While Jesus was still speaking, a crowd approached him and in front was one of the Twelve, a man named Judas. He went up to Jesus to kiss him. Jesus said to him, "Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?" (Luke 22:47-48)
There could almost be a warning at this point in Luke's Gospel: The following contains material that may be offensive to some - scandalous behavior by disciples ... graphic violence ... abusive language ... a brutal execution. Some may wish to consider this before continuing.
Luke himself had a hard time with this material. For example, the Judas kiss. It's embedded in the Christian memory. But read the passage again. Luke says that Judas "Went up to Jesus to kiss him." That's enough. No need to keep looking when the kiss takes place. Compare this to Mark, who says: Judas went over to Jesus and said, "Rabbi." And he kissed him.
We all have a hard time when there is bad news about our Church - failure, sin, public scandal. What should we do? Suppress it? Deny it?
We can learn from Luke who struggled with this but told the truth. Best to put it on the table, learn from it, and recognize that at all levels we are and always have been an imperfect Church. We are, each of us, all of us, saint and sinner.
We talk to Jesus a lot about ourselves. We ought also to talk to him about our Church. Actually, it's his Church. I wonder what Jesus has to say to you about it?
- Little Black Book, Diocese of Saginaw
There could almost be a warning at this point in Luke's Gospel: The following contains material that may be offensive to some - scandalous behavior by disciples ... graphic violence ... abusive language ... a brutal execution. Some may wish to consider this before continuing.
Luke himself had a hard time with this material. For example, the Judas kiss. It's embedded in the Christian memory. But read the passage again. Luke says that Judas "Went up to Jesus to kiss him." That's enough. No need to keep looking when the kiss takes place. Compare this to Mark, who says: Judas went over to Jesus and said, "Rabbi." And he kissed him.
We all have a hard time when there is bad news about our Church - failure, sin, public scandal. What should we do? Suppress it? Deny it?
We can learn from Luke who struggled with this but told the truth. Best to put it on the table, learn from it, and recognize that at all levels we are and always have been an imperfect Church. We are, each of us, all of us, saint and sinner.
We talk to Jesus a lot about ourselves. We ought also to talk to him about our Church. Actually, it's his Church. I wonder what Jesus has to say to you about it?
- Little Black Book, Diocese of Saginaw
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