Betrayal and Denial
Gospel: Jn 13:21-33, 36-38
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032624.cfm
From Palm Sunday to today’s gospel, things starting to change for Jesus. On Sunday he is being revered by a crowd. Yesterday, he had an intimate moment with some of his friends. While having that special moment, he gets questioned by one of his disciples, Judas, about how the money used for the oil that he was anointed with could have been better used in service to the poor. Now in today’s gospel, Jesus tells Judas that he knows that he is going to betray him.
Once Judas is gone, Jesus explains that he will be going away and that none of them can follow him. Peter speaks up and says that he will always follow him. Jesus then tells Peter that he will deny him three times before the new day starts. Things have changed so quickly for Jesus!
Sometimes, people express an encounter with God as a “born-again” experience. I believe these moments do genuinely happen; people can experience God in such a fashion that they feel that their life is forever changed. That said, these moments are not a complete fulfillment. Our relationship with God is a journey. God isn’t done with us and the revelation for us isn’t over as much as we can feel it or have a sense of it in those moments.
We can respond to these moments like Peter does in today’s gospel. We can feel fully committed and not know that when challenges come, we will quickly run and hide. Life has a way of showing us how fragile and non-committal we are. We can have the best intentions, but those intentions don’t sustain our faith.
With an encounter with the divine, we can also respond like Judas. Judas was very pious. After following Jesus, Judas returns to his beliefs about religious authority, the law, and service. He too was motivated by good intentions. Instead of keeping himself open to a deeper transformation through his relationship with Jesus, he defaults to his old view of what is meant to be good and pious. The betrayal of Jesus was an aspiration to help many and get recognized by religious authorities for doing it. As the story continues, he turns his back on Jesus, someone he loved, for recognition and money to serve.
While his friends had good intentions, Jesus was the one who had to suffer for them. He experienced the betrayal and denial of friends in his greatest time of need. We do this to God too in our encounters with others. We can harm others with our good intentions, and we can justify our actions with our good intentions.
With God, we are called to more. We all need to be more honest with ourselves about the motivations behind our actions. The transformation we are called to requires work and our participation. It is not just a one-and-done experience but a journey. God is always calling us and leading us to more. As we follow, more is revealed when we are ready to receive it. These encounters are challenging which makes it easy for us to fall back to our comforts as Peter and Judas did, but God wants more for us as he did for Peter and Judas as well. We will falter, but God is there to help us learn and grow from it. God is never done with us.
