Judas is a name that no one would give their child these days.  It is synonymous with betrayal.  So that Judas' betrayal could be understood, the Gospel writers portrayed him as a selfish, greedy person whose deeds brought self-destruction in the end.  For how else could  someone who had been a disciple of Jesus for three years, someone who had witnessed all the miracles and heard all of the teaching, commit such a betrayal?  I have always thought of Judas just as a role player in the unfolding Passion events.  He was someone whose actions and fate were predestined so that the events of the coming three days would go according to script.

 

Judas' betrayal is not the only one we see as the Gospels draw to a close.  Many of those who had heard Jesus' teaching and witnessed His miracles turned on Him when He was brought before Pilate.  Even Peter and the other disciples distanced themselves from Jesus for a brief period of time.  Each of these betrayals was another scourge on the heart of Jesus.  The words of the Psalm are sung so mournfully in Handel's Messiah:

 

Thy rebuke has broken His heart.

 

I think that those at the time might have had some justification for their actions, because the momentous events of the Passion week could not have been fully comprehended while they were being played out.  But after Pentecost, the disciples were enlightened and empowered by the Holy Spirit to proclaim the meaning of these events.  And what a hard and wonderful meaning it is!  Christ's suffering and death were necessary to restore our broken relationship with God.  The glory of Easter morning is knowing that Jesus has fulfilled what the Father asked of Him for our sakes.  As I wrote in an Advent meditation, we are so blessed to have the Church and the “vast cloud of witnesses” who have given testimony to this.

 

Let us not betray Jesus by not making room for Him in this celebration of the Easter Tridium, by not trying to comprehend the mystery of these events, and by not proclaiming with our lives that Jesus lives.