I'm done!

And it's only 12:50! Here it is:


Job and Judas. An odd couple don’t you think? When I first took a look at today’s readings I thought, “What in the world do Job and Judas have to do with each other?” Well, they both had intimate experiences with Satan, even though neither of them knew it. They both suffered terrible tragedy and disappointment. But it seemed like there was more to be found about these two. As persons, they are on two far ends of the spectrum! We have Job the blameless and upright. God speaks higher of him than almost anyone else in scripture! And then we have Judas, the cursed. Jesus himself said it would have been better if he had not been born!
I struggled with these passages for quite some time and then, in one of my many rereadings of the Job passage, an odd statement popped out at me. Verse five, “And when the feast days had run their course, Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said, ‘It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.’ This is what Job always did.” Immediately questions swirled around my head. Why would Job feel the need to offer sacrifices for his children? Why was he so worried about them? Were they as concerned about their sin as their father was? Now, one could make the case that maybe in Job’s culture, he was a foreigner, not Jewish, in case you missed that, maybe in his culture it was customary for the head of the household to offer sacrifices on behalf of his family. But on such a regular basis and always after one of their many parties? The author makes sure to point out that “This is what Job always did.” What was Job so worried about? Was he worried that he may have been failing as a father? Was he worried that his children may not have been turning out quite the way that he had hoped they would? “Worried”, that word kept coming up and I realized that Jesus used that word as well in our gospel lesson for today. Ah ha! Maybe I’m on to something I thought. Maybe not. So, I kept plugging away. But I was not done with Job just yet. It really doesn’t matter what Job was so worried about. What I noticed was that his worry led him to act. As misguided as his actions may have been, I mean, how much could his sacrifices have really been helping his children’s upbringing? Nevertheless, his worries led him to action. Now, hold that thought as we jump to our gospel lesson.
Poor old Judas. He gets such a bad rap doesn’t he? Does he deserve it? Honestly, I really don’t think so. But the gospel writers sure did! You better believe that they were still holding a grudge long after these events occurred. Now, put on your imagination caps for a moment and imagine the gospels were recorded on video instead of paper and Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were each narrating their own version. Poor Judas couldn’t walk on screen without some kind of snide remark from them. If Judas so much as accidentally walked in front of the camera you would hear a comment like, “Oh, and that was Judas, the one who betrayed our Lord.” Or imagine Judas way in the background of a shot doing something mundane like getting a drink from a well and you would hear something like, “And in the background you can see Judas, the betrayer!” Read for yourself sometime all the passages where Judas appears and you will see it too. They could not cut him any slack. Except for maybe Luke.
Interestingly, our gospel reading begins toward the end of the chapter. If you start reading from the beginning of the chapter you will find what is basically the apocalypse according to St. Luke. Jesus speaks of all these terrible things that are going to happen: buildings crumbling, nations against nations, earthquakes, famines, plagues, the arrest and persecution of believers. I’m sure everyone in the crowd hearing this was like “Where do I sign up! Pick me! Pick me Jesus!” Jesus ends this apocalyptic description in our reading for today by not just telling us not to worry but by telling us not to worry about this life. It is not this life that should be our focus. Luke then moves immediately from “do not worry about this life” to the possession of Judas by Satan.
Many scholars believe that Judas was merely disappointed with the direction that Jesus’ mission was going. Judas, like most of Jesus’ followers believed Jesus would become an earthly king and lead the Jews out from under the oppression of the Romans. So, Judas’ “betrayal”, as the gospel writers call it, was actually his way of pushing Jesus toward what Judas thought was Jesus’ mission. I have no qualms with this theory and I think Luke may have had the same hunch as well. Luke describes Judas as being possessed. Possessed by Satan. “Satan entered into Judas” are Luke’s words. I shared this with my teenager at home over dinner and the look on her face was as if the rug had been ripped from beneath her. I thought she was going to spit all her drink out of her mouth like they always do on sitcoms. “Judas was possessed?” she asked in bewilderment. “I have always thought the worst of him”, she said. “I hated him for what he did to Jesus! You mean it wasn’t all him?” she asked. No, it wasn’t all him. But what we can see in Judas is a person whose worries got the best of him. A man worried about his nation. Worried about his people. Worried about Jesus’ mission. Take your pick but the fact remains that once again we see someone’s worries leading to some kind of action. And for Judas, his actions led to fatal consequences.
To me, it is a difference between a human reaction and a spiritual reaction. The difference between a raw, instinctual reaction and a spirit led reaction. Let’s face it, we worry. We worry about everything. We worry about finances, family, health, whether our cars are gonna last another year, we worry about worrying too much! It’s inevitable. And Jesus knew that. What we don’t always realize is that worrying is going to lead us to some kind of action. Worry is a powerful emotion, because it can slip under our radar so easily. It’s not like anger which can be so visible, or sadness which can bring tears. No, worry simmers just beneath the surface until in a moment of desperation it raises its ugly head. I’ve worked in the mental health field for quite some time now. I’ve worked with children and youth that were either juvenile delinquents, autistic, or having some kind of mental or behavioral challenge. I’ve urged them, as well as my own children, to find an outlet for their emotions because they will find a way to escape. It is our choice to give them a vehicle of our choosing with which they can express themselves or ignore them and let them find their own way out like Job and Judas did.
Jesus’ words of hope to not worry about this life point us to the kingdom. He’s not saying that we shouldn’t care about the here and now but that it is not the end all be all of our existence. We were made for more than this. No matter what circumstances we may find ourselves in, no matter the chaos that falls upon us so unexpectedly, it’s as if Jesus is saying, I got this! Don’t worry about this. Look ahead. Keep your eye on the kingdom. Don’t play into Satan’s hands by worrying about the various inconsequential road bumps that occur in this life. Jesus has got this under control.