#seb's yearly rant about judas

[vincentvangodot]

So Judas. Yes.

It’s long bothered me that Thomas is seen as “the doubter”, when all the disciples doubted. When Mary Magdalene came from the tomb and told them that she had seen the Lord, they didn’t believe her - there are even hymns about how it was reasonable of them to disbelieve her, because “The dead do not arise!” But Thomas, who wasn’t there when the rest saw Him, is given a derisive name in our cultural consciousness because he didn’t take their word for it. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe”, but the rest of the Eleven didn’t believe in the Resurrection before they saw Him either.

Similarly, even though it’s talked about when the specific readings come up during the liturgical year, there’s little acknowledgement in the common cultural understanding of Peter that not only did he deny Jesus three times, he also repeatedly contradicted Him during His ministry. Rebuking Him and misunderstanding Him and rushing to catch up. (”Lord, you shall never wash my feet!” “Lord, then not only my feet, but my head and hands as well!” Overkill based on misunderstanding.)

And none of the disciples could stay awake while He prayed.

And Mark fled from Gethsemane.

And James and John wanted to sit at His left and right hands.

And only John and His mother were at Golgotha when He died.

And Judas betrayed Him.

Why do we act like the others didn’t betray Him too? Because they lived long enough to see Him again? I understand that what Judas did was horrible in mortal terms, I don’t ever deny that. But he was far from the only one who undermined Jesus’ ministry, and he’s the only one who repented on the record.

Jesus washed Judas’ feet. He shared the Last Supper with him. At this point I’m not even having the argument about “It was necessary that He should die, so Judas helped achieve our salvation”, because I’ve been and been over it. At this point I’m just amazed that Jesus’ forgiveness is seen as having limits. I wonder what that says about us, that we’re so determined for there to be things SO BAD that G-d can’t move past them even though Jesus specifically incarnated to forgive us.

It just makes me tired.

#seb's religion tag #seb's yearly rant about judas

[namajague]

More than once now I’ve seen Cody referred to as Judas for betraying Kenny, and you know what, this is as good a time as any for my yearly thinking-way-too-much-about-Judas post. Because at first I resented it, as defensive as I am about Judas, who performed a task that - while unenviable - was necessary for salvation, but... hm.

Cody betrayed Kenny (and is now going around kissing everyone, suspicious), but it led to Kenny’s reunion with Kota. Would they have gotten back together if Cody hadn’t attacked Kota, bringing Kenny’s attention sharply back to him? They certainly wouldn’t have had a reason to embrace in the ring if Cody hadn’t then attacked Kenny, because that’s when Kota came running out to defend him and bring Kenny back to what he’d been trying to forget he was capable of.

Kenny had withdrawn so far from his ability to feel love that he didn’t even take Kota seriously when Kota asked if he was hurt after Okada beat him - he thought it was lying or weakness and wanted nothing to do with it. He was lost, fallen almost as far as he could go, and then... Cody set his sights on Kota. To hurt Kenny? To snap Kenny out of his lingering obsession? Purely to hurt Kota? If the latter, was it for the sake of hurting, or did he think Kenny would thank him for fighting his ex?

So also Judas. We don’t know why he betrayed Jesus in the garden. He came to the high priests, promising betrayal in return for payment, but why? John says the devil inspired him, but John is writing decades after the fact and has ample reason to demonize the one person he can safely blame for Christ’s death. Judas was one single human, and he’s dead. Easier to hate him than the Roman Empire, who are still alive and were very much the ones who sentenced and killed Jesus. Easier to hate anyone rather than think that Jesus needed to die, knew He needed to die, and explicitly told His disciples to forgive rather than revenge themselves on their enemies. And then, of course, we need the antisemitic scapegoat, something else John excels at. Yes, I understand why he says Judas was driven by evil spirits, but it doesn’t follow and I don’t appreciate it.

What we do know is that it wasn’t worth it, to Judas. He saw Jesus being led away, had a crisis of conscience, and repented. He returned the money to the priests, saying “I have sinned in betraying innocent blood”, and died. Maybe he killed himself, maybe he fell off a cliff, accounts are unclear, but he grieved, repented, returned his blood money, and died. And yet, the deed was done. Jesus was given up to death (’a death He freely accepted’, says the next line of the ingrained Eucharistic prayer in my head), and died so that we could live. He didn’t want to die, but He had to, and He could have gotten out of it had He been determined, but He loved us. So He let Judas betray Him, knowing that only by this betrayal would He be lifted up.

