Sermon Title: Jesus and the Betrayer

Sermon Text: Matthew 26:17-25

Sermon Date: August 5, 2007

20When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve. 21And while they were eating, he said, "I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me."

22They were very sad and began to say to him one after the other, "Surely not I, Lord?"

23Jesus replied, "The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. 24The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born."

25Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said, "Surely not I, Rabbi?"
 Jesus answered, "Yes, it is you."

I had a great vacation. Spent time with friends in Cleveland and Rochester. Won a champion ribbon at the county fair when my mother entered a cross stitch of mine without telling me. Went to church with mom and dad. Drove around Lake Superior with a friend.

On that trip we had a couple of adventures. The first was in Canada. Now if you have driven around Lake Superior you know that once you leave either Thunder Bay or Sault Ste. Marie, there isn’t much going on. You can drive for eight hours and not see much more than trees and water. Now this is fine but you don’t see many towns or gas stations or even pay phones for that matter.

On Wednesday we played around on the Minnesota North Shore longer than we planned and by the time we got to the place we were supposed to stay on Wednesday (in Wawa, Ontario) it was dark. Then we pulled out the directions to the lodge on the lake and traveled along a dirt road. Yes, a dirt road. When we finally got there, no one was up and it was even darker than out on the road. We followed the signs to the office but the light there was so small that we couldn’t see much. That is when Ellen said, “I’m not getting out of this car.” And fearing that if we did, we would appear in Stephen King’s next novel, we turned the car around and we drove back to find a motel on the highway and lived to see another day.

It was then that we discovered it was so dark because we had changed time some where along way and instead of it being 9:30 and sort of dark, it was actually 10:30 and really dark, particularly at a place where there were no street lights.

The next day brought another adventure. This one was in Michigan. We had trouble getting out onto a highway so we made a right turn in order to go up the road a bit and make a left at a light so we could make a right and come out on the highway. You have done that too. Unfortunately my friend pulled up too far under the traffic light and couldn’t see if we had a green, yellow or red light. Two lanes of traffic were coming at us and she froze for a moment. She thought these cars were going to stop but they didn’t. We are sitting there in the middle of the intersection with all these cars coming at us and she froze. That’s when I realized that a big truck and horse trailer was coming right at us and probably couldn’t have stopped if they wanted to. Instead he swung wide and went around us…just about the time my friend unfroze and backed up in our lane. Fortunately we passed like ships in the night instead of the truck crashing into my side of the car. To say that my life flashed before my eyes would not be an understatement.

I went to bed that night thanking God over and over for my life. And I have thanked God every moment since. I could have easily been killed and perhaps my friend too. I don’t think airbags would have been of much help in this case. We were too close to each other and the truck was way too big.

On Saturday as I drove back to Lafayette I wondered, “Why was I spared?” Have you ever had an experience like that and wondered that? I know of soldiers from wars who came home wondering the same thing. People who survive plane crashes and wonder. People who survive cancer and wonder.

Why were we spared?

Of course I don’t know. I don’t even know if that is the right theology. Does God really spare some of us and allow others to die? I’m sure there are plenty of people in Minneapolis wondering the same thing today. To be honest I really don’t know how all of that works. No theology class in seminary has answered that question for me.

What I do know is that when we get second chances, we ought not to waste them. That much I really know. That much I really get…in my head and in my heart.

You may wonder why I chose to use the passage about Jesus and Judas, his betrayer. You see, I wonder what Judas would have done with a second chance. Peter, another who betrayed Jesus, got one. But what would Judas have done?

When Jesus asked the disciples who would betray him, they were sad. Peter says that he would never desert him, but Jesus says that he would indeed to do….”this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” (Matthew 26:34) And Peter is appalled that Jesus would think he would do such a thing.

But it happened just as Jesus said. Judas would betray him and Peter would deny ever having known him. Both terrible, terrible acts of betrayal. One makes something out of the mess and the other….doesn’t.

Matthew continues on in chapter 27. Judas apparently didn’t expect Jesus to be sentenced to death when he betrayed him. It figures – you don’t understand the consequences when you betray someone. He tried to return the money and turn back the clock but that didn’t make any difference to the leading priests and other leaders. They had what they wanted – Jesus – and Judas’ words that Jesus was innocent didn’t matter. So Judas threw the money on the floor, stormed out and hanged himself.

Peter, on the other hand, cried bitterly after he betrayed Jesus. Then he went to the other disciples and allowed the redemption process to begin. He was there after Mary Magdalene found the empty tomb. He was there when the resurrected Jesus called to the disciples as they were fishing and offered them breakfast.

In the Gospel of John Peter and Jesus sit on the beach and Jesus asked him, “Simon Peter, do you love me more than these?” Three times he asked Peter the question and three times Peter said, “you know I do.” Three times Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.” Three times. Like the three times Peter denied him. Three times Jesus offered him redemption.

I believe that had Judas not taken his own life, Jesus would have offered redemption to him too. The other disciples would have had a hard time forgiving him, but if Judas had been there, he too would have been spared.

I am pretty sure that each of you here this morning have been “spared” too. An accident that didn’t happen. An illness that didn’t kill you. A heartbreak that you survived. You too were spared and while I doubt that any of you here today would have betrayed Jesus as Judas did, we have all betrayed him in other ways.

We have not loved the least of these as we have been taught.

We have not shared the good news of a loving God with someone who needed it.

We have not forgiven others as we have been forgiven. Ah, the list is all too long. But we have all been spared. All redeemed. All forgiven. All loved by a merciful and gracious God. All given another day with which to do great and ordinary things. What I know with absolute certainty is that we shouldn’t waste the second chances we get in life. We shouldn’t waste them on self pity or unwillingness to forgive. We shouldn’t waste them avoiding or ignoring the opportunities God brings into our lives. We shouldn’t waste them running away from God.

And today we come to the table, set by the loving hands of God through Jesus Christ, for us, the spared and redeemed. What a day this is!