This evening at Choral Evensong (in which the boys and girls choirs sang amazingly!) I led a short meditation based on the reading of Luke 22, particularly developing the theme of Judas betraying Jesus.
I did this quite late in the week and so it is quite ‘unrefined’ but people seemed to find it useful and so I am putting it ‘out there’ in case it maybe useful for others.

Judas Meditation

We wonder why Judas betrayed Jesus
What on earth did he think he was doing?
what possessed him to do such a thing?
to betray such a friend?
the Messiah

Was he not there when Jesus walked on water!
or when he fed the 5000?
changed the water into wine?
did he not know who Jesus was?

what possessed him?
to do such a thing …
is that the reason … was he possessed?
like the boy called Legion
part of a spiritual battle
the last gasp attempt of the deceiver
to blow God’s plan off course?

or was Judas just confused?
this was not the Messiah he was expecting
the messiah was supposed to overthrow the oppressors
and lead them into a new Kingdom
a place they could call home
true freedom at last
why didn’t he act?

Was he naively trying to help?
thinking he was assisting
collaborating in the big plan
accelerating the inevitable overthrow of oppression
‘if I do this …. Jesus will have to act
they will be no match for Jesus
because he is the Messiah
never comprehending the consequences of his meeting

Maybe Judas was just frustrated
and never really got it
So … he tried to force the hand of God
coercing the redeemer to act
embracing personal intuition
deaf to the compassion of Jesus.

And what about us
it is easy for us to judge
Judas
others
ourselves

have we never got frustrated with God?
never tried to push God?
to rush God?
to make God aware of our need for now?

are we guilty too of
trying to force the hand of the creator
when the right thing to do
was simply watch and wait …

Lord of all hope
creator of all
lover of all
Lord in whom we can trust absolutely

forgive us for those times when we have believed our finite schemes
rather than trusted your infinite creative design
when we are tempted to take things into our own hands
remind us that your hands are more than big enough to cope
and that we need to trust
to wait
to listen
and respond with you.
Rather than playing safe amongst our undeveloped blueprints
give us courage to tentatively wander in your creative bliss.