I don’t know Cody’s reasons for pretty much anything he’s done recently. He’s playing an anime villain who rubs his hands together and cackles while ruining friendships, he proclaims himself the leader of Bullet Club, which he’s nonetheless seemingly trying to split up, and he tells us Kenny is the fraud here, Kenny is the one tearing everything apart. But through his betrayal, Kenny is happier than he’s been in years. Certainly since Kota fought AJ (his own act of betrayal, planned only by the wrestlers without the input of the company, but nevertheless foreshadowing), probably even before. He has Kota back, they’re united, they’re the Golden Lovers again, and it would not have happened without Cody.

Maybe Kenny would have made his way back eventually, but I doubt it. He was trying, for years, to cut out any emotion that would distract him from his goals, and Kota was just one more distraction, something else to forget. But I think maybe he needed to be betrayed, the way he betrayed Kota, in order to be shaken loose of the fetters he’d put on himself, and Cody has served that purpose. He’s brought about a renewal, when all he seems to have wanted was destruction.

I don’t know Judas’ motives, and I don’t know Cody’s motives, but both of them have betrayed their leaders and gotten results they never could have imagined, results that consign them to villain status. So, yeah, as much as I bristle at every implication that Judas should be hated, this is a good comparison.

The Golden Lovers face the Young Bucks on Palm Sunday, and maybe this post is as close as I can get to a resonance. I worry about blasphemy if I go too far down this road, you know? Kenny isn’t Jesus, he’s simply an utter fool who happens to be in love. But using broad strokes, it holds up.

#seb's religion tag #seb's yearly rant about judas #a post with an audience of like... MAYBE two #rasslin #fancy fight club #weird violent gay soap opera #i have a lot of opinions and this is NOT going under a cut #rassletext

[vincentvangodot]

The Judas thoughts I’m having this year mainly revolve around the sufficiency of Grace. This is going to take a while to get to the point.

Much has been made of the cancellation of public services for Holy Week and Easter by the Vatican. “Easter is canceled, this year Jesus stays dead” and so forth. I try not to be sensitive, but that does upset me, because Easter is permanent and Christ is risen, this is the cornerstone of our faith. We willingly suspend our disbelief through Lent, engaging in the idea that Christ is currently in the desert, is currently on trial, is currently in the tomb, but we always know it isn’t true. It’s the mystery of faith: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. Not being able to physically gather changes nothing about G-d or the events we’re commemorating.

And then the Pope reminded people that, in the event of in-person Confession being impossible, going to G-d with your sins and repenting is an entirely valid and acceptable way to get absolution, and people got very weird about it.

I try, you have no idea how hard I try, not to get offended when protestants make blanket claims about Catholics without doing even the slightest bit of research. First off, I’m technically also a protestant now, and second off, Catholics are not an oppressed class or something. But it’s an almost proud ignorance that bothers me nonetheless. “Catholics are inventing Lutheranism in 2020” is something I saw too many times, from too many people.

This isn’t new, though. For centuries it has been the case - as in, in the Catechism - that if you can’t meet with a priest, going to G-d with your sins is enough. If you can’t go to Mass to receive Communion, saying an act of Spiritual Communion, asking Christ to be with you in spirit if not physically, is enough. During the plague this was already the case, and I don’t know if you knew this, but the plague was 200 years before Martin Luther.

Catholics like ritual. They like participating in community services and meeting with priests in person and receiving Christ in physical form in the Eucharist. These rituals, no matter what one specific asshole once told me, are just as much for the laity as for G-d. G-d knows your heart before you speak, or even before you put your thoughts in order. They know you desire to confess and begin anew, and G-d - not the priest - is the one who grants you absolution. The priest is in persona Christi, standing in for Christ, and through him (because this is Catholicism, no use using the neutral pronoun), Christ forgives your sins. Therefore, Christ can do that without a priest. This is not new, it is not heresy, it is not Lutheranism. It is the root of the sacrament.

Many Catholics may genuinely not know that at-home Reconciliation and Spiritual Communion are options, but that’s why the Pope reminded people. This isn’t a change in the liturgy, and pretending it is honestly rubs me the wrong way. The Church, no matter what problems I have with Her, is trying to comfort and help people right now, in part by reminding them of options that were always available to them. Coming to G-d in prayer has always been enough. Everything else is tradition.

