Have you
ever been betrayed?
I suspect most of us would say yes.
It might have been a big thing, or it might have been a small thing.
It might be something that happened recently, or it might be something
that happened a long time ago. But I suspect most of us, at one time or
another, have felt like we were betrayed.
And I also suspect that, no matter
how long ago it might have been, we still remember it. We remember what
happened. We remember when it happened. We remember all the
circumstances. We remember everything about the time or times when we’ve
been betrayed. And that’s not all we remember. We also remember how
the betrayal made us feel. Because a betrayal is probably the hardest
thing there is in life to really get over and get past.
You see, a betrayal is different
from just someone treating us badly. A betrayal comes from someone close
to us. A betrayal comes from someone we trust. A betrayal comes
when someone we thought cared about us turns out not to care about us at all,
or at least turns out to care about something or someone else more. A
betrayal comes when someone we thought was on our side turns out to have a
completely different agenda and turns out to be on a completely different side.
It hurts. A betrayal hurts.
Jesus told us that we should always forgive, and we try, but a betrayal
is probably the hardest thing there ever is to forgive. To forgive
someone who you trusted, and who then turned on you, has to be about the
hardest thing we’re ever asked to do.
Now think about this. Suppose
you knew, ahead of time, that someone was about to betray you. Suppose
you were right there in the same room with them, knowing they were about to
betray you. What would you do?
That’s the position Jesus was in.
One of the people he was closest to, one of the people he trusted, one of
the people he thought cared about him, was about to betray him. One of
the people Jesus thought was on his side turned out to have a completely
different agenda. And Jesus knew that. Jesus knew, ahead of time,
that Judas was about to betray him. Jesus was in the same room with
Judas, knowing he was about to betray him.
But of course, Judas was not the
only person in the room who was going to betray Jesus. As Jesus said,
“This very night all of you will fall away on account of me.” Jesus knew
that, to one extent or another, they were all going to betray him. They
all denied it, of course. Peter says, loudly and proudly, “Even if I have
to die with you, I will never disown you”, and all the other disciples say the
same. But Jesus knows the truth.
That had to hurt Jesus.
There’s no way it could not. So again, I ask you. Suppose you
were Jesus at that moment, knowing everyone there, all these people he trusted,
were about to betray you. What would you do?
Well, I don’t know about you, but I
don’t think I’d have done what Jesus did. He continued to treat them like
friends, or even more than friends. He shared a meal with them. As
we saw last week, Jesus washed their feet, humbly acting like their servant.
Think about that. Here he is, the sinless, perfect, divine Son of
God, acting like a servant to people who are all going to abandon him and
betray him.
Jesus knew what was going to happen
to him, and he did nothing to stop it. He could have. It would’ve
been easy for him to stop Judas. He would not have had to use any divine
power or anything. All he’d have had to do is tell Peter or James or any
of the disciples, hey, Judas is about to turn me in to the authorities and have
me arrested. He would not have had to say any more than that, really.
The disciples would’ve taken care of Judas all right. They’d have
made sure he never turned in Jesus or anyone else.
But Jesus did not do that.
Jesus did not stop Judas or anyone else from betraying him. And not
only that, he continued to treat them with just as much love as he had before,
if not more. Jesus continued to show love to all the people who were
about to betray him. In fact, even after the betrayal, he continued to
show that love. Jesus loved the disciples, and us, so much that he died
in an incredibly painful way, crucified on a cross, taking the punishment that
should go to us, so that our sins can be forgiven.
I’ve talked to people who’ve told me
they have a hard time believing God loves them. And a lot of times, the
reason they have a hard time believing it is because they don’t think they
deserve God’s love. They think, if God knows everything, then God knows
what kind of person I am. God knows all the bad things I’ve done.
God knows all the times I’ve treated people badly. God knows all
the times I’ve lied, or I’ve cheated, or done all kinds of things I should not
have done. If God knows all that stuff, then there’s no way God could
love me. I don’t deserve it.
And in one sense, that’s right.
None of us deserves God’s love. I don’t, you don’t, none of us
does. But that’s the point. God does not love us because we deserve
it. God loves us because that’s who God is. God loves us because
God is love. And there is nothing we can ever do that will keep God from
loving us.
The way God loves us, the way Jesus
loves us, the way Jesus loved Judas and Peter and all the other disciples even
though they were going to betray him, shows us what love is. Love, by
definition, is not something you deserve. If we say that we’ll only love
someone if they deserve it, what we’re saying is that our love is a reward for
proper behavior. We’re saying we’ll only love them if they say or do the
right things, the things we want them to say or do. We’ll only love them
if there’s something in it for us. That’s not love. That’s a
contract.
If God only loved us when we said or
did the right things, we’d never know that God loved us. Because how
would we know? Even if we were doing our best, even if we were trying
really hard, even if we were doing all kinds of wonderful things, how would we
know we’d done it right? How would we know we’d done enough? How
would we know there was not something else we should say, something else we
should do, some other good thing we should work on in order to earn God’s love?
We never would. There’d never be a time when we could be confident
that we’d done enough. And so we’d never know God’s love.
God does not love us because we
deserve it. God loves us because that’s who God is. And God wants
us to know how much God loves us. And the proof of God’s love for us is
in the life and death of Jesus Christ.
If God did not love us, Jesus would
never have been sent to earth in the first place. If Jesus did not love
us, he would not have lived the life he did--preaching, teaching, healing,
working miracles, all the other things he did through his life. If Jesus
did not love us, he would never have treated the disciples, the people who were
going to betray him, with kindness and love. If Jesus did not love us, he
would not have died so that our sins could be forgiven. And if God did
not love us, Jesus would not have been raised from the dead, proving that he
had conquered death, not just for himself, but for all of us.
None of us deserves God’s love.
But that’s okay. God does not love us because we deserve it.
God has done all kinds of things to show us that. Over and over
again, all throughout the Bible, whether we’re talking about the Old Testament
or the New Testament, people show that they don’t deserve God’s love. And
yet, God keeps loving them anyway. Nothing they did could ever stop God
from loving them. Sometimes God makes them accept the consequences of
their actions, but God kept loving them. Sometimes we have to accept the
consequences of our actions, too. But God keeps loving us, too. And
nothing we do could ever stop God from loving us, either.
If you ever feel like you don’t
deserve God’s love, think about how Jesus treated the disciples. Think
about how Jesus loved even the people who he knew were going to betray him.
Think about how Jesus loved them so much that he would even die for them.
And know that Jesus loves you so much that he died for you, too. God
never loved anyone because they deserved it. God loves us because God is
love. And there is nothing you can ever do that will make God stop loving
you.
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