narrates for us what goodness is and what evil is; it presents us with a reference point for understanding these concepts. Tina Beattie, a theologian writes:

Outside of this story [God’s story in Jesus], one is neither saved nor damned, neither poisoned or cured, anymore than one is poisoned or cured by a drug that one does not swallow. It is only from within that one recognizes redemption and damnation cure and poison, as the two sides of the fabric out of which faith is woven.

Judas sees and lives with the truth, Jesus Christ and yet he chooses to betray that truth, for a mere handful of gold coins. Yet if he had betrayed any other man so, his crime would have been lesser: it is because of who Jesus is that Judas is remembered as the one who betrays. Goodness makes real evil. It makes real the choice between the two : ‘outside of this story one is neither saved nor damned’.

Recognising ‘the truth’, and then valuing and honouring it is what God asks of us; we can be living close with truth, seeing its face every day, but do we turn to it, do we give ourselves to it, do we show our devotion and love of it, by buying it so to speak the costliest perfume? Or might we too be betraying Jesus every day in ways that other people don’t even see? Christ is here with us, today, in the

sacrament, in the church:

It is through accepting the promise of redemption that one risks damnation, and through seeking the cure one risks being poisoned. That is faith’s mystery, and it means that the Christian story is the locus of a dynamic, transgressive and dangerous volatility, sacramentally and socially embodied in the material world. Here we encounter God and Satan, the beatific and the demonic, the redeemed and the damned, and in historical, human terms they are inseparable. From the perspective of human reason, Catholic Christianity is an impossible paradox. (Tina Beattie)

Entering into the Christian story of salvation is to enter into a place of vulnerability, of choice, of danger and of temptation. There is no cosy space for Christians to retreat to, to feel safe and protected from the world. Christ makes real the actuality of evil. We belong in a story which gives us the meaning of truth, evil, death and resurrection. As we enter more fully into that story this week, let us ask God for the faith to believe in His son and turn from what is evil.

John 12:1-11, Mary Anoints Jesus

Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. ⁴But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, ‘Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?’ (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.’

When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well, since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus.