Sometimes I find it hard to think of Judas as a person like me.  I want to put him in a category all by himself, as if he’s the only one who’s ever betrayed Jesus.  Do you? As “Judas” was talking did you find it hard to imagine him as “Jesus’ most trusted disciple”?  We’ve read the Gospels.  We know that Judas was a thief.  We know that Satan entered into Judas before he betrayed Jesus to the authorities.  Perhaps you’ve read one of the many character sketches of Judas’ life over the years.  Some portray him as misunderstood.  Some portray him as trying to force Jesus’ hand so that Jesus would overthrow the Romans.  Some portray him as well-intentioned but misguided. Over the past several years the “Gospel of Judas” has offered new “insights” into his life and intentions.  Being that it’s basically a Gnostic Gospel—meaning that it contains “hidden” knowledge that only those containing the “divine spark” can understand, and that it says that Judas betrayed Jesus, so that Jesus could be released from His physical body since Gnostics teach that the material world is evil—we can’t put much stock in it as those who trust God’s word—the Bible.  I raise all this simply to point out that Judas WAS a sinner, a betrayer, and that sometimes I find myself thinking that even though all sin is sin to God, that Judas’ sin was worse.  It wasn’t.    

     Tonight’s message is titled “Above All.” As we listened to (sang) the words of that song, a powerful message came through. Jesus in His death on the cross was “like a rose trampled on the ground, He took the fall and thought of me, of you—ABOVE ALL.  That’s really what Good Friday is all about, at the deepest personal level.  Jesus accepted His position as Savior of the world, as your Savior and mine, even when that position was to stretch out his arms on a cross and have them nailed in place.  Jesus was “lifted up” on the cross so that we might have our sins removed, paid for, and be given a new life. 

     Tonight’s Scripture may be the most familiar verse of Scripture on the Planet:  John 3:16.  Listen as I read it from the New Living Translation:  ¹⁶“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.  Some say that the Church in America has trivialized the cross by saying that Jesus died there because He loved us.  They say that Jesus died on the cross to satisfy the justice of God, that we must not miss this truth.  They’re right.  But to say that Jesus’ death on the cross was not based on love is ludicrous.  God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son—Jesus—so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.  The cross is about nothing, if it isn’t about God’s love for us!  Jesus took the fall and thought about me, about you ABOVE ALL.

     Judas betrayed Jesus.  Don’t we all?  Don’t you and I betray Jesus in our lives?  When we have the opportunity to step up and say or do something right and we just stand aside remaining silent, we betray Jesus.  When we have the opportunity to invite an outsider to God’s love and grace to join us on the inside and we don’t, we betray Jesus.  Those of us who are gathered here tonight are most likely followers of Jesus.  I say that because it isn’t Good Friday services that pack worship centers at this time of year.  It’s the services we’ll celebrate two days from now.  Easter, the day of resurrection—that’s the day everyone wants to celebrate.  On Easter we recognize that Jesus IS the Son of God.  On Easter we recognize that God raised Him from the dead, and if Jesus can rise from the dead, then so can we!  But it’s Good Friday.  The original Good Friday was the darkest day in history. In fact, without Easter, we wouldn’t call it “GOOD” Friday at all.

    But here we are.  Here we are, remembering that Jesus DID lay down His life on the cross that He did think of me, of you above all.  Sometimes we who know Jesus and the story of His love gather in worship and we read the accounts and we miss the power in them.  When the Passion of the Christ came out a number of years ago now, many of us watched it, and gained a fuller understanding of the extreme nature of the punishment and suffering Jesus endured for us.  When we sing, “Like a rose trampled on the ground,” we realize that the analogy may be a bit soft compared with what actually happened.  Trampled? More like ground into the pavement.  Jesus faced unimaginable physical torment. He faced the jeers and insults of the crowd. He was mocked and spit upon, and as He hung there on the cross, Jesus had to endure His heavenly Father’s rejection. At the moment He took our sins into His body on the cross, God turned His face away, and Jesus cried out, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani?”  “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

