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Betrayal Between Two Mounts
In between the time when Jesus went to the Mount of Olives and when he came to the place called the Skull (Aramaic: Gol Goatha, meaning mount of execution) a terrible, terrible thing happened. Jesus' first and twelfth called apostles (Lk 6:13-16), Peter and Judas, turned on him. His friends whom he called disciples, distanced, slept while Jesus prayed in such agony that his sweat became blood dripping onto the ground. The chief priests and temple guards, elders and scribes, and the crowds all joined in with the power of darkness.
The story is read in many churches on Palm Sunday, the story of friends and followers as they praised God aloud "with joy for all the mighty deeds they had seen." (19:39) Only days later they fell into the power of darkness. Friday following, Jesus hung on a cross, betrayed and abandoned by all but a few, dying in agony. In his last breath he prayed: "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." (23:46)
Another story, a contemporary one, tells of the Father - faithful - welcoming his son Jesus following his death upon the cross:
Welcome home, son!
Hello Father.
It is good to see you. It's been a long time.
Yes, Father, a very long time. It was hard.
Hard as nails. Hard as wood.
I know. What was the hardest?
The kiss, Father, the kiss. (long pause)
Yes. Come in and let me hold you.*
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*Megan McKenna, Lent: The Daily Readings: Reflections and Stories. Maryknoll: Orbis, 1997, p.179. Used with permission.
This story was given to me by theologian, author, and storyteller, Megan McKenna. She said, "I heard it on the radio in Ireland, while driving...it was submitted as a 'short story' in a contest...certain number of words allowed...and the commentator said--what in the world is this about? The station was inundated with calls...saying what it was about--and how it struck them and moved them to tears and silence...."
-- by Jan |
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I recently read G. K. Chesterton's 1908 classic, The Man Who Was Thursday. (I know - I'm only about a century behind on my reading!) One sentence early in the book seemed almost to jump off the page as I read it:
"Like any man, he was coward enough to fear great force; but he was not quite coward enough to admire it."
We can sympathize with every Iraqi who feared the great force of Saddam Hussein. We can only condemn those who went so far as to admire it, and to imitate it.
Chesterton wrote at the dawn of the bloodiest century in all human history. There were many great forces within that century to be feared: Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot. The force of atomic weapons. The forces of imperialism and oppression. The forces of lynching and torture.
There is no shame in fearing such forces. But one should be ashamed to admire them. Those who emulate the dictator's bullying strut - whether in Abu Ghraib prison, in corporate offices or in the house down the street - they are the truly shameful cowards. Afraid to cooperate, they seek to intimidate. Too weak to convince, they try to conquer.
I think of the difference between Peter and Judas. Peter was certainly coward enough to fear great force. That is why he denied Jesus: to save his own skin. The scriptures do not really tell us why Judas betrayed Jesus. Maybe Chesterton provides a clue. Maybe Judas had become disillusioned with Jesus' message of compassion. Maybe Judas was coward enough to admire the brutal force of Rome, and the self-serving force of the religious leaders. Maybe Judas was coward enough to admire that force, and to try to align himself with it.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn suffered greatly under some of the last century's greatest and cruelest forces. This survivor of the Soviet Gulag reminds us: "Violence does not necessarily take people by the throat and strangle them. Usually it demands no more than an oath of allegiance from its subjects. They are required merely to become accomplices in its lies."
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G. K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday, Dover: New York, 1986 (orig. pub. 1908), p. 37. -
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Nobel Prize acceptance speech.
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