Community Church Sermons
May 28, 2006
Acts 1:1-5;9;12-26
All month long, we have been taking a look at the Bible. What role does the Bible play in the Christian life? How should we use it? Is it even relevant to our lives in the 21st-century? In weeks past, we’ve said that we need to go back to the Bible, not as a set of doctrinal principles, but to the stories and the lives of the people the Bible is written about. We’ve talked about the effect books like The Da Vinci Code have on our understanding of the Bible. And last week, Margaret helped us think about how getting back to the Bible really means getting back to Jesus who is the Living Word.
Today, we conclude this series on
the Bible by taking up the controversial Gospel of Judas![1]
It was back in February that Bob Puckett and I were tipped off by one of our faculty at Stetson University’s Pastors’ School that another blockbuster revelation threatening - some claimed - to undermine the very foundations of Christianity would hit the airwaves just before Easter. The long-lost Gospel of Judas had been found…buried in the sands of a bank vault in Hicksville, New York! I’m not sure about you, but I would never have even thought of digging for an ancient manuscript in a bank vault, let alone in Hicksville, New York!
But that’s what happened - in a roundabout sort of way. The small papyrus codex was first discovered in the 1970’s in Egypt by a group of peasants who had stumbled upon a burial cave. There was a skeleton in the chamber. And lying next to the corpse was a limestone box containing a number of very old papyrus manuscripts.
As it turned out, one of the codices was the Gospel of Judas. Historians had known about the existence of such a writing all the way back to the second-century when a bishop by the name of Irenaeus wrote against it, calling it heresy. But no copy of the Judas Gospel had ever been found until this one turned up in that bank vault in Hicksville, New York.
What is so amazing about the Gospel of Judas is that the man we Christians have long-scorned as the betrayer of our Lord is presented in a completely different light. Here he is not the evil, corrupt, devil-inspired follower of Jesus who betrayed his master. He is instead Jesus' closest friend, the one who understood Jesus better than anyone else, who turned Jesus over to the authorities because Jesus wanted him to do so.
The Gospel of Judas causes people to question the accuracy of the New Testament Gospels. Maybe Lee Teabing, the character in Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, was correct in claiming that the Church deliberately suppressed certain writings because they presented a different view of Christianity than the one embraced by the powerful bishops of the institutional Church.
What do you think about all this? Do you have an opinion? Or are you just confused and disillusioned like a lot of people today?
My heart has been drawn in recent weeks to a memory of dear Betty Perry. Mrs. Perry was my third-grade Sunday School teacher. It was this lovely woman’s sacred responsibility to take little heathen children like me and transform us into biblical Christians! And Mrs. Perry was good at it. Under her tutelage, we studied all about the Bible, memorized large portions of scripture, and even learned to recite the names of all 66 books! When Betty Perry was done with us, we third-graders were so biblically righteous that the church rewarded us by giving us our own hardbound copies of the Bible – Revised Standard Version – with our names embossed on the front cover in gold.
Dear Betty Perry introduced me to the Bible. But now, I wonder. I wonder what Betty Perry would say if someone told her that she was wrong – that instead of 66 books there were actually 67 – and that reciting the Gospels would require us now to say…Matthew, Mark, Luke John…and Judas! I think Betty Perry might just roll over in her grave!
And that is not even the worst of it! The Gospel of Judas – it turns out - is not the only Gospel left out of the New Testament! Like many Christians in our day, Mrs. Perry in her day was unaware that historians and archaeologists have turned up literally hundreds of other ancient Christian manuscripts including many other Gospels – the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Peter, the Infancy Gospel of James, the Gospel of Truth, the Gospel of Philip, the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, the Gospel to the Egyptians, the Gospel of the Hebrews…and of course, the Gospel of Judas!
Poor Betty Perry! How confused and disillusioned she might be in this new world of ours that has been made so much more complicated by the likes of Dan Brown and all the newly discovered ancient manuscripts like the Gospel of Judas!
Or, maybe not!
I remember Betty Perry telling us third graders that our journey into the Bible was just beginning, and that her prayer was that we would continue to grow and learn about the Bible all the days of our lives. And there isn’t anything that more forcefully propels people into learning and growing than a healthy dose of confusion and disillusionment caused by new ideas that shake up what we once thought was settled truth.
So welcome to the Gospel of Judas!
Have you read it? I’ve made a few copies and placed them out in the Narthex if you’re interested in reading it for yourself. It’s only about seven pages long, and is divided into three scenes. Here’s the gist:
In scene one, Jesus comes to the disciples laughing. The disciples become upset. “Why are you laughing at us, Jesus?” Jesus replies that he is not laughing at them, but at the inferior god to whom they are praying. Confused, the disciples say that he is the son of their God, but Jesus tells them that’s not so. Neither they nor those who follow them in the future truly know – or will know - either Jesus or the one true God. And just to prove the point, Jesus dares any of them to stand up before him and reveal the secret knowledge of who he really is. None of the disciples dare to stand – but one. Judas! Judas says that he knows who Jesus is and where he has come from – the immortal realm of Barbelo. Now in ancient thought, Barbelo is the divine virgin mother and partner of the one true God. In saying this, Judas demonstrates that he alone understands who Jesus is and that Jesus has been sent to earth by the highest divinity. Jesus is pleased with Judas! Then Jesus invites Judas to come apart with him from the other disciples so that Jesus can instruct him - and him alone - in the secrets of the divine. Judas is the only one who truly understands. The other disciples are a bunch of nincompoops. Get the picture?
