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I Will Not Kiss Thee As Did Judas

And if the new document invites us to consider a new perspective on Judas himself, that might be consistent with the season’s message of salvation and redemption. ~E.J. Dionne, The Washington Post While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Thy name: those that Thou gavest me I have kept, and […]

And if the new document invites us to consider a new perspective on Judas himself, that might be consistent with the season’s message of salvation and redemption. ~E.J. Dionne, The Washington Post

While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Thy name: those that Thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. ~Gospel of St. John 17:12

As many may recognise, the title of this post comes from the prayers before Communion that Orthodox say before they approach to receive Holy Communion. It is followed by the contrast, “but like the Thief do I confess Thee.” It is a powerful reminder of the different responses to God that we can offer, and a reminder that even those to whom much is given may become the most wretched if they lack in faith.

A man favoured as one of Christ’s chief disciples becomes, in reality, the “son of perdition” while the condemned rebel Dismas enters Paradise. Even today, when we venerate icons, we do not kiss the faces of the saints, the Theotokos or the Lord, as this is what Judas did to Christ on the night when Our Lord was delivered up by him to the authorities. Dante depicted him as being perpetually chewed up in the mouth of Satan in the Ninth Circle for a very good reason. Or, as Pope Benedict XVI has said this week about Judas, “only power and success are real; love does not count,” and that for Judas

money was more important than communion with Jesus, more important than God and his love.

If that weren’t enough to make my point, consider this: Christopher Hitchens thinks the new Judas pseudo-gospel makes perfect sense. Of course he does.

If Garry Wills, for instance, wants to embrace an apocalyptic Christ Whose claims on us are radical and terrifying, as he claims he does, he should not be referring to Judas for any reason as “Saint Judas,” as I understand he does in his What Jesus Meant. Judas is the epitome of all Christians who seek their own glory, rather than the glory of the Lord, and if you disdain Christians for allegedly using Christ for their own projects there is no one you should despise (yes, despise) more than Judas. Instead of venerating Judas (and whether he called Judas a saint ironically or seriously, there is not much difference), he would submit to that apocalyptic Christ, Who has firmly rejected the son of perdition for betraying Him and Who will sit in judgement over the world in His fearful Second Coming. If we resemble Judas’ betrayal, the evil is ours, and so should hasten to repentance to avoid the same judgement passed upon him–it does not add to his reputation.

Cute or slightly perverse revisions of Judas’ role are not only dull and unimportant, but they are actually scandalous and rather sick. They may come from the pen of Nikos Kazantzakis, or they may come from one of a number of ancient heretical texts, but they all serve to justify what has to be, as far as Christians are concerned, practically the most perverse act in history. There is not really a need for a “new perspective” on Judas, unless we “need” a perspective that makes betraying God for a bag of silver seem respectable or redeemable, and we do not.

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