Jesus Overcame Betrayal. You Can, Too.
By Annemarie McLean
Have you ever been betrayed?
From nation betraying nation to father betraying child — betrayal takes on many forms and faces. It seeps into our relationships, business dealings, military institutions, and geopolitical alliances.
In its purest essence, betrayal shatters trust.
There are five definitions of “betrayal,” including these four:
The act of exposing or delivering someone to an enemy through treachery or disloyalty.
The act of disappointing a person’s trust, hopes, or expectations.
The act of revealing information in violation of confidence.
Failure to keep or honor a promise, principle, cherished memory, etc.
If you have ever been on the receiving end of any of the above, then your answer is “yes”: you know what it means to feel betrayed.
It could be argued that betrayal is among the most painful of all human experiences, up there with rejection. Betrayal pierces the heart and is borne alone in isolated agony by the one betrayed. Without forgiveness, betrayal wields a power that threatens to turn loving hearts cold and trusting hearts jaded. It evokes a visceral reaction that cries out, “How could you do this to me?” Or it elicits a bewildered response of, “Did that just happen?” In our shock and dismay, we go silent and numb until reality sinks in along with feelings of anger and thoughts of revenge. On this, the betrayed can agree: True betrayal causes pain too deep for words.
It’s here we find Jesus. One of us. One who was betrayed. In His case of betrayal at the hand of Judas, Jesus knew it was coming. Sitting around the table at the Last Supper, Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me” (Matt. 26:21).
And Jesus felt the weight and pain of His impending betrayal; He wasn’t emotionless. In fact, John writes that Jesus was “troubled in his spirit” (John 13:21) before testifying before His disciples that He was about to be betrayed.
How did Jesus remain pure in word and deed when one of His disciples, supposedly one of His closest allies and best friends — one whom He poured into and shared life with for three solid years — sold Him into the hands of His enemies for 30 pieces of silver?
Simply put: How did Jesus remain sinless in the face of betrayal?
In the account of Maundy Thursday in the Gospels, what Jesus did next is extraordinary, but what He didn’t do is just as remarkable. Both at the Last Supper (when Judas is identified as the betrayer) and in the Garden of Gethsemane (when Judas kisses Jesus to identify to the temple guards whom they were arresting), Jesus neither cursed Judas nor assaulted him. Rather, in a response that can only be described as supernatural, Jesus remains peace-filled and others-oriented.
According to the Gospel of John, after Judas is identified as the betrayer at the Last Supper (John 13:28-30), Jesus lays aside His own hurt and emotional pain and spends the rest of the dinner pouring hope-filled promises into His remaining 11 disciples, preparing them for what is to come. Here we find Jesus giving His disciples a new commandment to love one another, comforting them with a pledge of the coming Holy Spirit, preparing them to be hated by the world, reaffirming to them that He is who He says He is: The True Vine, The Way, The Truth, and the Life. He reassures them that their sorrow will turn to joy and that He has overcome the world (John 13:31-16:33).
In all these things, Jesus showed us a way through for our own deliverance and victory over betrayal. If you are bearing the cross of betrayal right now, you can find solace, encouragement, and victory in Jesus’ example.
While Jesus felt every pain and pang, He did not let His betrayal define or defeat Him. He kept His eyes on the mission “for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame” (Heb. 12:2) and on others.
Like Jesus, you can choose to not allow the destructive pull of self-pity to swallow you whole. You can turn outward and grow instead of imploding inward, as hard as that is.
Like Jesus, you can know that your betrayal is not the final paragraph in the story God is writing of your life. What the enemy meant for evil the Lord can turn for good.
Jesus was a man betrayed by a friend, while yours may take another face or form. Whatever it is, in Jesus, you have one who comes alongside you in that darkness, one who has been there and has shown you the way through it. Like Jesus, you can choose to forgive, find peace in God the Father, finish your mission, and experience resurrection hope on the other side.
Originally published on The Stream.