Judas
This morning at Sunday school I did my best to respond to the children’s recent request for a session on the disciples. So I read up on them a bit, put a list of the names up and invited the group to ask about them. After the predictable sorts of discussions (why fishermen? why a tax collector? why name a man after a rock? why ‘Sons of Thunder’? etc etc) we eventually got to Judas Iscariot.
Even though we did actually cover this at Easter, they all suddenly wanted to know about him again, so I went over the story of the betrayal and the kiss and the pieces of silver. I think because of the context of the discussion (a list of Jesus’s inner circle) the whole narrative took on a brand new resonance.
A particularly bright button, S, eventually picked his jaw up off the carpet and said ‘GET…HIM…OFF…THE…LIST.’ They all looked at me (and at the whiteboard marker) expectantly.
I love this group of kids and they always get me thinking.
Personally, I’m a fan of Nikos Kazantzakis’s approach to Judas. After all, someone had to kick off that whole extraordinary and tumultuous chain of events and if Judas was anything other than 100% pure evil (and no one really is) then surely he was given the most difficult and dreadful role of all?
I’m also grateful to CS Lewis for humanising Judas through the character of Edmond in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and I loved the way the recent film version humanised him even more as a child missing his father.
S, you’re a star. But I’m leaving Judas on the list.