And so. (Finally, the point.) When Judas realized what he had done, that he had “sinned by betraying innocent blood”, he did three things. He returned to the scene of his sin in order to declare what he had done wrong, and he returned the payment he had received, and then... he killed himself. He confessed, made what restitution was available to him, and - since he couldn’t un-crucify Jesus - offered a life for a life.

A lot of the stated reasons that Judas can never be forgiven revolve around his suicide, and I will live my entire life at odds with people who believe suicide is an unforgivable sin. (What, I ask you, is the point of believing in Purgatory if there is still such a thing as unforgivable sin? But I digress.) Somehow, to such people, the fact that Judas confessed and repented isn’t sufficient. They’ll tell you it’s because what he did was too big, or because he didn’t trust in the resurrection, but the real reason is that they want someone to blame.

After all, none of the other apostles trusted in the resurrection either; Judas and Thomas aren’t unique in doubting. But if you can say “THIS one denied Christ three times, and THIS one didn’t believe He was risen, and THIS one betrayed Him to His death” you can avoid taking personal responsibility for denying and disbelieving and betraying Him in your own life. All of His followers fled from Gethsemane, and only a few of them trickled back to be with Him as he died. His followers living in the modern age are no different, distracted by a million concerns we deem more pressing than doing what Christ explicitly asked of us. We forget Him, and we sin, and we deny Him because it’s easier than getting into arguments or - worse - discussions. But you know what? We can always return. We can return to Christ and start again, because that’s what Grace is.

“The beauty of Grace is that it makes life not fair“ is a lyric by Relient K that sort of sums up my faith, though I’m not much a fan of them in general. The reason we are forgiven is because G-d suspends Their own rules for the sake of Their relationship with us. We can turn to G-d, with or without a priestly mediator, and confess and repent, and G-d knows the truth of our hearts.

So you’re telling me G-d didn’t know the truth of Judas’ heart? When Judas confessed and attempted to repent, G-d refused to forgive him even though he was the human lynchpin to the plan of salvation? Even though without him, Jesus' blood would not have been shed in our place? I can’t get my head around that. It would be just for Judas to die for turning Jesus over to death (ignoring the fact that said death was instrumental to the Plan), it would be a balance, it would be fair. One life for another, as he tried to offer. But Grace makes life unfair. Why should he get what he deserved, if we don’t? We sin every day and most of us are not struck down for it. We are given the chance to repent and return to G-d, and They welcome us with open arms, because we are Their children. Judas was also Their child.

That’s what I’m thinking about this year. That so many people want Judas to be the exception to Grace, and somehow can’t trust that G-d could forgive the one who turned Their Son over. But if that’s an unforgivable sin, one that persists past repentance, you’re making a very dangerous argument. What else is unforgivable? What else can’t be burned away even in Purgatory, even after giving your life to Christ? Why is coming to G-d with a contrite heart not enough? I don’t have the answers, because I don’t think there is such a sin. I believe Grace is limitless. But if you believe otherwise, if you think there are people beyond G-d’s forgiveness, you’d think that’d make you worry about the state of your own soul. That’s all.

#seb's religion tag #seb's yearly rant about judas #less a rant this year and more a long sad contemplation #but underneath the sadness is still anger do not mistake me

[vincentvangodot]

Man, I was full of Judas feelings earlier, but they’ve all assimilated into my general irritation at his portrayal. Gonna be a short one this year, I suppose. Largely because I’ve had actual offline conversations about him during this Lenten period, so I don’t have as much righteous indignation built up.

I recently read Judas, by Jeff Loveness, at a friend’s recommendation, and it... was pretty good? I disagree with a lot in it, but it’s not actively hateful and raises interesting points, which is all I want or expect of this sort of speculative book. Pretty Good But Complicated And Weird Theologically. (I’m trying not to be spoilery or unkind. Interesting But Wrong is a more honest way to phrase it, possibly.)

Also this conversation happened last month, which was nice.

I just... feel the same way I always do, which is that vilifying Judas in a distinct way is bullshit. Not only because what he did was vital for salvation (if no one turned him over and the authorities were too scared to approach alone, how could Jesus die for us?), but because even if it hadn’t been, he was still human and prone to sin and repented, and you can’t say Jesus died for all but one.

His blood was shed for all, including the ones who shed it. He forgave the Romans who nailed Him to the cross, and you think He wouldn’t forgive the one who sent Him there? I understand the desire for a scapegoat, but Jesus is our scapegoat, and blaming His death on one individual is nonsense. It allows us to pretend we’re not equally sinful, which is counter to the point of the Cross.

