Did We Need to Have Judas?

A week ago, my World Religions seminary class met for one of our two week-ends that we met in person.  We discussed the book Silence by Shusaku Endo.  We primarily looked at it as a springboard to talk missionary work, but it's also clearly a Christ story of some sort.  We disagreed about the ways it represents a Christ story, but that didn't worry me too much.  It's an ambiguous book, and we're not in training to be literary scholars.

We are in training for various types of religious mission, and it was interesting to hear various responses.  I was surprised to discover how many of my classmates believe that Jesus is the only route to salvation.  I was also surprised to find myself thinking of Judas Iscariot after one of my classmates said that we had to have Judas, because without Judas there's no betrayal which means there's no salvation.

That started me thinking about how much we need Judas.  I firmly believe that had there been no Judas, we'd have had a crucifixion.  The fact that Jesus was crucified, not stoned or beheaded, tells me how much that Rome felt Jesus was a threat to the empire.  They didn't need Judas to identify him.  

So why have the Judas thread of the story?  The most obvious answer is because it really happened.  Maybe that's true. It does appear in all four canonical Gospels, which is rare, for an event to appear in all four Gospels.

But I've spent the last week thinking about how convenient it is to have the story of Judas.  It gives us a way to talk about betrayal, all the ways we can betray God.  There's the Judas way and the Peter way as part of the Good Friday story.  As we look at the rest of the canonical Gospels, we see that there are any number of other ways to betray God.

I've talked about the theology of the cross, about substitutionary atonement theology and how I don't believe it anymore.  I don't believe that God required this kind of sacrifice--if so, why would we want to worship such a God?  I do believe that the powers of evil, the powers of injustice, the powers of empire--I do believe that all these powers and principalities are very strong.  While I hope that they will eventually be defeated, I do think that if someone like Jesus comes along, there will be a temporary defeat, and it's more about the powers of evil than it is about the weakness of good/God.

And the powers and principalities don't need a Judas to help them.  The powers and principalities will use a Judas, certainly, but they don't need a Judas.

The world shows so many ways to betray God.  The Easter story shows us that the betrayals and defeats are temporary.