     We know about Easter.  We sit here tonight knowing that Jesus didn’t stay dead.  We can’t really imagine what it must have been like to stand there in the crowd that day and watch as the Son of God thought of us ABOVE ALL,  as He died in our places.  But what we can do, is understand at least to some degree is what it’s like to be loved by God.  I say that because right now, as we ponder the cross, as we ponder an innocent man—the Lamb of God—giving His life freely, willingly, lovingly—every breath an agony, we realize that Jesus DID think of us above all. In our best moments as His followers, when the Holy Spirit is alive and in control in our lives, we understand how great God’s love for us really is.  Jesus said it Himself, “Greater love has no one than this, that He lay down His life for His friends.”  Jesus never offered empty platitudes.  He didn’t tell us that greater love has no one than this, that He lay down His life for His friends, because it seemed noble.  He told us that because He was going to set the example.  As we go about reflecting on Jesus’ sacrifice in our place, His payment of the penalty of death required by God of each of us, because of our sins, we know that God loves us, beyond any doubt we know.

     Now, here’s the $64,000 question—I guess in our day it would be the $1,000,000 question:  Do we really know that God loves us?  That’s not a rhetorical question. If we know that God loves us, then we will love Him in return.  The Bible tells us how we can know that we have God’s love in our lives.  We have God’s love in our lives if we love Him and one another.  Jesus died on the cross—Jesus put me and you ABOVE ALL, because of the greatest love of all.  Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.  It’s interesting that the two biggest Holidays in our culture—the two biggest Christian Holidays that is—are Christmas and Easter.  One celebrates Jesus birth and the other His resurrection.  But Jesus gave us two sacraments or ordinances—the Lord’s Supper and Baptism, and each of them was given to remind us of Jesus’ DEATH.  The Apostle Paul use the term “buried” in referring to baptism.  Here’s what wrote to the Romans:  “³Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? ⁴For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.  (Romans 6:3-4)  When we partake in the Lord’s Supper in a few minutes, we will be reminded that the bread is representative of Jesus’ body given—crucified—for us.  

     Why do you suppose that Jesus told us to remember His death, but churches fill up to remember His birth and resurrection?  That’s easy to understand isn’t it?  Christmas, Jesus’ birthday is a happy time, an amazing time, when God became flesh and lived among us.  The birth of God in human form amazes, not to mention that we all like receiving presents.  Easter is about the victory of Jesus over death, and therefore, the victory in our lives over death.  But Good Friday, a time to gather en mass to celebrate what God has done—not so much, in this culture which avoids pain, denies death, and seeks not to worry and to be happy.  Jesus took fall and thought of me, of you—ABOVE ALL.  That IS so incredible, isn’t it?  If you were God, how would you have solved the problem of sin?  How would you have shown your love to the world?  Would you have shouted down from heaven, “Ollie, Ollie oxen free?”  Would you have wiped our memories clean and reprogrammed us to do only good?  What would you have done?  I’ve thought about that many times, and I’ve come up with a lot of ideas, but not one of them involved me coming to the earth to die in our place.  John 3:16 is so familiar to us all, but if we really “chew” on it, we have to admit, it’s radical, absolutely radical:  ¹⁶“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.  John 3:16 NLT. 

     Judas sinned major.  He was a double agent, and He betrayed God.  The Gospels tell us that when he realized what he had done, he felt remorse. He went to the Pharisees and pleaded with them to let Jesus go.  He gave back the money they had given Him to betray Jesus.  But it was too late.  Jesus was already on His way to the cross.  So, Judas went out and took His own life.  Was Judas so much worse than Peter, who would soon deny three times ever having known Jesus?  Was he so much worse than Paul, who when he was known as Saul used to have Christians arrested and approved of their executions?  Was he worse than you and I in the sins we commit?  Not according to the Bible.  James tells us that if we keep the whole law but fail in one point, we have broken the whole law.  The difference between Judas and Peter, or Judas and Saul, or Judas and you and me is that Judas’ remorse didn’t lead to repentance.  Godly sorrow produces repentance—a 180 degree turnaround in our lives.  As we worship on this Good Friday, we call it good because Jesus’ death, His innocent blood shed, has paid the penalty for our sins, and He has become our means of experiencing the love of God in place of His wrath.  Thanks be to God that Jesus thought about me, about you above all!    Amen.