I still pray for Judas occasionally, in case he needs our prayers, but I don’t really believe he’s in Hell. It’s been two thousand years. If Judas isn’t in Heaven, G-d is not a loving G-d, and I just can’t believe that. I had that whole thread yesterday about love being the point of this week, and indeed of all G-d’s work in us, and if Judas isn’t loved, there’s nothing I can say that rings true. He is. He must be.

So that’s all I have to say, I think. People who vilify Judas are wrong, and I genuinely don’t believe G-d is among them. Even when he came with soldiers to betray Jesus, Jesus called him “Friend”. “Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” I have not, this year, invested time in reading people’s bad takes about Judas, so I’m not angry like I often am when I make this post. I’m just determined. Judas is in Heaven because we are all destined for Heaven because G-d loves us and wants us to be in concord with Them. G-d forgives. That’s how this works. People doubting that are very strange Christians.

#seb's yearly rant about judas #seb's religion tag

[namajague]

You’ll have to decide - A Judas Iscariot playlist

So this is mainly for myself, but hopefully some of you will also like it.

Judas Iscariot fascinates me, because his crime doesn’t seem to have been a crime at all. Jesus was incarnate to die for our sins, so He had to be killed, so someone had to turn Him over to the authorities. Had Judas not turned Him in, someone else would have, and if no one had, we wouldn’t have a Savior!

Judas’ actions were necessary, and Jesus says as much in the Gospels. In addition, Judas repented of his sin, recanted, threw back the money he’d been paid, and was so filled with despair at his actions that he either hanged himself or fell off a cliff, depending on whether you read Matthew or Acts. We never get a solid look at his rationale, and it’s very frustrating, because a man who turns his friend and rabbi and Lord over to be killed is a man I want to understand. “The Devil made him do it” is not enough.

So Judas has always seemed unfairly maligned to me, consigned to eternal torment for a crime that may or may not have been a crime and for which he definitely repented, associated with the worst sort of betrayal and hated forever. And of course, historically, that hatred has been transferred to Jewish populations en masse, which is abhorrent, but no playlist could capture that, so I haven’t tried to.

Instead, this playlist is about how Judas Iscariot was a very human man in a fraught relationship with the Lord incarnate.

Which means some of it is kind of corny and trite, not entirely on purpose, and yes there is an Evanescence song in here, I’m sorry, I won’t be offended if you ignore that one. But in general, I think I’ve done a good job portraying my mindset.

This playist is available to download [here], or to listen to on Youtube [here]. It’s in chronological order and it isn’t exactly short, although I did my best to cut it down. Thank you for your time if you’ve read this far!

Playlist under the cut.

Drawn To The Blood - Sufjan Stevens

Raglan Road - The High Kings

She's So High - Tal Bachman

Son Of A Preacher Man - Dusty Springfield

Let My Words Be Few - Phillips, Craig & Dean*

God Must Have Spent A Little More Time On You - *NSYNC

Heaven - O.A.R.

They're Blind - Kelly Willis

I'm Sorry I Love You - The Magnetic Fields

Ring Of Fire - Adam Lambert

Property Of Jesus - Sinéad O'Connor

Stigmatized - The Calling

Like A Prayer - Madonna

Nailed - Hedwig Soundtrack

Destroya - My Chemical Romance

Chandelier - Hotspur

Whispers In The Dark - Mumford & Sons

I Could Live With Dying Tonight - Emma-Lee

Where Does Love Go When It Dies - Def Leppard

Judas - Icehouse

It Ends Tonight - The All-American Rejects

Goodbye - Ke$ha

Wine Red - The Hush Sound

Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood - Nina Simone

Weights & Measures - Dry The River

Crucified - Army Of Lovers

Tourniquet - Evanescence**

Seven Nation Army - Postmodern Jukebox (ft. Haley Reinhart)

Ship To Wreck - Florence + The Machine

Samson - Regina Spektor

I Have Forgiven Jesus - Morrissey

In the Name of the Father - Bono & Gavin Friday

All the Way Down - Voltaire

Prowl Great Cain - the Mountain Goats

And a God Descended - Dar Williams

*This is the creepiest hymn I’ve ever heard, but for this, it works.

