Sermon – Et Tu, Brutal?
Genesis 21:8-16; Mark 13:9-13
3/15/26
If you were to do an internet search for the classics of western literature, in the top 10 on Google you would find Dante’s Divine Comedy. If you are not familiar with all three parts of this massive work, you might be familiar with at least the first volume, the Inferno. In English, we would call it hell. In Dante’s story, he takes a guided trip through hell and its nine levels before journeying eventually to heaven. I need to hold us in the first book, however. The idea is that each level in hell has worse and worse sinners and worse and worse punishments. The first level is simply Limbo where people wait who were not that bad but died before Jesus came into the world. The second level is the Lustful, the third Gluttons, the fourth the Greedy, the fifth the Wrathful, the sixth the Heretics, the seventh the Violent, the eighth the Liars, and the ninth the worst of all. Before I tell you what the last and lowest of hell is for, I need to describe it a bit. It is a massive, dark, frozen lake with all of the sinners there trapped in ice up to their faces. In the center of this lake is the worst of the worst, Satan, who is himself trapped in ice up to his waist. Ice represents how far they are from the warmth of God. Satan’s bat-like wings keep the area icy with their flapping. He also has three heads and in the mouths of the three heads are three men – the worst of the worst in all of history up to that point. Two men, the ones in the left and right sides, are being eternally chewed feet first. They are Brutus and Cassius, two leaders of the group of Romans who betrayed Julius Caesar and assassinated him. In the middle mouth, the poor fellow is being eternally chewed and mauled headfirst is none other than Judas, the disciple of Jesus who handed him over to the Jewish authorities for 30 pieces of silver. In case you have not pieced it perfectly, the lowest and worst level of hell in Dante’s worldview is for traitors. Betrayal is laid out as the worst thing we can do in this world.
To be honest, I am not won over by Dante’s description, and I find weighing all the sins differently problematic, but I am trying to move to his point that betrayal is a terrible thing, one of the great thorns in our lives. Betrayal can really wreck us as people, but it is also not the last word.
There are so many ways we can betray one another. This goes for everything from leaking secrets, to unfaithfulness, to stealing, to manipulation, to neglect, to lying, and even to outright spying. It happens to us all, and we have been both the ones betrayed and the betrayers to varying degrees. Betrayal is what happens when we take a relationship, especially one that has real value, and break the trust at its core. All the different ways that we might betray someone else all have at their core some way to break the trust between us. Of course, this is something laid out in Scripture, too. The stories in the Bible reflect real life. They echo the joy and the terribleness that inform our own stories. It goes the same for betrayal. Our readings today are both betrayal – the example of one and the promise of more.
Hagar and Ishmael’s abandonment feels like one of the worst violations of trust in the Bible. Hagar had not asked to be part of this story. She was a slave from Egypt. Abraham and Sarah had been given a promise from God to have a child even though they were very old and childless. They didn’t believe God and took matters into their own hands. Hagar had a child for them with Abraham. Nothing about this points to what is good or right, but when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael, she would have been comforted by the fact that her place was fixed in that family. Her son was to be the heir of Abraham and things would be ok. That was until another son was born to Abraham and Sarah. Still, Hagar’s son with Abraham would have been the oldest, the firstborn. He would have been the rightful heir to Abraham’s fortune. The relationships had been established and the trust was supposedly secure. Then, it was dashed when Sarah, in a jealous fit, threw Hagar and Ishmael out of the family and out of their lives. Hagar and Ishmael were betrayed, and God sanctions it knowing that in the end they will be taken care of, but here in their experience, it is brutal. Hagar becomes so desperate and so hopeless that she leaves the child. No one is making it out of this horrendous situation, and she cannot bear to hear her son cry as they are undone by heat and thirst. I cannot imagine the terror and hurt. The story needs for us to see how bad it was for them before they are provided the way and the answer. They are on a knife’s edge before they are saved. God provides a way for them to life and health and a people of their own. It seems that God feels sorry that they in that situation to begin with. I am grateful for the consideration.
It does not always work out that way for us. When we find ourselves betrayed, the well of water and a path might not be as obvious. Some of us cannot get past the hurt. Some of us are so overcome by the broken trust that we have known that we have a hard time trusting, again. That kind of hurt can be especially hard in the church, but it can happen. Jesus even suggests that betrayal is something that comes with the life of faith. Following him brings us into conflict with the world and even our family members who may turn on us. People may act in unfair, unjust ways. Relationships that we could count on before might well be broken in betrayal.
That was written in a time when people were being betrayed for the sake of the gospel. There was a lot of infighting among the Jewish people over whether Christians could stay or whether they should be driven out of the synagogue. The Romans were the rulers of the entire area and could do what they wanted with these strange followers of Jesus who did not act like normal people but were taught to be satisfied being poor and to eat their Savior. Life in Christ meant that people would turn on you because the ways of the world do not mesh well with the ways of God. That is something we have largely lost today. Still, being betrayed is something we should expect. And we still betray one another. Hopefully, those occasions are more accidents than intentional, but they still hurt when you put trust in someone else, and they violate that trust.
This is the time of the year when we most focus on that betrayal in Jesus’ own story. The worst thing to happen to Jesus was not being nailed to the cross but the kiss of Judas that marked his betrayal. A number of times in the gospels we have Jesus proclaiming how bad it would be for the one who betrayed him. It would have been better if Judas had never been born. Yet, Jesus called Judas to be a disciple, not to be the betrayer. He was part of the Twelve and had a role in the ministry. Judas was not lurking in the shadows all those years biding his time until it was his moment to strike. He did love Jesus, and Jesus did love him, but it was that betrayal that rewrote the story and took Jesus to the cross. That’s why Judas is considered so terribly.
But did Jesus hate Judas? Did Jesus condemn Judas or refuse his kiss? Did Jesus make Judas die or reject him from God’s heart? No. In fact, Judas returned to the religious officials who paid him to turn Jesus in and gave them back the money. He rejected their plot and his part in it. He knew he had done wrong and was trying to make amends however he was able.
We can only imagine what would have happened if Jesus had been able to speak to Judas, again. Peter also betrayed Jesus, and all of his disciples abandoned him for a time. Yet, even on the cross, Jesus gave the one answer to that pain and sorrow and suffering and brokenness, “Father, forgive them….”
We are wired for relationships, and relationships take trust. Sometimes that trust is tested, and sometimes it is broken. It can happen in communities, in families, and in churches. It will happen in communities, in families, and in churches. We will feel betrayed. The question is what we will do with those feelings and that brokenness. It would be natural to strike back with everything we have or to completely write the offender off. Stick them in the mouth of Satan to be chewed forever. But that is not the way that God’s story works. We are asked to come back to relationships, again and again. We are asked to find a way to live together, even with those with whom we disagree. What must happen, as Mark tells us, is that people must know the gospel of Christ Jesus. We must know that Love is our King and his way is grace and forgiveness. We have all received it ourselves, and we have been given enough to share. Even if you cannot be in relationship with the ones who have hurt us, we can still find space for healing and love. Betrayal is brutal; grace is divine.
To God be the glory. Amen.