William H. Willimon and Nancy Ferree-Clark - "Company of Betrayers" Good Friday Service (April 17, 1987)
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(slow organ music) | 0:03 | |
(slow organ music) | 3:53 | |
(slow organ music) | 8:55 | |
- | Let us read responsively. | 10:13 |
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? | 10:15 | |
- | Why art thou far from helping me? | 10:20 |
- | Oh, my God, I cry by day | 10:23 |
but thou does not answer. | 10:27 | |
(audience murmurs) | 10:29 | |
Yet thou are holy. | 10:33 | |
(audience murmurs) | 10:36 | |
In thee our fathers trusted. | 10:39 | |
(audience murmurs) | 10:42 | |
To thee, they cry and were saved. | 10:45 | |
(audience murmurs) | 10:49 | |
All who see me mock at me. | 10:53 | |
(audience murmurs) | 10:56 | |
He committed his cause to the Lord, let him deliver him. | 11:01 | |
(audience murmurs) | 11:06 | |
They divide my garments among them. | 11:09 | |
(audience murmurs) | 11:12 | |
But, thou, oh Lord, be not far off. | 11:15 | |
(audience murmurs) | 11:19 | |
I will tell of thy name to my brethren. | 11:23 | |
(audience murmurs) | 11:27 | |
You who fear the Lord, praise him. | 11:30 | |
(audience murmurs) | 11:34 | |
For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction | 11:38 | |
of the afflicted. | 11:42 | |
(audience murmurs) | 11:44 | |
From thee comes my praise in the great congregation. | 11:51 | |
(audience murmurs) | 11:56 | |
All the ends of the earth shall remember | 12:00 | |
and turn to the Lord. | 12:03 | |
(audience murmurs) | 12:06 | |
For dominion belongs to the Lord. | 12:10 | |
(audience murmurs) | 12:14 | |
(slow organ music) | 12:19 | |
- | The Lord be with you. | 17:09 |
- | And also with you. | 17:12 |
- | Let us pray. | 17:13 |
Most gracious God, | 17:19 | |
look, with mercy, upon your family gathered here | 17:22 | |
for whom our Lord, Christ, was betrayed. | 17:26 | |
Given into sinful hands and suffered death upon the cross. | 17:29 | |
Strengthen our faith | 17:34 | |
and forgive our betrayals as we enter the way | 17:37 | |
of his passion. | 17:40 | |
Through him who lives and reigns with you | 17:42 | |
and the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. | 17:45 | |
Amen. | 17:49 | |
- | The lesson for this Good Friday. | 18:01 |
Then one of the 12 who was called Judas Iscariot | 18:06 | |
went to the chief priest and said, | 18:10 | |
what will give me if I deliver him to you? | 18:14 | |
And they paid him 30 pieces of silver. | 18:18 | |
And from that moment, | 18:22 | |
Judas sought an opportunity to betray him. | 18:24 | |
- | Now, on the first day of unleavened bread, | 18:30 |
the disciples came to Jesus saying, | 18:33 | |
where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover? | 18:36 | |
He said, go into the city to a certain one and say to him, | 18:41 | |
the teacher says my time is at hand, | 18:47 | |
I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples. | 18:51 | |
And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them | 18:55 | |
and they prepared the Passover. | 18:59 | |
- | And when it was evening, he sat at table | 19:03 |
with his 12 disciples. | 19:06 | |
And as they were eating, he said to them, | 19:09 | |
truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me. | 19:11 | |
And they were sorrowful and began to say to one another, | 19:18 | |
it is I, Lord? | 19:24 | |
He answered, he who has dipped his hand into the dish | 19:27 | |
with me, the same shall betray me. | 19:32 | |
The son of man goes as it was written of him | 19:37 | |
but woe to that man by whom the son of man is betrayed. | 19:41 | |
It would be better for that man if he had never been born. | 19:46 | |
Judas, who betrayed him, said, | 19:52 | |
is it I, Master? | 19:56 | |
He said to him, you have said so. | 19:59 | |
- | Now, as they were eating, Jesus took bread | 20:06 |
and blessed and broke it and gave it to the disciples | 20:09 | |
and said, take, eat, this is my body. | 20:13 | |
And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, | 20:18 | |
he gave it to them saying, drink of it, all of you, | 20:22 | |
for this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out | 20:27 | |
for many for the forgiveness of sins. | 20:30 | |
I tell you, I shall not drink again of this fruit | 20:34 | |
of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you | 20:37 | |
in my father's kingdom. | 20:42 | |
- | And when they had sung a hymn, they went out | 20:45 |
to the Mount of Olives and Jesus said to them, | 20:48 | |
you will all fall away because of me this night. | 20:53 | |
For it is written, I will strike the shepherd | 20:57 | |
and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. | 21:02 | |
But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee. | 21:05 | |
Peter declared to him, though they all fall away | 21:11 | |