**Yeah, I know. I’m right, though.

And also a handful of songs I really wanted to include ([here] on Youtube, or included with the download), but couldn’t find a good place for:

Cry for Judas - the Mountain Goats

Rejoice - AJJ

With God on Our Side - Bob Dylan

Heaven's Light/Hellfire - The Hunchback Of Notre Dame

I Can't Decide - Scissor Sisters

We Can Be Together - Jefferson Airplane

#reference post #seb's religion tag #seb's yearly rant about judas #less a rant and more an art project but i got the rant out of the way last month #the text on the cover is incomprehensible because it's a font made out of vincent's handwriting

[namajague]

#suicide

Sometimes I think about this nasty little theory I saw once that when Judas hung himself, he didn’t die for two days, until after the winnowing of Hell, so that when he finally died and went to Hell, Jesus had already been there and taken all the repentant sinners and Judas lost his chance to get to Heaven.

Sometimes I think about this and I get so fucking furious, because it’s petty and vengeful and everything that Christianity shouldn’t be. And Judas was repentant, he recanted verbally and in action, and, AND, his actions were necessary for said winnowing to even occur, because would Christ have been killed if no one had turned Him over? No! And had He not been killed, we would not be saved, so while Judas’ decision was terrible, yes, it was also required.

And people make up their bad theology about how he didn’t die until after Jesus rose, about how he took Jesus’ place on the Cross and was killed in His stead (even though: if Jesus wasn’t betrayed to the death, Judas didn’t do anything worthy of punishment, so this is pure retroactive revenge), about how he’s in the deepest circle of Hell being chewed on by Satan for all eternity, and I hate it. I hate it, it’s cruel, it’s not what Christianity should be. Why are we supposed to forgive everyone but Judas?

#seb's religion tag #seb's yearly rant about judas #a bit early this year but probably there'll be more

[namajague]

OK, but hear me out:

Holy Week and Christianity in general talks a lot about how we are the ones who crucify Jesus when we sin, we are responsible for His pain because it’s our sins He died for, and y’know, you can take or leave that, I’m just saying people talk about that. Jesus took on our wrongdoings, the congregation is the voice of the people chanting ‘Crucify Him!’ during the Passion play.

So why, fricking why, don’t we talk about Judas???? We’re just as culpable as he was, under this mindset. If we called for His death, we might as well have turned Him over in the first place. (Never mind that He had to die to achieve our salvation, because I yell about that every year.) We might as well say ‘Ours are the hands that took the silver’ as say ‘Ours are the hands that wove the crown of thorns’.

(I’m personally really wary of blaming any individual or group, metaphorically or otherwise, for the Crucifixion, not least since that has historically been the basis for So Much antisemitism, but if we’re using this metaphor, we need to compare ourselves to Judas also. And maybe realize in the process that Judas isn’t the villain here.)

#seb's religion tag #seb's yearly rant about judas #antisemitism t

[namajague]

what's your opinion on judas as a whole? i'd be very curious to know!

Oh gosh, I have MANY A FEELING about Judas. Mostly, I… do not think that what he did was bad, from a religious/historical viewpoint. I mean, Jesus came to Earth to die. Also to teach us how not to be dickwads, but primarily to die for us that His Blood might serve as expiation for all our sins. If He hadn’t been our sacrifice, what… would have been the point? There’d be some people two thousand years ago who were nicer to other people because they heard Him preaching, but we would still be unsaved and His mission would not have been fulfilled.

So He had to be killed, and since those in power were scared of His followers He pretty much had to be turned over to them. In summary: He had to die. In order to die, He had to be turned over. Judas turned Him over. Judas facilitated the salvation of humankind.

How… is that bad? Is my opinion. I do not think that what Judas did was bad. So that’s my baseline opinion.

And then you get to John’s Gospel and it’s all “Judas was bad! He stole from the communal purse! Satan personally whispered in his ear and inspired him to betray Christ!” WHY WOULD SATAN WANT CHRIST CRUCIFIED? I mean, I have some thoughts about the Nature Of Evil and the possibility of the Fallen being forgiven too, but now is not the time. So let’s just assume that the capital-D Devil wants to tempt humans away from G-d, wants to see us damned, etc. Why the heck would such a being then want to help along the ultimate sacrifice, the one that would lead more people AWAY from sin? It makes no sense, John the Evangelist. You make no sense.

So that’s why Judas spades John, because DANG, John’s hate-on for Judas was just streets ahead of anything the other Evangelists wrote. But mostly, I’m just really unhealthily invested in people thinking Judas was an OK dude, one who maybe didn’t understand what exactly Jesus was doing but one who, nevertheless, helped save everyone.

Jesus had to die. People, I think, forget this.

#mitch is catholic #were you aware #seb's yearly rant about judas #backtagging