The Riddle of Jesus and Judas - The Rev. Gary Lubin

Sermons from the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer

Having his last supper with the disciples a troubled Jesus announces that one of them is his betrayer. And do you know, if you read that carefully, every one of them is bewildered. They have no clue. And their uncertainty suggests that it could be any one of them. A notable example is Peter, who refutes that he would ever deny Jesus, but then does so three times, cock a doodle doo. And speaking of Peter, he's the one that beckons John, the beloved disciple, reclining right next to Jesus to ask for the name of the traitor. Well, and Jesus answers, kind of vaguely, It is the one to whom I give this piece of bread, he says. Well, Judas may have gotten the first piece of bread, but he didn't get the last piece of bread. They all share the very same communal bread and wine. And then we will do that very shortly together. And I take great comfort in doing that with you because I confess that I too have betrayed Jesus selling him out to suffering and death in this time and place by failing to love as I should. Here's the question before us in this day and age, isn't Jesus among us even now as the other? The last, the lost, the least, the lonely, and the left out. Jesus beckons us to love God and to love one another. And you know, fortunately we all have a community to do that, but many others do not. Now paradoxically, I think we can look to Judas for answers.