The Mystery of Faith

The Mystery of Faith

As I sat with Judas in the inn I tried to understand what he was telling me: That Jesus was going to be cruelly put to death and yet come back to life again. So I asked him to explain it again for me. I couldn't image the adoring crowd in Jerusalem turning on him no matter how hard our elite leadership tried to rouse their anger.

"They will do it!" he cried. "You can't imagine the power of pure hatred in the minds of his enemies. They have assembled the entire state apparatus against him. I've been approached several times by people whose names I will not mention. We all have, I think, at one time or another. And why not? We're the only ones who know his plans and whereabouts at all times."

I wished I had not invited him to join me. The wine was getting to him and he was talking very freely, expressing his disappointment now that his dreams of a high position, perhaps treasurer in Jesus' kingdom, were shattered. Then he said "Don't you see? The tension and fear are starting to get to him. He's always been a little strange, but now he's talking nonsense."

"Is the thought of a kingdom of heaven and a new covenant nonsense?" I asked.

"That's not what I'm talking about!" he shouted. I wished he would quiet down, but he was out of control. Lowering his voice, he continued: "Do you remember when he knocked over the money changers' table in the temple? When the Pharisees challenged him he said he could destroy that temple and build a new one in three days?"

Of course I remembered. "Well," Judas said with a smirk, "Now he says that he wasn't talking about an actual temple made of wood and stone. No, he was talking about the temple of his body. His body is a temple, get it?" I shook my head. I didn't get it.

"That's where this idea of resurrection comes in," Judas said. "He claims that he will be put to death and buried. But after three days he will come back to life! He will be resurrected! He will walk amongst us again, as if nothing had happened. When he said he would rebuild the temple in three days he wasn't talking about the big building in Jerusalem. He was talking about his body, his life!"

I was in awe. Everything began to make sense. He truly was the Son of God. I was now more convinced than ever. This would prove it to the world. If he could raise Lazarus from the dead, and the centurion's servant, and the son of the royal official, he certainly could raise himself from the dead.

"Don't you believe that he is the Son of God?" I asked Judas. "You are one of his chosen ones. I believe he picked the right people for his team, you among them. You saw the miracles. You know they were real. What happened?"

He laughed. "That's not all! He told us that if we want to merit eternal life we will have to eat his body and drink his blood. Did you ever hear of anything like that! He said he was giving up his life for us and that we should do this in his memory. He said his death and resurrection would take away the sins of the world, and that his Father in heaven had sent him here to live on earth specifically to be this sacrificial lamb."

I remembered John had called Jesus the Lamb of God at the Jordan River. I couldn't understand the concept of eating his body and drinking his blood. It was a mystery to me. But if that's what it would take to merit eternal life then I believe it should be done. I wasn't going to make Peter's mistake of trying to rationally understand everything. If Jesus said that's what I needed to do then that was good enough for me. I couldn’t explain it, but I believed it.

And if Jesus said his body was a temple and that he would be resurrected in three days I believed that too. A lot of things were falling into place for me.

But not for Judas. He was having none of it. For one brief moment I was sure I was looking in the face of the devil himself, so contorted were his features, so twisted and snarling. Suddenly, he got up. "I gotta go" he said.

"Where are you going?" I asked. I wanted to follow this guy, maybe even protect him from himself. And I wanted to warn Jesus.

"Gotta meet some people," was all he said. He got up to pay the innkeeper. As he did so I noticed his purse was very heavy, almost overflowing with silver coins. There must have been at least thirty of them.