While Easter is the season for us to evaluate the death and resurrection of Jesus, I’ll be the first to admit that I sometimes gloss over the heavy importance of his sacrifice. We celebrate Palm Sunday and the arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem and then skip straight to the resurrection with little thought or focus on what happened in the middle, not because we do not care, but because the weight of his sacrifice is strong and the emotions are dark. This isn’t a place to dwell, but it is certainly in need of processing. Last week we discussed the importance of the Last Supper, and today we’ll talk about what happened next.

Matthew 26:45b-56 (niv)

“...See, the time is near. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up; let’s go. See, my betrayer is near.”

While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, suddenly arrived. A large mob with swords and clubs was with him from the chief priests and elders of the people. His betrayer had given them a sign: “The one I kiss, he’s the one; arrest him.” So immediately he went up to Jesus and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed him.

“Friend,” Jesus asked him, “why have you come?”

Then they came up, took hold of Jesus, and arrested him. At that moment one of those with Jesus reached out his hand and drew his sword. He struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his ear.

Then Jesus told him, “Put your sword back in its place because all who take up the sword will perish by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot call on my Father, and he will provide me here and now with more than twelve legions of angels? How, then, would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen this way?”

At that time Jesus said to the crowds, “Have you come out with swords and clubs, as if I were a criminal, to capture me? Every day I used to sit, teaching in the temple, and you didn’t arrest me. But all this has happened so that the writings of the prophets would be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted him and ran away.

Matthew 27:3-5 (niv)

Then Judas, his betrayer, seeing that Jesus had been condemned, was full of remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders. “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood,” he said.

“What’s that to us?” they said. “See to it yourself!” So he threw the silver into the temple and departed. Then he went and hanged himself.

Judas is a key player in the story of Jesus’s crucifixion because his betrayal fulfilled a prophecy about the Messiah. You can debate all day long about whether or not Judas was destined by God to fulfill this prophecy and subsequently condemned from the start, but at the end of the day, Judas betrayed his Savior and his family of disciples. Jesus knew that in order to save the world, he would have to allow himself to be betrayed by those closest to him. And as a human, feeling all things humans feel, he would have to take on the grief that came with it. But the disciples didn’t know. They didn’t know that one of their closest friends, their family members, would cast them aside so cavalierly. 

Judas’s actions had a ripple effect that touched all those who followed Jesus, and the weight of that realization led him to believe he was beyond redemption. After frantically failing to reverse the consequences of his actions, he sees no way out and takes his own life. 

He misses out on the redemptive promise of Jesus’s resurrection and the healing power of his forgiveness.

While Matthew doesn’t specify which disciple drew the sword and whacked off a soldier’s ear, the Gospel of John claims that it was Peter. Passionate, impulsive, over-reactive Peter. Peter, who leapt out onto the water in the middle of a storm because Jesus invited him. Peter, who so vehemently told Jesus he would never deny him. Peter sees his leader, his Savior, in trouble and immediately jumps into action. Here we see a man enraged that one of his peers would betray their family, and yet when presented with the opportunity to stand up for his Lord after Jesus was sentenced, he did the exact same thing:

Matthew 26: 69 - 75 (niv)

Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. A servant girl approached him and said, “You were with Jesus the Galilean too.”

But he denied it in front of everyone: “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

When he had gone out to the gateway, another woman saw him and told those who were there, “This man was with Jesus the Nazarene!” 

And again he denied it with an oath: “I don’t know the man!”

After a little while those standing there approached and said to Peter, “You really are one of them, since even your accent gives you away.”

Then he started to curse and to swear with an oath, “I don’t know the man!” Immediately a rooster crowed, and Peter remembered the words Jesus had spoken, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” 

And he went outside and wept bitterly.

In the span of a day, our emotional Peter has gone from chopping off someone’s ear to protect his leader to cursing and denying his connection to him in order to save himself. The hypocrisy of his judgment  toward Judas is put on full display when he also betrays Jesus, and he weeps bitterly. 

I’m not sure where you find yourself in the crucifixion story this year. Maybe you’ve been betrayed by the ones you love and are wrestling with how to respond. Maybe you’ve been the betrayer and feel as if there is no redemption available to you, or maybe you’re desperately seeking any and all redemption you can find. 

But I know we’ve all had experience with betrayal in one way or another, and the Easter story is one of redemption. 

Hope is never lost.

Over the next two weeks, you can find reflections here at vineyardrichmond.com. Use them to prompt yourself to focus on your faith in a fresh way. Each week we will consider a different theme as we build up to the resurrection event. On Mondays, we will draw your attention to a biblical focus on a character in the gospel accounts. On Wednesdays, we will reflect personally on how that theme affects our spiritual lives. On Fridays, we will focus outwardly as we consider how God is inviting us to engage the world around us for his kingdom. If what you are learning is meaningful to you, click one of the share buttons at the top of these posts to share it with your friends. Let this be a time of personal reflection and careful examination of our own hearts and minds.