because of you, I will never fall away. | 21:15 | |
Jesus said to him, truly, I say to you this very night, | 21:19 | |
before the cock crows, you will deny me three times. | 21:24 | |
Peter said to him, even if I must die with you, | 21:29 | |
I will not deny you. | 21:33 | |
And so said all the disciples. | 21:35 | |
- | While he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the 12. | 21:39 |
And with him, a great crowd with swords and clubs | 21:43 | |
from the chief priest and the elders of the people. | 21:47 | |
Now, the betrayer had given them a sign saying, | 21:52 | |
the one I shall kiss is the man, seize him. | 21:55 | |
(coughs) | 22:00 | |
And he came up to Jesus at once and said, | 22:01 | |
hail, Master, and he kissed him. | 22:04 | |
Jesus said to him, friend, why are you here? | 22:08 | |
Then, they came up and laid hands on Jesus | 22:14 | |
and seized him. | 22:17 | |
- | Then all the disciples forsook him and fled. | 22:21 |
Here ends the lesson. | 22:27 | |
They said to him, | 22:33 | |
Lord, who is it that betrays you? | 22:36 | |
And Jesus said, he who dips his hand into the dish with me, | 22:39 | |
the same shall betray me. | 22:45 | |
- | Now, wait just a minute. | 22:48 |
There is something fishy about this whole Judas story. | 22:50 | |
It just doesn't make a lot of sense. | 22:56 | |
It all seems a little phony. | 22:58 | |
It's as if Matthew had to tack it on the end | 23:01 | |
to try to make some sense of it all. | 23:05 | |
But it doesn't make sense. | 23:07 | |
I tell you, somebody's getting framed here. | 23:10 | |
Somebody's getting disposed of here. | 23:14 | |
And quite neatly. | 23:18 | |
- | Are you saying the disciples, | 23:20 |
the company of the faithful | 23:23 | |
is washing its hands of somebody? | 23:26 | |
Are you saying that somebody is getting set up, | 23:29 | |
taking the rap, left holding the bag? | 23:32 | |
- | Yes. | 23:36 |
Looking back over its shoulder down the ages, | 23:38 | |
the church has always said, | 23:40 | |
you know, we didn't ever really trust this Judas character. | 23:43 | |
We thought he was stealing from us all along. | 23:48 | |
- | Well, come to think of it, the gospel writers | 23:53 |
never mentioned why Judas did it or what his motive was, | 23:56 | |
that, at 30 pieces of silver thing was hardly | 24:01 | |
any motive at all. | 24:05 | |
- | No motive at all. | 24:07 |
The church has simply sealed him shut. | 24:10 | |
He's excommunicated into outer darkness. | 24:13 | |
Judas is whisked off the stage amidst the boos | 24:16 | |
and the hisses and the catcalls of the righteous. | 24:19 | |
And that's that. | 24:24 | |
The play must go on. | 24:26 | |
His name is never mentioned again. | 24:28 | |
- | No, it doesn't make a lot of sense. | 24:33 |
It's a lousy detective story. | 24:36 | |
People who wanted Jesus arrested knew where he was | 24:38 | |
all week long. | 24:41 | |
Jesus wasn't hiding from anybody, they knew what | 24:43 | |
he looked like. | 24:45 | |
They didn't need any kiss from Judas to tell them | 24:47 | |
who Jesus was. | 24:51 | |
- | Right. | 24:53 |
Judas is there for convenience. | 24:54 | |
I'll tell you why Judas is there. | 24:58 | |
He's there to soothe the consciences | 25:00 | |
of the other 11 disciples. | 25:03 | |
It's as if, with that lonely body, twisting and gagging | 25:07 | |
at the end of the rope on some olive tree branch. | 25:10 | |
The other 11 neatly disposed of the consciences. | 25:14 | |
They hung their shame on Judas. | 25:20 | |
- | Well, the gospel writers are obviously embarrassed | 25:23 |
that all the disciples cut out and fled | 25:28 | |
when Jesus was arrested. | 25:32 | |
Mark makes little mention of it. | 25:35 | |
Matthew tries to cover it up. | 25:39 | |
Luke utters not a word about it. | 25:43 | |
Early Christians must have wondered | 25:47 | |
why the disciples did nothing to save Jesus | 25:51 | |
from the mob. | 25:55 | |
Where were the other 11 when things got rough? | 25:57 | |
Must have haunted those who ran. | 26:02 | |
So, perhaps the Christian church has used Judas. | 26:05 | |
And we have used him. | 26:11 | |
We've gotten our mileage out of Judas. | 26:14 | |
Oh, Judas, a thousand Good Friday sermons | 26:17 | |
have put down Judas. | 26:19 | |
The great betrayer. | 26:22 | |
There he is, hanging there. | 26:25 | |
And, at last, justice is done. | 26:28 | |
We've shook our fist at him, time after time. | 26:31 | |
Shame on you, you dog, Judas, we never trusted you. | 26:34 | |
We were never one of us. | 26:38 | |
- | Yes, the church has used Judas. | 26:42 |
Just as Matthew has used him here. | 26:46 | |
Judas is there to cover up the odor of some other stench. | 26:49 | |
Judas is there to screen from our view | 26:54 | |
the real nature of the disciples around Jesus. | 26:58 | |
He's there to keep the smell of our infidelity | 27:03 | |
