A path toward new life and liberation
When George Leonard Shultz (Fr. Shag) painted the Twelve Apostles, he asked his friends to pose as models for his artistic representation of the saints. However, when it came to the infamous disciple who failed to achieve sainthood, there were no takers.
So, Fr. Shag took it upon himself to use his own likeness in portraying the paragon of betrayal: Judas Iscariot. We can certainly understand people’s reluctance to be associated with a man whom Dante placed in the lowest circle of hell, but Fr. Shag’s willingness to identify with the tragic disciple invites us to reflect on the ways that we ourselves mimic the disturbing behavior of Judas Iscariot.
Judas was called by Jesus into the inner circle of 12 disciples and was essentially appointed as the treasurer of the Jesus Movement (John 12:6). Although greed likely compelled him to steal frequently from the coffers, the Gospels say that it was the devil himself who compelled Judas to betray Jesus by handing him over to the religious authorities in exchange for thirty pieces of silver (John 13:2, 27). When the religious authorities colluded with Rome to crucify the one whom he had betrayed, Judas fell into despair and tragically died by suicide. Over the centuries, Judas has been understood as the personification of human sin and as a byword for greed and treachery.
The problem is that Christians have often used Judas as a term of insult for those whom they choose to hate and blame. Most tragically, Christians have used him as a symbol to justify anti-Jewish hatred and violence, heaping the worst qualities of Judas upon the entire Jewish people. Whenever Christians like me use Judas Iscariot in this way, we are falling prey to the same diabolic sickness that overcame Judas himself. Moreover, whenever Christians like me use any element of our faith tradition to justify the scapegoating of innocent victims, we are mimicking Judas.
During Lent and Holy Week, Christians are called to acknowledge individual sins as well as our complicity in collective sins like systemic racism and oppression of the vulnerable. Although we may resist it, Lent calls us to recognize and repent of the many ways that we behave like Judas as well as the ways that we may benefit from a system that continues to hand over innocent victims to humiliation, poverty and death.
Fr. Shag’s willingness to see himself in Judas invites us to do the same. However, we don’t identify with Judas in order to fall into despair, but rather to repent and to discover God’s liberation from sin, both individual and collective. An enlightened Catholic priest and theologian told me that the ultimate sin of Judas was not his betrayal but rather his refusal to believe that he could be forgiven. Fr. Shag’s painting and the Gospels themselves invite us to recognize the ways that we continue to get caught up in sins just like Judas, but we have reason to thank the God of Love who is always offering us forgiveness and a path toward new life and liberation.