We will be watching The Trouble With Maggie Cole tonight. For the past few weeks it has been one of our televisual priorities. The trouble with the Maggie in the title is that she gave an interview on radio about life in the village where she lived. Fueled by a couple of glasses of white wine she made unflattering and in some cases libelous remarks about a number of local characters. These subsequently appeared in a national newspaper and Maggie became something of a community pariah. Since then she has tried to put things right with those she placed in a dubious light. This has been largely successful with everyone except the Deputy Head of the local primary school who hitherto has been her best friend. At this point in the series they remain unreconciled but we’ll see what happens tonight.
It often happens like this. When those with whom we have the closest of relationships let us down we find it so hard to take. It was an experience known to David. When he was going through a time of sickness and slander, when apparently concerned friends were visiting him and then spreading fake news of him, he finds amongst them his closest friend:
‘Even my close friend, someone I trusted, one who shared my bread, has turned against me.’ (Psalm 41: 9)
Again, when David is under pressure from enemies there is no encouragement from someone he has come to depend on:
‘If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were rising against me, I could hide. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship at the house of God, as we walked about among the worshipers.’ (Psalm 55: 12-14)
Christian eyes have looked on these passages and made a connection with Jesus’ experience of betrayal. Wednesday in Holy Week has been traditionally associated with the beginning of Judas Iscariot’s plans to betray Jesus. The Gospels tell us of his meeting with the Chief Priests to whom he reveals his willingness to hand Jesus over to them for a price.
There have been many attempts to mitigate Judas’ actions. Some have suggested that like the other apostles Judas believed that Jesus was about to bring in the Kingdom of God, that the Messiah was about to act decisively in favour of Israel. In placing Jesus into the hands of his enemies Judas thought he would bring matters to a head, forcing Jesus to act. There is, of course, no evidence of this and we have to set alongside any attempt to enter the psychology of Judas Luke’s statement that he was motivated by Satan. (Luke 22: 3).
What has weighed heavily with me from time to time is that until the moment of betrayal Judas does not seem to have been much different from any of the other apostles. Jesus sent them out to preach the good news, to heal the sick and cast out demons. Judas was part of those missions. So perhaps on this day in Holy Week, as well as mourning the pain of betrayal that would fall upon Jesus, we should be aware of the dark impulses in our lives that can lead to actions that would make us seem more the enemies of Jesus than His friends.
