Communion Message
(Betrayal)
January 13, 2002
Pastor Donald Sheley

For I have received from the Lord that which I also delivered unto you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me." In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.

Each Lord's Day, when I read this passage to you, I find it interesting that Paul would paint the backdrop for the table with the terrible sin of Judas. He said, on that night, the same night, Jesus was betrayed. Judas, a name that doesn't fall too easily from our lips; Judas, a man who wrote the darkest page of human history.

Jewish authorities wished to find a way in which to arrest Jesus without provoking riotous disturbances, and now that way was presented to them by the approach of Judas. As Bible scholars and historians have tried to prod deep into the mind of Judas, they've come up with maybe three different reasons, or at least suggestions, why he did what he did.

Number one: it may have been because of greed and avarice. For according to Matthew and Mark, it was immediately after the anointing at Bethany that Judas struck his dreadful bargain. And when John tells his story of that same event, he says that Judas made his protest against the anointing because he was a thief and he pilfered from the money that was in the bag. You see, he was the treasurer for the disciples. Now if that's so, Judas struck one of the most dreadful bargains in history. If avarice was the cause of Judas' act of treachery, then this is the most terrible example in the history of the depths which love for money can reach.

The second suggestion is this: it may have been because of bitter hatred based on complete disillusionment. The Jews always had their dream of power, therefore, they had their violent nationalists who were prepared to go to any lengths of murder and violence to drive the Romans from their soil. These nationalists were called the sechari. They were the dagger bearers because they had followed a deliberate policy of assassination, and it may be that Judas was such. That he had looked on Jesus as the divinely sent leader who with his miraculous powers could be a part of the great rebellion against Rome, and he may have seen that Jesus had deliberately taken another way; the way that led to a cross. And in this bitter disappointment, Judas' devotion may have turned first to disillusionment, and then to hatred, a hatred which drove him to seek the death of the man from whom he had expected so much.

Now there's a third suggestion: it may be that Judas never intended Jesus to die. It may be that, as we have seen, Judas saw in Jesus the divine leader and he may have thought that Jesus was preceding far too slowly in establishing his kingdom, and he may have wished for nothing else than to force the hand of Jesus into action. He may have betrayed Jesus with the intention of compelling him to act.

However we look at it, the tragedy of Judas is that he refused to accept Jesus as he was, and he tried to make Jesus what he wanted him to be. It is not Jesus who can be changed by us, but we who must be changed by him.

Now there's one feature to this story that has always fascinated me, and that is that kiss. In the Orient and in the Eastern lands, as you know, a greeting is kissing the cheeks. You kiss one cheek and then you kiss the other cheek. In our Western culture we shake hands. So, when you first think this might have been just simply the welcoming kiss, but it's interesting.

You know, the New Testament is written in Greek, and it's a very colorful language. And as such, there are different words to describe a kiss. There is a word that's used to describe the kiss of welcome when you greet someone, and the Greeks use one word for that. But when it's the kiss of a lover, one who passionately really loves the other person, then another word is used for that expression. And what's interesting is that the writers of the Gospels used that word to describe a passionate loving kiss that Judas gave to Jesus.

Now Judas stepped up to kiss Jesus, he kissed him as a disciple would kiss his master. He kissed him as if he meant it. And then he stood back with expectant pride waiting on Jesus to blast these people, and at last, to act. The curious thing is that from the moment of the kiss Judas vanishes from the scene in the garden not to reappear until he's bent on suicide. He does not even appear as a witness at the trial of Jesus.

It's far more likely that in one stunning, blinding, staggering, searing moment Judas saw how he had so miscalculated the mission of his master. So he staggered away into the night a forever broken and haunted man. If this be true, at that moment Judas entered the hell which he had created for himself. For the worst kind of hell is the full realization of the terrible consequences of sin.

Don't you find it interesting that Paul, in setting the scene for the last supper, says, Jesus on that night in which He was betrayed? Go back just for a moment, a few hours in that day, and they're preparing for supper and they're being really stunned by an action of Jesus. He's washing their feet. And when he comes to Judas, he washes Judas' feet. Can you imagine the cacophony and mixture of emotions flashing in that man's mind? Here he knows what he's going to do, and here's a Christ, a master who loves him, washing his feet.

They moved to the table, and as was Eastern custom, you always gave your guest of honor the first serving, the sop. And who got the sop? Judas. The guest of honor. Someone in describing that scene, says, that was loves' last appeal. A man, who wrote a terribly dark page of history for human action. If we put it down to bottom line in our modern-day you'd say, he lived by a double standard. He was two-faced. I'm sure that's so. We'll never know. We know that he was born the son of predation. That we know from the Scriptures. But Paul sets the scene for the communion realizing that even at the table there are some present who lead a double life.

Now I say this in this context, may it never be said of us that we do something very spiritual and something very sacred on Sunday morning in identifying with our Christ, and then going out and living for the devil on Monday. That's two-facedness. This is a sacred moment. This is a moment that gives us the opportunity on our knees to tell Jesus genuinely how much we love him. We're not perfect. We all know that, and he knows that. And sometimes we live our lives giving no evidence of the testimony of our lips, and we miss that identification with Christ a million miles by the way we live. But we come to him on this moment and say, Jesus, I did blow it. I did miss the market, but I love you and I know you love me.

Come to the table with a single purpose: Jesus I. kneel here to worship you and to express my love, because I'm going out tomorrow and live for you. Amen? Let's kneel together, shall we?

Lord Jesus, we realize that even great minds, historians, Bible scholars, in their efforts to explain the act of betrayal come up with various suggestions. We'll never know. There's one thing we do know - we never want to be categorized in the Judas category.

We come to this table, Lord Jesus, with a knowledge that we're not perfect. Not a one of us who kneel here this beautiful day suggest any degree of perfection. We sin. Our weaknesses and our failures stare us in the face, and yet we know our heart, because in our heart we really do love you dear Jesus and we really do want to serve you. So we come to this moment and ask you to forgive us for our failures and our sins. This to us is a very sacred moment, Jesus, to be at the table, a memorial table that celebrates your death; an expression of divine love, for it was there at Calvary you took our sin. You took the penalty of our sin. The penalty of sin is death and you died that death so we could live eternally. That's amazing.

And then the cup we hold tells us that in your precious blood we have cleansing from all of our sin. So today with love, devotion, adoration, and with commitment, we take these elements because you are our Christ, our Savior, our God. Let's take the bread together, shall we? And then the cup. Thank you Jesus for loving us so much. And everybody said, amen. Let's stand and greet one another, shall we?