Spy Wednesday

Sermon by the Revd Dr Brutus Green
Readings: Isaiah 50:4-9, Hebrews 12:1-3, John 13:21-32

Sometimes called Holy Wednesday or Great Wednesday, but also called Spy Wednesday, we are approaching the darkness at the end of Holy Week. On the day before the Last Supper, Jesus dines with Simon the Leper at Bethany and is anointed. But it’s called Spy Wednesday as Judas plots his betrayal. From tonight the Church has often held dramatic Tenebrae service – Tenebrae meaning darkness, in which candles are snuffed out one by one. And we notice in today’s reading from John’s Gospel, Judas goes out and, we are told, it was night. He has left behind the light of the world.

Judas is a character that should give us pause. For most of Christian history he has been a figure of un-redemption. The worst betrayer, the greedy man, the thief, the suicide; ‘It would have been better for that man had he never been born’ Dante, of a medieval mindset, places him eternally in the central mouth of the devil – next to Brutus and Cassius – all treacherous characters. If the world is to be divided into the elect and the damned then Judas is team-captain of the losing side.

The many cultural, scientific and ethically shifts that we have experienced since the 60s have gone a very long way towards eliminating the concept of moral evil. Ask yourself now – is Judas deserving of judgment, condemnation, eternal suffering? The one who betrayed his friend Jesus, who the church purports to worship and adore, to torture and death. Is our love matched by righteous anger, with such that we might defend our children, our parents?

It’s symptomatic of a shift of worldview that Brutus in the early modern period – by Shakespeare – has become a hero. It would really make sense if the play was called Brutus and not Julius Caesar. Brutus is the democrat and republican against tyrants, the upholder of political freedom, He’s a champion of the modern world, in which humans are good in themselves.

And if we look at society, government even, we see today all the good things – In general a system which works for the benefit and betterment of all. We are protected from nature red in tooth and claw – the exploitation of force. And now even absolved of the worst forms of corruption that have historically blighted civilisation, Even of institutional racism it appears. Humanity has been revealed as intrinsically good.

So much of the Bible and Christian writing is given to finding in the nooks and crannies of every human soul fault. Is it now out of sync with a world when humans seem to be on an upward trajectory? It’s an intriguing facet of how we think today – that we believe in freedom more than anything else. We are justly horrified and worried by human rights violations in China and Hong Kong, in Myanmar, Russia and across the Middle East and North Africa. We believe wholeheartedly in political freedom.

And yet we are highly ambivalent about personal freedom. What was called moral evil – willful misdemeanors – We will put down to poverty, mental illness, generational differences, culture, parenting, education. Are those guilty of crimes, responsible for their actions? Are we, for our hidden faults, responsible? Is there, in short, a moral universe at all, or is it just the outworking of indifferent biological and psychological forces?

Well in the same manner that we should fight and pray for the political liberty of all humans, so we must also assert our personal moral freedom. It is within me, whether to do better or worse. To tell an easy lie, To have an affair, To take something I have no right to. These things are within our power, and Judas was not compelled to betray Jesus in the garden. He chose to.

We know this, and hold a difficult tension; Both of wanting to forgive and understand human error, but also knowing in our heart when we have let people or ourselves down, or have succeeded – evaded temptation.

The Gospel is clear on this, And actually it’s really why it is good news. Because it reminds us that everyone sins, everyone commits moral evil The spirit is sometimes willing but the flesh is always weak. And no amount of wrongdoing prevents us from returning to God. His grace is sufficient, even for you. His grace is sufficient even for Judas, Or treacherous Brutus. And that grace has the power to transform us; Not only to redeem but to reshape us in lives of virtue.

There is a strange damnation in not believing in moral evil. Not only are we left without a response to the sometimes terrible, or just pettily mean, things that we do – other than the thought, you could not have done otherwise. Blame someone, something else, some cause. But it also prevents us from believing we can be better. We are neither absolved, nor given hope.

Judas takes the bread before going out into the night. Might we still believe that he is a part of the broken body of Christ? He recognises and suffers for his evil. It is not necessary for us to judge him. And, actually, we might still have hope for him, pray for him. As with the prodigal son, there is no crime too wicked, nor is there any day too late to turn. And, as for us, the greater the crime, the greater the sin, the more grace will we know in returning to the arms of our loving father. Let us take the darkness of Spy Wednesday and examine our own heart. In turning from evil we may return to the Lord.