Judas – name is synonymous with betrayal

Gospels pour fire and brimstone on him. Imagining for him gory deaths.

For John he is the one destined from the beginning to be lost from the sheep fold.

But we know little of him. We are told he kept the common purse – surely this is a sign of trust – a trust earned by his dependability?

We are told that he objected to the waste of expensive ointment when it could have been sold and the money used for the poor – although he is scolded for not recognising the love in the action before him – doesn't he have a point? Does this show him as a pragmatic, but caring man – with a desire to set the world right?

Above all we know that he betrays Jesus for money. What we do not know is why.

A few pieces of silver is very little to sell a life for. It is very little to give up your own life for – and Judas must have known that a few coins would not replace everything he is about to lose.

Is simple love of money enough of an explanation?

Had Judas become disenchanted? Jesus spending his time with prostitutes and their oils when he could be organising co-operatives and charity fundraisers?

Is it political – was Judas waiting for the war, the final battle between heaven and earth? Would the arrest of Jesus be the flash point to trigger it?

And above all, what did Jesus know about it? What did Jesus think of him? Did Jesus even tell him to arrange the arrest – somewhere quiet where there was no danger of a riot – was it the opposite of a desire for war – was Judas asked to make his sacrifice to ensure that the inevitable end came peacefully?

What did Jesus think?

After saying this Jesus was troubled in spirit, and declared, “Very truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me.”

“It is the one to whom I give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” So when he had dipped the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas son of Simon Iscariot. 27

Jesus said to him, “Do quickly what you are going to do.”

At a Passover meal, bread is dipped in charoset – a paste of apple and spices, and in salt water. The charoset recalls the mortar of the bricks the slaves made in Egypt – it is a symbol of their captivity. The salt water is their tears.

He dipped the bread and gave it to him. But what did he dip it in? The sweet apple paste – here, receive a sign of your slavery – to sin – to greed – to violence – just as the others receive the bread and wine of their freedom?

Or in the salt water - into the tears. Whose tears are they – Jesus' tears for Judas – or for himself.

What you are going to do do quickly. Is Jesus giving him permission to betray him. A command to do it? Or is he forgiving him in advance.

Why the haste. For Judas' sake – so he is not discovered and stopped? For Jesus' sake, because he is afraid that given too much time to think, he may lose his nerve, change his mind.

We can't know what they were thinking, and given that we seldom understand our own acts of betrayal and our own mixed motives, we should not expect to. We can only wonder. Wonder if they thought of each other as both hung from their own trees. And wonder what they said to each other, when on that Easter day, they were reunited on another shore.