Acts 1:12-26 (Easter 7C)
St. John, Galveston 6/1/25
Rev. Alan Taylor
+ In Nomine Jesu +
Grace to you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The message this morning is based on the reading you heard a few moments ago from the Book of Acts. While Acts is primarily historic in nature, it also deals with some crucial doctrinal points that touch all our lives as the people of God. This morning we’re confronted with the aftermath of Judas Iscariot’s awful betrayal of Jesus. He would be replaced among the 12 apostle’s of Jesus by a man named Matthias.
In terms of the context, Jesus had risen victoriously from the grave, having defeated death. He ascended into heaven. Once He ascended, the first order of business for the church was to replace Judas, who, as Simon Peter said, “turned aside to go to his own place.” While there are a number of significant aspects to this reading from the Book of Acts, not the least of which is the Holy Spirit moving the people of God to choose Matthias to fill out the apostolic train, we would do well to pause for a bit and reconcile in our minds both the sovereignty and the love of God as they relate to the tragic story of Judas Iscariot.
To some, Judas simply served as a pawn in a larger narrative. In fact, it seems like every year around Easter the American media does an expose on the long lost, and supposedly recently found, Gospel of Judas. While the book does exist, it was dismissed by the early church because it didn’t meet the various criteria for what made any given book part of the Scriptures.
In the Gospel of Judas, Judas himself is the hero, although his heroism is in allowing himself to be used by Jesus, to be a pawn, if you will, in the greater story of the redemption of the world. It had been prophesied in the Old Testament that the Christ, the Messiah of God, would give His life for the sins of the world. It had also been prophesied that someone closest to Him would betray Him. And so, someone had to betray Jesus. According to the Gospel of Judas, at some point, Jesus took Judas aside and asked him to do what he did for the sake of the Gospel, for the sake of the salvation of the world. And so, according to the Gospel of Judas, Judas was a hero because he only did what had to be done, what Jesus asked him to do.
Judas though isn’t described in the Scriptures as a hero, is he? No, in fact, he is described as being cursed of God. His deed, that is, the betrayal of Jesus, is described, not as heroic, but as wicked. “Now this man (meaning Judas) bought a field with the reward of his wickedness and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.”
So, if Judas wasn’t the hero of the Gospel narrative, what should we say about him? Well, some would say that Judas was destined to do what he did. God, as a matter of His sovereign choice, decided to bring Judas into the world to betray His Son. As the betrayer, Judas would then be lost, damned for all eternity. Those who hold such a view, see Peter’s words here in Acts 1 as support for their position. “Brothers (Peter said), the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.”
Folks, this is ultimately a monstrous view of God’s sovereignty for a couple of reasons. One, because it places God’s sovereignty above His love for the world. And secondly, it necessarily leaves all of us wondering what God ultimately brought any one of us into the world to be or to do.
God certainly is sovereign, but the Scriptures are not primarily about His sovereignty. Rather, they are about His love for the world. God’s love is extolled in the Scriptures, both for its purity and for its enduring nature. As to its purity, St. Paul wrote, “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” God’s love for the world, for you, “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
At the same time, God’s love for you is enduring. Life comes at us quickly with its ups and downs and sometimes the downs, the bad times, seem like they far outweigh the good. If we associate the good with God’s love and the bad with God’s displeasure, we are then apt to conclude that God’s love has passed us by.
We aren’t, however, the first people to think that way. Such thinking is part of the human condition. Thus, St. Paul wrote to the Church at Rome to assure them that God’s love for them would never end, that it would never fail. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
This love of God, a love that moved Him to send His only begotten Son into the world to save it, is, of course, for all people, including you. The words of Scripture are oft repeated, such that they nearly pass us by. But, they are profound, such that they give comfort to the downtrodden and those who are convinced, either by conscience, or by life itself, that God’s love has passed them by. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son. That whosoever believes in Him should not perish but should have everlasting life.”
Was Judas somehow excluded from the promise of God? Are you somehow excluded? May it never be! God’s love declared for the world is either for everyone, or it is for no one, at least in terms of the comfort and peace it affords. If you aren’t convinced that Jesus died for Judas, you must ultimately wonder if He died for you. Such errant thinking is corrected only by God’s divine word and promise. “God (says Paul), desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.” I assure you there is no footnote appended to that verse that says, “God desired all people to be saved (except Judas, or, except you.)
“Sinners, (says Luther) are lovely because they are loved; they are not loved because they are lovely. That is why the love of man avoids sinners and evil persons. But Christ says: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners (Matt. 9:13).“
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.
+ Soli Deo Gloria +