St. Judas
Having watched innumerable cinematic wanderings into holiness while consuming under-buttered and over-salted popcorn, I feel compelled to divulge that one of the many annoyances that flash in my face between mouthfuls is the soft pedaling of Judas’ character. Two particular examples that come to mind are in Jesus of Nazareth and The Robe.
In the first, a TV miniseries, Judas is portrayed as a well-meaning reformer who wants to get Jesus together with the temple leaders to talk turkey. Our misguided apostle realizes too late that he was used to get the Master captured far from his troublesome supporters. Much more Hollywoody, The Robe chronicles the activities of tangential fictional and historical characters amidst the backdrop of that fateful Passover. In this incarnation, the aforementioned betrayer has a brief melodramatic, penitent appearance. During his cameo, the man who sold the Son down the Via Dolorosa begs someone to tell the leftover disciples not to lose faith, then revealing his name, stumbles off in a pyrotechnic exit complete with lightning, thunder and a symphonic cacophony.
The query that springs from my salty, buttery lips is where did the film industry unearth any redeeming traits in this renegade? Most certainly not from the canonical source material. In every Gospel, when introducing the villain of the Passion, evangelists make sure to mention that he betrayed Jesus1 and even the Christ, the betrayee, refers to Judas as a betrayer2. He is also referred to as a thief3, and John has Jesus calling Judas a “devil4.” There are some slight differences in how the Apostle-gone-wrong is characterized in the Bible, but note how the word from the Word is radically at variance with the image of the celluloid sinner:
As we expect from the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke all have Judas approaching Jerusalem’s top Judeo-honchos with an offer to deliver Jesus into their clutches5. John skips that scene and has the errant Iscariot gathering together the thugs supplied by the chief priests and Pharisees for a Son of Man hunt in the garden6. Similarly, the infamous kiss-off by Judas is related only in the first three books7.
Regarding the question of what made our turncoat turn, money seems to be the motivation according the first three evangelists, while John does not mention money, but is the one who referred to Judas as a thief. Dr. Luke and our fourth gospel guy do give Satan credit for supplying the spark for the sellout8. And to further soften the hardcore portrayal (and in the spirit of The Robe), Matthew’s malefactor repents in the end, flinging the money into the temple and committing suicide9. There is an alternate end for Judas in the Acts of the Apostles10, that I am choosing to ignore because it has no effect on any of the conclusions in this musing. It’s not the scholarly thing to do, but no one ever accused me of being one.
Though disturbed about the softer, gentler, misunderstood Judas portrayed outside of the New Testament, I am also painfully aware that according to our Master we cannot declare that the one who handed Christ over to the enemy was in turn cooked thoroughly at 10,000 degrees for one eternity. As we quick condemners are continually reminded in scripture, the final judgment belongs to God, not to those of us who would be more than happy to hit the down button on the eternal elevator for Judas and a host of other unsavory characters in the history of this beleaguered ball of dirt and in our own little sphere of sorrow.
Well, here I am a year ago, all ready to scratch out a more beneficent perspective on the bad boy of the Twelve, and I found myself stalled by Our Lord himself—by His last utterings about his false follower: “It would be better for that man if he had never been born11.” “Better” than what? Better than the eternal hot spot? Is this not a divine indication of which direction the miscreant was heading subsequent to however he left the worldly world? Can this be the voice of the One who was not sent “to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him12?”
Might we assume that Jesus was relating how difficult it would be for the Judas to forgive himself, let alone to believe that God would, in the spirit of the Prodigal’s daddy13, happily hand-out a paternal pardon for this co-conspirator to the murder of His Son? This seemingly lost apostle, steeped in Old Testament retribution, and perhaps remembering the wrath of the father in The Parable of the Tenants14, might fear to approach the Creator, or feel that it is hopeless to do so.
Admittedly, I am ever in search of the easiest and least challenging resolution amidst the twists and turns of spiritual conundrums, but encased in my aged cranium is a faded Vacation Bible School image of more than one Old Testamenter despairing of their birth, in the face of dilemmas much less daunting than forever frying. Take Job, for instance: he loses his children and his possessions, then becomes a mass of boils, and finally curses not God, as was suggested by the Mrs., but denounces his own earthly entry and expresses some clearly anti-life sentiments:
Job, in the face of finite suffering, which death would most certainly end (“…there the weary are at rest18.”), applies Jesus’s Judas principle, affirming that he, Job, would have been better off not ever having had that first birthday.
Similarly, Jeremiah in the face of fear, rejection, and sorrow is practically quoting the suffering servant Job:
There may be even less intense circumstances that may cause one to negate one’s ejection from the womb. In the book of Sirach, the author takes issue with the old adage, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me.” He claims that “There are words comparable to death…” and that “sinful speech” can “disgrace your upbringing” then “…you will wish you had never been born and will curse the day of your birth21.”
Perhaps Jesus was not prophesying the fiery end of His infamous foe. After all, did He not insist that we love those we’d rather not? Was not one of the dying Savior’s last pleas to the Creator for a pardon that applied to all the Judases present and future22? Were there any exceptions to that appeal to the Father for universal clemency, which His Son purchased on the cross?
More importantly, hidden within Jesus’ apparently harsh pronouncement could there be something deeper? Could it be that as in the previously cited OT accounts, the Teacher was connecting in some way to the despondency where we humans wish that our life had never started, having reached the point where suffering, disgrace, hardship, betrayal, and our own failures overshadow the high points of the journey that brought us to such wretchedness. Did He not declare from the cross the opening words of Psalm 22: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me23?” Is it possible that Judas’ dance with the devil broke off in time so that in the next life he might face the merciful Savior? Could the one who brought about God’s murder now be experiencing the beatific vision?
As repugnant as that sounds to those of us who look on justice as an accounting problem, it is most truly possible. We Christians are never allowed to give up hope on anyone. No matter how extensive the transgressions, God will see to it that those who come late get paid the same as those who were on the job the whole time, as in the Parable of the Vineyard Workers. And so, we followers of the Nazarene, must love the unlovable, forgive the unforgivable, and hope for the ultimate salvation of even those souls we might wish were in a warmer afterlife.
For more on enemy loving see:
All references are from New American Bible Revised Edition
1Matthew 10:4, Mark 3:19, Luke 6:16, John 6:71
2Matthew 26:21,23,24, Mark 14:18,21, Luke 22:21-22,48, John13:21
3John 12:4-6
4John 6:70-71
5Matthew 26:14-16, Mark 14:10-11, Luke 22:3-6
6John 18:1-3
7Matthew 26:47-50, Mark 14:43-46, Luke 22:47-48
8Luke 22:3-4, John 13:2
9Matthew 27:3-5
10Acts 1:16-18
11Matthew 26:24, Mark 14:21
12John 3:27
13Luke 15:11-32
14Matthew 21:33-41
15Job 3:1-3,6
16Job 3:11
17Job 3:16
18Job 3:17
19Jeremiah 20:14
20Jeremiah 20:15,17
21Sirach 23:12-14
22Luke 23:34
23Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34
