Jesus and those who betray him

To point out that betrayal has been and will be a danger in everyday life. The greatest pain of a mother, a father, is the betrayal of their own children. The biggest pain, brothers and sisters, is the betrayal of loved ones: family, friends, colleagues …
Children whose own parents have betrayed suffer the most. Betrayal is the word that resonates in almost every thought of today’s gospel. Jesus said, “Verily I say unto you, one of you shall betray me” (John 13:21). And Petra, at the end of the pericope, reminds: “… the cock shall not sing until you deny me three times” (John 13.38). Betrayal is a breach of contract between two equal partners. It’s sudden and the misfortune of violating the agreed rules. Scripture is the whole great covenant between God and man.  The Old Testament, a translation of the “Old Testament” would be more accurate, was always about compliance covenants between God and man. The first contract was an agreement between Abraham and God. Abraham’s descendants all pledged to abide by the Lord the law, and God is committed to helping and caring for them until the end of the world. People, however, embezzled this covenant and still betrayed God. Whether idolatry, adultery, by mutual hatred, they still betrayed the agreement with the Lord. For that, the Jewish people then began to behave very badly. It’s a black period for him – night came. However, God did not forget his part of the covenant and promised them and us through the Jewish nation to all – the Savior. Someone to bring people out of this darkness. God kept his promise, and to the people, he sent the Son – light into darkness. Therefore, the evangelist John could say about him: “The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness did not receive it” (John 1: 5).

That light, kept by the covenant, was and is Jesus Christ. But we see that humanity has not changed even after a thousand years of waiting for the Savior. Jesus again, someone betrays, even as painfully as possible. His loved ones betray him: Judas and more Peter the same night. We also read that Judas “… took a mess and went out at once. And the ball night ”(John 13:30). Betrayal, brothers, and sisters, is an act by which man falls into darkness. The evangelist John does not write to us that when Judas left to betray Jesus, it was already evening. He says something else. He literally writes, “And it was night” (John 13:30). In creating the world, God said: “Let there be light, and it was light, the first day” (Ex 1: 3). And here man betrays God, “and it was night” – last day. We always fall into betrayal at night.
What’s worse, our betrayal can throw other people into darkness. The other apostles also fell into the darkness of Judas’ betrayal, and Peter explicitly denied Jesus three times. Even at night, before sunrise. The darkness of betrayal passed from one man to the other.

Our betrayal of anyone causes terrible suffering. He throws himself into the darkness, first us, our hearts, then gradually spreads the darkness to our loved ones. Betrayal begets another betrayal and the other. And it came to pass after this, that Judas betrayed the teachings of Jesus first Jesus himself, like the last, he betrays his own life and ends in suicide. Small, we will not avoid great betrayals in life, but let’s take an example from Peter when they do occur. After denying his Master, he wept bitterly, regretting his betrayal, and he returned to Jesus. And all his life, he tried to live according to Jesus’ words and mission from him.
At first glance, it is difficult for us to commit such a betrayal as Judas. But not even that we don’t have to. It is enough if we insidiously deceive our parents if for a better place at work we betray a colleague if, for our convenience, we don’t help the family … It’s enough if we don’t do what we have promised and beget treason. It is like darkness and cold, which gradually creep into the hearts of children and parents, to friends and colleagues’ hearts to subvert them and make friends enemies. It is a betrayal of the oldest and worst quality of people. From Adam to today, he cuts on us and waits for our weak moment to convince us that our EGO is the most important person in the world. Let us not be deceived by it and remain faithful to our Lord and his teachings wherever we will, whether at home or work.