Gospel: Matthew 26:6-16
A short Gospel reading in Holy Week!
Matthew repeats the story we heard last Sunday from John, about Christ being anointed with fragrant oil. John said Mary sister of Martha did the anointing. Matthew says only that it was “a woman”. Luke places this earlier in Jesus’ ministry and says it was done by a sinful woman. (How to harmonize these? I don’t know.)
Then Judas Iscariot went to the chief priests and said, “What will you give me if I deliver Him to you?” They gave him thirty pieces of silver, and “from that time he sought opportunity to betray him.” This is why we keep Wednesdays as a fast day – for the betrayal.
Judas is the most perplexing figure in the Holy Week story. Why did he do this horrible thing? The only explanation the Gospels give is for money. Beginning Tuesday evening through Thursday evening we hear hymns about the greed of Judas that caused him to betray the Lord.
People have speculated that surely Judas couldn’t have betrayed him only for money, and the Gospel accounts leave openings for additional possibilities.
John says at the Last Supper, after Jesus gave Judas a piece of bread (a traditional sign of friendship, affection – imagine!), then “Satan entered into him”, and Jesus said to him, “What you do, do quickly.” John, sitting close to Jesus, must have heard this. It sounds almost as if the betrayal had been arranged between Jesus and Judas. Or did Judas take this as a secret sign that Jesus wanted him to betray Him in time for the Passover? Or was Jesus just tell telling Judas that He knew what he was up to?
Matthew, Mark and Luke all quote the Lord saying, “The Son of Man goes as it is written 
of Him, but woe to the man by whom He is betrayed.” But Judas couldn’t have been “fated” to do this. Christ who loves all mankind does not set anyone up for woe, for hell, not even Judas. And Satan does not enter into anyone unless they let him in. So this explanation still leaves us hanging.
Or maybe it was because Judas lost faith in Jesus. He had believed, but then they came to Jerusalem and Jesus didn’t cast out the Romans and bring in the Jewish kingdom and showed no sign of doing so. Judas concluded: I was wrong, He’s not the Messiah, so quickly to save his skin and maybe to save the Nation, he changed sides and went to the authorities. Perhaps.
Some speculate that Judas never had faith in Him as Son of God. “Jesus Christ Superstar” (that very peculiar but occasionally profound musical from the ’70s) theorized that Judas saw Him only as a beneficent man “who went about doing good”, as indeed He was. But as time went on it had become less about helping people and more about Jesus himself: “Who do men say that I am?” Distressed at this, Judas finally turned on Him. At the end of “Superstar” Judas is dead and Christ is risen, and Judas sings: Did you know what you were doing all along? were you really the Messiah? Perhaps.
But the Gospel accounts and the Church’s hymns suggest that greed alone was behind it. Was greed Judas’ “passion”, as we Orthodox call it? his “besetting sin”, as Western moral theologians call it? I think Christ warned us specifically against only one idol: “You cannot worship God and money”. Remember how John wrote that Judas used to steal from the common moneybag. We know, we see today all around us, how greed – lust for money, for things – can cause people of all sorts, financiers, CEOs and ordinary folks to do irrational things Because they must have more, must have everything now. And how people can sell themselves to the evil spirit of Greed that way, and destroy themselves and others in the process. You know that especially at moments when we are under pressure our passions often come at us in force – and we lose our tempers again or fall again into despair or turn to drink or drugs or food or sex or shopping – or to money.
Imagine Judas, now utterly confused and tortured. Nothing is going the way he thought. Is he wrong about Jesus? Is he right? He has no idea and he’s had no sleep all week, tossing and turning, at his wits’ end. So now at this most critical moment the devil attacks: Judas’ besetting sin comes at him. His mind goes dark. He has no idea what to do next… but maybe money will help me cope, money will feel so good, nice familiar comforting soothing money. Was that it?
Listen to the words of a Holy Thursday hymn: “Judas darkened by the disease of greed delivered thee, the righteous Judge to lawless judges. You who love money, see how for money’s sake he hanged himself. Flee from the greed which made him do such things against his Master.”
We know when he betrayed the Lord he took money for it, thirty pieces of silver – and we know that after the Crucifixion Judas tried to give the money back. Apparently all he could think to do to try to get out from under this horrible burden of guilt was: Get rid of the money. The chief priests piously refused it: “It’s illegal to take back blood money.” Lord, have mercy – as if it had been legal for them to give a bribe to betray this innocent man. That hadn’t troubled them, had it? And we know 
Judas threw the money down and ran away: he had to get rid of that money! He left and soon was dead. Matthew says he hanged himself. The Book of Acts says he fell and ripped himself open on a rock “and all his bowels gushed out…” – as you can see here if you wish to look at it.
Judas betrayed Jesus, lost all hope, turned away and died in despair. The hymns today compare Judas with the sinful woman who anointed Jesus’ feet with her hair, who repented and was forgiven. Hers was a simple story: She was a sinner and she knew it. So she turned to Christ and repented. No complex motivations as with Judas, and hers was a happy ending. “There is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.” Likewise Simon Peter denied Christ three times, but returned in repentance and was forgiven. We honor him as Saint Peter.
What if, like the sinful woman, like Peter, Judas had repented? What if he had come to the risen Christ asking forgiveness? Hanging in our churches, would we now have icons of Saint Judas?
We will never know, for Judas did not repent.
Next Post: Holy Wednesday evening Matins and Anointing
Hi Father. I wonder too why Judas would do what he did to Jesus. I have a suggestion that might help. Perhaps the motivation from Judas is not that spelled out in the Gospel. You mentioned it must be more than money. Let me put this to you. Judas had known how many times the Lord had gotten out from many scenarios that could mean trouble but Jesus withstood them. So Judas may have thought I will force the issue on Jesus to reveal Himself to the authorities. He will get out of somehow. But the Lord did not do this. Jesus would not play with this. When Judas saw that Jesus would not defend Himself this is when he had become scared and frightened. Jesus would not play with Judas nor would He show Herod any defence. Jesus said of Himself that when the shepherd is struck meaning when Jesus would not defend Himself then the disciples would be scattered. Thus the lack of defending Himself would also affect the rest of the Apostles. Why would Judas kill himself if he wanted the death of the Lord? It seems it is something else which motivated Judas to do what he did. Perhaps it is what the devil said in the beginning to Jesus. Fly from the top of a building and they will know you are the Son of God. But Jesus would not to do this. He would not do as Judas wanted, or as Herod or anyone else. Jesus would allow all this to defeat the design which the devil was engaging Jesus into, to do what the devil asked Jesus from the beginning. This I think was the motivation of Judas. He wanted to force the issue on Jesus.
Thank you. Yes, Christ did only what His Father wanted. Simon Peter: “Lord, we will never let this happen to you.” “Get behind me, Satan!” As for Judas, like all of us, he likely had many motives intermixed.