It is the Feast of the Cross. A remarkable contradiction in the words we use marks the uniqueness above all else of the events surrounding the death of Jesus. A feast of death?

We know of other festivals that celebrate death.  In Mexico Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is a well-known parade of people in costumes resembling corpses, skeletons, ghosts, and tombstones.  It’s an excuse for street parties and debauchery.  Halloween glorifies death, graves, and ghosts and is accompanied by disgust, horror, and scare tactics.  There are others, such as in Cambodia the Pchum Ben, the Japanese Obon, as well as Irish traditions like the Irish wake, and the Tibetan sky burial where the dead are placed on high mountains so that vultures can tear the bodies apart—symbolic of the body decaying and the soul living on through reincarnation.

How is the Feast of the Cross, the most important day on the Christian calendar, different then?  The Passover has never given license to debauchery and drunken parties.  It is celebrated with humility and a simple meal of bread and wine.  Solitude, study, fasting, and an awareness of sin are, as the Jews celebrated in the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the week before Passover, the hallmarks of the Christian feast.

We read again the story of the unjust trial, the cruel torture, the crucifixion, and the words of a dying man that echo through the ages—and then the climax of the Resurrection, the miracle, the victory over death that is not celebrated in any other culture.

In the story of the Cross, there are characters who stand out and who play their roles in the versions of all the Gospels as the unrelenting events unfold.  If any of them might have thought they could influence the events, it is very clear that Jesus, like a master conductor before the symphony of His destiny, determined every detail.

In the reality of Roman authority and Jewish leadership, fear and panic overwhelmed Jesus’ followers.  It is one of the best examples of people who were warned about everything beforehand and yet, in the moment of reality, did not “act better.”  It’s easy to talk, but the violence and overwhelming cruelty were just too much.

Jesus warned His disciples that His death was coming—Matthew 16:21–28; 17:22–23; 20:17–20; 26:1–2; Mark 8:31–33; 9:30–32; 10:32–34; Luke 9:21–22; 43–45; 18:31–34—just look at how many occasions.  According to Matthew, He laid it out clearly – four times – and in Matthew 26:32, He spelled out the Resurrection and promised their meeting in Galilee.

As we’ve said before, Jesus “walked” His life on earth “on” the words of the prophets.  Every prophecy about Him was fulfilled in the finest detail in His life and death.

Jesus speaks directly to Judas at the table when He says that one of the disciples will betray Him.  Most of them are indignant and ask who it could be.  Did their personal weakness and doubt in their own audacity echo in the question: “Master, Is it I?” Very likely!

Judas also asks.  He must have known it was him since his carefully constructed plan was already in motion.  He had already received payment. Were the Jewish leaders so desperate that they paid him before he delivered Jesus to them?  Apparently so.  He had the money in his pocket to throw back at them when the arrest in the Garden didn’t go as he had hoped.

The Jews had dreams of power and domination. Extreme nationalism wanted to use violence to drive out the Romans. Judas was part of the group known as the Sicarii, the dagger-bearers, with a deliberate strategy of assassinating Romans.

Judas may have had his own expectations of Jesus as a great leader—a miracle-worker sent by God who would lead a great uprising with His supernatural powers.  Maybe he saw that Jesus was deliberately choosing a different path.  Jesus was not the Christ Judas wanted Him to be.

Judas never have intended for Jesus to die.  He might have just thought that Jesus was moving too slowly.  According to him, Jesus needed to be forced into a situation to act.  

The tragedy of Judas is that he refused to accept Jesus for who He was and what He had come for.  He tried to make Jesus into what he wanted Him to be.

Judas thought he knew better than God.  He was completely entangled in the politics of the day and missed the greater Plan entirely.

Judas’s focus on politics and worldly powers completely dulled and confused his spiritual insight and his discernment of the times.  This should serve as a warning to us.  Let us plead for grace to keep our eyes “right” and to “see” the Hand of God in the fate of nations.

In the words of Jesus: “The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matthew 6:22–23)

At the table, Judas was close enough to dip his hand in the same bowl, close enough to look Jesus in the eye.  Just think how his prejudice and arrogance neutralized the power of Jesus’s Presence—the solution to all oppression—something that only happens in the persistence of sin.

Judas carries out his deed.  He brings the authorities into the Garden of Gethsemane for a convenient, “private” arrest—out of sight of the Galilean pilgrims who viewed Jesus as a prophet and might have caused unrest.

Judas fulfills his part of the dark deed and gives Jesus the kiss that a disciple would give his beloved rabbi.  Then he steps back to witness the planned miracle.  Just like all the other times when they tried to kill Jesus by stoning or a plan to throw Him off a cliff, Jesus calmly walked away from the murderous crowd—surely this time Jesus would also, now with miraculous force, fight His way out so that Judas and his companions could carry on the revolution, with the miracles of the Messiah as a guarantee of success.

But… alas!  That’s not what happened.  Jesus identified Himself to the soldiers and clearly surrendered Himself to them. (John 18:4–5)

In one staggering, blinding, burning moment, Judas must have realized how miserably his plan had failed.

He stumbled away into the night—a broken and tormented man forever. Judas must have entered the hell he created for himself at that very moment, because the worst kind of hell is the full awareness of the terrible consequences of sin.

Judas had the money burning in his pocket.  Matthew describes his mission to communicate his mistake to the priests.  He went to throw it in the Temple.  The word used refers to the Temple itself.  In his blind despair, Judas entered the Court of the Gentiles, passed through the Court of the Women, and on to the Court of the Israelites.  He could go no further. He stormed into the Temple as deeply as he could, up to the Court of the Priests.  He called on them to take the money back, but they wouldn’t— betraying the betrayer.  He flung the money toward them, left, and hanged himself.

Note the words Judas uses: “I have betrayed innocent blood.” He does not refer to Jesus as the Messiah or the Son of Man (what Jesus called Himself), nor as the Christ, the Son of the Living God (the words Peter used when the fullness of who Jesus is was revealed to him by the Father – Matthew 16:13–20).

Judas’s suicide is surely the final indication that his plan went horribly and disgustingly wrong.  He meant to make Jesus shine as a victor but instead drove Him to the Cross.

We can never turn back time or undo what has happened.  Sin is sin, and once committed, it cannot be erased—except by the Blood of Jesus. Always remember that, and never forget the power of the Blood—there truly is nothing like it, and we as Christians are the only people in the entire universe who have access to it—truly a wonder of God’s grace for our assurance of salvation.

Sin makes you hate what you once desired.  Most people sin because they believe that if they could just obtain the forbidden thing, it would make them happy.  The opposite is true—what looks like a beautiful rose becomes a bed of thorns.

Always know that God knows better and ALWAYS acts in your best interest.  He calls Himself goodness and truth.  Let us look up and consult God in everything that worries us.  Know that even what does not seem right or just to you will work out for your good if you trust God.

“Praise the Lord, for He is good; His love has no end!”

Some sat in darkness, in deep gloom, They were prisoners in misery and chains, Because they rebelled against the commands of God, They scorned the counsel of the Most High. He humbled them through suffering, They collapsed, and no one helped. But in their distress, they cried out to the Lord for help, And He delivered them from their misery. He brought them out of darkness, out of deep gloom, He shattered their chains. (Psalm 107:1;10–14)

Here is the wonder of the access we have through the Cross of Jesus, already spelled out in the Psalms.  We can cry out, even if we’ve sinned and made mistakes, even if we’ve scorned God’s guidance, even if we’ve strayed far—He hears our cry for help.

Peter also buckled under the pressure of fear. He was also close to Jesus…

We’ll talk about him next time.