Judas

Luke 21:37-22:13

“Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was one of the twelve; he went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers of the temple police about how he might betray him to them. They were greatly pleased and agreed to give him money. So he consented and began to look for an opportunity to betray him to them when no crowd was present.”

Recently the National Geographjc Society released the Gospel of Judas, and Elaine Pagels and Karen King have published a book on it. The upshot is to reposition Judas as a figure who collaborated with Jesus to realize the prophecies. Jesus asked Judas to play his role leading to the Passion, and Judas did nothing but obey.

I find the interest in rehabilitating Judas quite strange. The Bible doesn’t need anything added to it, not the Gospel of Judas, not the Book of Mormon. It is what it is, and its rich content needs to be addressed. Once upon a time the content of the Bible was up for grabs, but that was a long time ago, and now part of being Christian is having this well-defined set of stories and poetry to work with as a holy text. The text is complicated and multifarious enough, it needs nothing else to give us plenty to do.

The Gospel of Judas offers an alternative way to understand Judas, and of course some people would say it says something about who he really was. I think we need to understand Judas within the narrative form that we encounter him. It’s like adding a sequel to Moby Dick for new insights on Ahab. You can do that, but then you’re dealing with a completely different book and narrative.

The point that Judas was necessary to realizing Jesus’ appointed role in the creation is plainly there in the Gospels. No need to add texts. The story of Judas brings us back to the question of the relationship of an all-powerful God to both evil and good. God needs Judas to betray to Jesus, and in fact appoints him to do this. Does this make Judas a good and faithful servant? What is evil, really? It is clearly something we encounter and experience as humans, but it’s not as clear what it looks like to a merciful God. And what is goodness? Again, it is something we experience when we receive a kindness or witness an act of grace. But in our prayers we acknowledge that it is only by the God’s grace that our good acts are in fact good in ultimate terms.