It had been a long week, only five days into it. Crowds were everywhere, buzzing, talking, pointing. If you hadn’t heard about Jesus before, this week you couldn’t dodge his name if you tried. Before Jesus even hit the city limits, people were lining the road like it was some VIP red carpet, tossing their coats down and yelling, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord.” Expectations were sky-high. Too bad he wasn’t there to play the part they wanted.

The First Betrayal

By Thursday, everybody was stretched thin, Jesus, The Twelve, all of them. He’d already blown up the Temple scene earlier in the week, flipping tables and kicking out those shady merchants hustling people on Passover prices. He healed people right there in the chaos and then went toe-to-toe with the lead priests over the attention he was getting, where he thought he got the right to do what he was doing. He even told them straight up prostitutes had a better shot at heaven before they did. Calling them hypocrites, he charged, “For you cross land and sea to make one convert, and then you turn him into twice the son of hell as you yourselves are.” (Matthew 23:15) With too much popularity and too many attacks on the powers-that-be, Jesus wasn’t making friends in high places. Sooner or later, someone was going to put a stop to this. In this case, more than one.

Judas Iscariot, yeah, that Judas, has lived in infamy as the betrayer of Jesus. Sizing up the situation, he knew the religious leaders not only wanted this so-called Messiah quiet, but even more so, permanently out of their way. Judas only had to seize the moment. Jesus basically handed it to him. Over the Passover meal, Jesus said, “One of you will betray me... Hurry. Do it now.” (John 13:21-27)  Jesus let on he knew what Judas would do. From there, it was only a matter of hours before he would identify Jesus as the one a full battalion of Roman soldiers and Temple guards should arrest and take away.

The Shattered Rock

But Judas wasn’t the only traitor. Peter, loud, loyal, always talking big, swore he’d die before he’d abandon Jesus. As he had been clear to Judas, Jesus was just as forthright with Peter. “The truth is, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” Before sunrise, while the kangaroo court assembled by the high priests were condemning him, Peter refused to say he was a disciple of Jesus.

Was Peter denying he had followed Jesus? Or denying the version of Jesus he wanted him to be?

The Unholy Alliance

Pilate, a Roman governor, was tasked with keeping Jerusalem and the Jews under control. The system allowed for them to have their religion as long as the Rome kept the power. Ultimately, though the religious authorities wanted Jesus dead, they could not execute on their own. While that morning Peter along with the rest of the disciples abandoned him, Jesus was dragged in front of Pilate by the leading priests on charges he claimed to be King of the Jews, indicating he would overthrow the Roman government. Pilate was caught in the middle. He can’t ignore such a charge, but he had a handle on what these Temple tetrarchs were scheming. Looking for a way out, he urged Jesus to make a defense, but he wouldn’t talk. The Jews had been looking for a Messiah, but they didn’t want this Messiah. So they did what they could to do away with him. Thus, the priests, those set apart among the chosen people, turned on him.

Meanwhile, Pilate tried to wiggle out of it. He offers them a carrot. For the holy day, the Romans would release a Jewish prisoner. Figuring he could make them choose the lesser of two evils, Pilate offered the crowd either Jesus or the notorious criminal Barabbas. The priests work the crowd to call for Barabbas’ release. Pilate can’t see what Jesus could have done that would be so bad for them, but the crowd, some of whom had likely cheered in the parade earlier in the week, roared for more. “Crucify him!” While Pilate didn’t get it, he wasn’t about to lose his job over it. In an act of bloody mercy, Pilate commanded that Jesus be flogged with a lead-tipped whip. It would speed up the death. With that, Pilate ordered Jesus’ crucifixion.

Torture and mockery follow. More beatings, a crown of thorns, nailed through flesh and bone, Jesus is crucified, a death designed to be slow, suffocating as lungs collapse and blood flows. Bone‑deep agony.

The Weaker Faithful

The only loyal witnesses to his demise were the women, his supporters, the ones he’d lifted up and honored, now rendered as impotent as he. They stood watching, distraught and detached at the same time, unable to give him the comfort they’d always given before, now when he needed it most.

Even then, he looked out for his mother, fulfilling the command to honor ones’ parents. “Woman,” he calls her, not by her name but by that with which all females can hear his love and be known as Daughter. “He is your son.” Together, the only disciple present at his execution and Mary, will share their grief and live beyond it. “She is your mother.”

Even dying, he was building family out of broken hearts.

Last Acts

He cried, “I thirst.” They gave him soured wine. “It is finished,” he gasps as he gives up his spirit, his final act of service. The King of the Jews has taken the cup of bitter wine; his speared body releases its blood and water.  Final life oozes out. He dies, abandoned in the will of God to take death upon himself, death that separates, rejects, leaves him alone with all that the worst of the world could do. Two secret disciples, two who would not publicly declare allegiance to him, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, quickly bury him in a nearby tomb so as to not violate the law, especially with Passover beginning that night.

The Real Question

So who betrayed Jesus? Judas, sure. But also Peter. The priests. The crowd. The political system. The disciples who ghosted him. Even the women who loved him but couldn’t help him. Each had a part.

And the deepest cut of all, most heart wrenching, the silence of God. God, the very part of himself that had set this in motion since the first animal sacrifice in that garden. To be covered in such shame that you can’t stand yourself is how he died. It was shame that was not of his own doing, but a shame Jesus accepted for himself isolating one from love of God and love of neighbor. In this then, Jesus knew the deepest part of hell which he wanted no one to ever know, a hell he stepped into so no one else would have to.

But what about the ones who shrug it off, who don’t care what his death meant?

Maybe that is his final betrayal.

 John 18:1-19:42

Named 2024 Notable Book Award by Southern Christian Writers Conference!

The Trouble with Jesus: Considerations Before You Walk Away by Constance Hastings

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