from creeping out of this story. | 27:08 | |
- | Ah, those terrible, terrible words. | 27:11 |
Then they all forsook him and fled. | 27:17 | |
- | Right. | 27:24 |
This, not Judas, is the church's real shame. | 27:25 | |
This is the real betrayal. | 27:30 | |
Jesus said, he that dips his hand into the dish with me | 27:33 | |
is the betrayer. | 27:38 | |
And, remember, that night, at the table, | 27:40 | |
they all dipped their grubby hands | 27:44 | |
into that dish with Jesus. | 27:46 | |
Everybody betrayed him. | 27:49 | |
They just cut out and left little brother, Judas, | 27:51 | |
standing there with the peanut butter on his hands | 27:55 | |
to bear the guilt. | 27:58 | |
- | If Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, | 28:01 |
did Judas die for the sin of the church? | 28:06 | |
- | He's age-old scapegoat. | 28:10 |
Peter and all the others come out smelling like a rose. | 28:13 | |
- | And so do we. | 28:16 |
- | But we're all the company of the betrayers. | 28:18 |
Last night, we all ate at table with Jesus. | 28:22 | |
All of us ate from the same dish. | 28:26 | |
And then, all of us got out while the getting out was good. | 28:30 | |
- | We still have our Judases. | 28:35 |
We just can't stand to be guilty. | 28:39 | |
We hate guilt. | 28:41 | |
The smell of our guilt sickens us. | 28:43 | |
- | We mumble through the confession at the beginning | 28:46 |
of most worship services. | 28:49 | |
That doesn't mean me, we say. | 28:50 | |
Those aren't my sins. | 28:52 | |
All this conversion must apply to someone else, we say. | 28:55 | |
Somebody like Judas. | 28:58 | |
We can't bear to face our own guilt. | 29:02 | |
- | We have our Judases today. | 29:07 |
Somebody to blame things on. | 29:10 | |
Somebody to blame things on for the mess we're in. | 29:12 | |
We complain about the kids, the neighbors, | 29:16 | |
the federal government, Reagan got us into Nicaragua, | 29:19 | |
our mothers spoiled us, our daddies beat us, | 29:23 | |
our teachers failed us. | 29:25 | |
- | We can't accept our guilt because we could never believe | 29:32 |
that God will accept us even in our guilt. | 29:35 | |
We keep trying to divert ourselves. | 29:41 | |
Just as we are, God accepts us, dirty hands and everything. | 29:46 | |
- | We must have our Judas, our scapegoat. | 29:54 |
We cannot confess out of our fear. | 29:57 | |
We cannot accept ourselves around that table | 30:02 | |
because we cannot believe that God would. | 30:06 | |
We keep trying to divert ourselves, explain, | 30:11 | |
to rationalize, to justify ourselves. | 30:14 | |
We use Judas to bear the blame and banish our sin away. | 30:17 | |
- | The Jews, the Nazis, the Russians, the politicians, | 30:23 |
the newspapers, the radicals. | 30:27 | |
These are our Judases. | 30:30 | |
- | We just can't stand guilt. | 30:32 |
- | Why must we always be right? | 30:36 |
Why must we always look like angels? | 30:39 | |
Why must our hands be so pure? | 30:43 | |
- | But there can be no salvation, no redemption, | 30:48 |
no healing, until we first face up to our guilt. | 30:53 | |
We cannot be healed until we first admit that we're sick. | 31:00 | |
We cannot be put back together until we first admit | 31:04 | |
we're broken. | 31:09 | |
- | And this is where all the redemption must begin. | 31:12 |
This is where the healing can start. | 31:16 | |
- | Let us prepare for this Easter time | 31:21 |
by first being able to at least admit | 31:25 | |
that the company of the glad is also the company | 31:29 | |
of the guilty. | 31:34 | |
- | We who have set up so many ways to avoid | 31:37 |
looking in the mirror at our real selves. | 31:40 | |
We who have played the little games and worn | 31:44 | |
the phony mask. | 31:46 | |
We who have blamed and excused and lied. | 31:49 | |
- | Let us begin | 31:55 |
with a prayer for the grace to be glad. | 31:59 | |
That we, too, are among the company of the guilty. | 32:04 | |
That we, too, are the betrayers of Christ | 32:11 | |
and all the Judases that have ever lived | 32:14 | |
and, therefore, that we, too, | 32:19 | |
are among the ones for whom Christ has died. | 32:23 | |
Let us give thanks that Judas was at the table. | 32:28 | |
But if he were not there, we could not be here. | 32:33 | |
We, too, are among that bunch of good-for-nothing sinners | 32:37 | |
and betrayers whom God has loved | 32:42 | |
and for whom Christ has died. | 32:48 | |
Amen. | 32:54 | |
(scattered footfalls) | 33:26 | |
(choir vocalizes) | 34:57 | |
(choir vocalizes) | 41:17 | |
Please, rise. | 45:46 | |
And now, may the grace and peace of God | 45:52 | |
be with you this night and always. | 45:56 | |
Amen. | 46:00 | |
(soft murmurs) | 46:20 | |
(scattered footfalls) | 46:31 |
There is no transcript available for this part.
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