The Betraying Christ
Jesus betrayed his disciples.
We often spend much of our time reflecting on how his disciples betrayed and abandoned him, and how someone like Peter made lofty promises which he failed to keep. But the truth is, just as they had betrayed Jesus, perhaps they too felt that Jesus had betrayed them.
If we really think about it, perhaps he really did. He betrayed them by failing to have met the expectations they had of him. They were simple people who had trusted him with their lives. They had entrusted their futures into his hands. And for all that they had given up just to be his companions in the final part of his earthly journey, they had a right to have expected better things from him.
But he failed to deliver. He had to get crucified, suffer humiliation unto death, and consequently abandoned those who had been faithful to him.
Don't be too quick to judge the disciples. Imagine how painfully lost they must have felt throughout that brief season following Jesus' death and burial. Try to internalise how abandoned and cheated - how foolish - they must have felt.
Part of the paschal mystery is that for as long as we are called to live in community and have expectations on relationships we build in community, we are bound to fail and betray one another. So yes, just as his disciples had betrayed him, Jesus had betrayed them too.
This thought must be disturbing for some of us who have a perfect image of Jesus. I know. It disturbs me too. But it also challenges me to think through again how I have spent much of my life trying to avoid betrayals. Maybe it's just a necessary part of the paschal mystery that needs to be realised in community.
Perhaps the paschal mystery is such that only in betrayal and abandonment can we find the resurrected Christ awaiting in the light of the dawn.
Comments (1)
Sherman... wasn't sure where you were going with this one. Your posts always make me think (and think hard), and more times than not, at the end of the day you've made a deeply profound point that I never would have realized until I tore away all the layers of nuance presented in your writing.
Today, however, I must take issue (guess i'm not one of those anti-conflict people you wrote about in your subsequent post :-).
I don't believe for a moment that Jesus set out with the idea in mind to betray His disciples. On more than one occasion, when they tried to project onto Him an earthly kingship and an earthly savior's role, He rebuked them and tried to explain to them that He had to go through with the death that awaited Him. In Matthew 24, as He explained to the disciples the fate that awaited Him in Jerusalem, Peter actually took Jesus to task for saying such things, and Jesus had to rebuke him, even to the point of calling him Satan.
If the disciples felt betrayed by Jesus (and I don't argue with you here... indeed they were deflated and frightened and at least some of them even went back to their old jobs after Jesus died) it was out of their own refusal to hear what He was trying to tell them about His purpose on earth and what was to come.
I do have a perfect image of Jesus, and rightfully so, for He was perfect. He tried His best to explain things, especially toward the end of His earthly ministry, but the disciples didn't want to hear it. I do understand that we have 2,000 years of hindsight, and a Book that explains it all to us... luxuries the disciples did not enjoy, so it is easier for us to see why things had to happen as they did. Therefore, I try not to be so hard on the disciples. But to say that Jesus actively betrayed them, I can't buy into that. I expect fallible humans to betray me from time to time (intentionally or not)... it still hurts, but I try to find it within myself to forgive them. And I know I have let people down more times than I care to think about as well. But we are sinful people, influenced by a sinful world, which is why a perfect Savior had to come and die for our imperfections. I'll take that kind of "betrayal" any day!
Posted by dean | March 11, 2008 8:22 PM