Scene number two: Jesus returns to the eleven disciples. “Where have you been?” they ask. Jesus says he’s been spending time with a greater and holier bunch of folks. The disciples say, “We thought WE were the great and holy folks around here!” Jesus shakes his head. No, and again Jesus says that neither they nor the ones who follow after them will be members of the spiritually elite. Then Jesus interprets for them a dream they’ve been having about wicked priests making immoral sacrifices. Jesus tells them THEY are the priests. Not only are they nincompoops, but they aren’t even good nincompoops. This is not a shining moment for the disciples!
Then comes the third and final scene: Jesus and Judas are alone. Jesus reveals to Judas the secrets of salvation and the universe. He tells Judas the other disciples will despise him because of all the disciples, only Judas is worthy. And Judas has a special mission to fulfill. Jesus says, “But you yourself will be greater than all of them, for you will sacrifice the man who carries me.”
And then the Gospel of Judas ends with Judas turning Jesus over to the authorities because Jesus was orchestrating his own death.
The end.
A little different than Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, don’t you think?
Now there are some people who say
that the Gospel of Judas – in portraying Judas in a favorable light –
might help undo some of the damage done to Jewish people who over the centuries
have been vilified because of what the New Testament Gospels say Judas did.
Someone has said that the holocaust itself would probably not have happened
unless the Nazi authorities were able to link the Jewish race with the betrayer
of Jesus. Passion plays – like the one at Oberammergau - were loved and
encouraged by Adolf Hitler because they stoked up public anger toward the Jews.
I think that’s a good point, and we should learn something from it about how
easily religion can become a breeding ground for bigotry and even genocide.
That’s a good discovery. But that’s not the most important thing we can take
from the Gospel of Judas.
Others correctly point out that another value of the Gospel of Judas is that it reveals the wide diversity of belief that existed among Christians in the first several centuries after Jesus. And that’s true. Some Christians, for instance, thought you had to be circumcised, and others thought that wasn’t such a great idea – especially the ones who hadn’t been circumcised! Some believed there was one God, others thought there were two, and still others believed there were 365 gods! Some Christians – like a group in the Corinthian church – didn’t even believe in the resurrection!
The early Christian Church was far more diverse in belief and thought than most people today realize! So if you have ideas that don’t quite fit into other Christians’ preconceived boxes of true orthodoxy, don’t worry about it! Stick by your guns! Argue your ideas! The early church was alive with controversy, argument and free thought! That’s how the Christian community worked through crucial issues and grew in maturity. And the church today should be open to diversity too! That’s a good lesson to learn! But that’s not the most important thing we can discover from the Gospel of Judas.
I think the crucial thing about the Judas Gospel is the decision made by the Christian community to not accept it into the canon of Scripture.
Do you know why they kept it out?
Dan Brown and others suggest that powerful bishops decided that the teachings found in books like the Gospel of Judas should be kept away from the faithful. Not true. Even though bishops had some influence, they were not as much in control as you might think. I think you all know that the Church in recent months has told Christians not to read The Da Vinci Code. But how many of you read it?
I rest my case!
Yes, the leadership of the Church had a voice in what got into the canon and what didn’t, but the more important factor was the community - ordinary people like you and me. As they heard Gospel and letters read in church services, some seemed to have the ring of truth. It was the Christian community – as broad and diverse as it was – that came to accept some writings as truly reflecting the teachings of Jesus, and others as not.
Like the Gospel of Judas.
And what an important decision they made to keep it out of the New Testament!
The Gospel of Judas is what is called a “Gnostic” Gospel. Gnosticism is a kind of catch-all word describing a widespread and popular philosophy that began to infiltrate the Church in the second and third centuries. It’s starting point was innocent enough – why is there so much suffering in the world? The answer of gnosticism was that the world is one big evil mistake. The material world in which we live is an awful place. And you and I are spiritual beings, trapped in the prison of this world, and in fact, in the prison of these bodies. The spirit is good. The material world is evil. And the best thing that can ever happen to you is to have your spirit set free to go home to heaven!
The problem is that most people
don’t know this about themselves. They are unaware of their true spiritual
nature. It is only when they gain this self-knowledge – gnosis is the Greek
word – that they can be set free. But how do they gain this knowledge? Well,
Jesus came down from heaven to reveal the truth to those who have the spark of
the divine within. If you remember from scenes one and two in the Judas Gospel,
the disciples didn’t get it. Only Judas did. And then, if you remember scene
three, when Jesus had completed his mission, it was Judas’ job to help Jesus be
set free from his material body. Do you recall what Jesus said? “But you
yourself will be greater than all of them, for you will sacrifice the man who
carries me.”
For Gnostic Christians, the best thing that can ever happen to a person is for their spirit to leave this evil world and go to heaven.
But the vast majority of Christian people in that day said, “No.”
Do you understand why?
If the world is evil, and the point of life is to get out of it, why would you even try to make the world a better place? Why would you give a thirsty child a cup of water? Why would you give a hungry person a piece of bread? Why would you pray for a sick person to be made well? Why would you love your neighbor as yourself?
Well, the early Christians knew why you did things like that - giving cups of water to the thirsty, bread to the hungry, prayers for the sick, and love to your neighbor.
You did it because Jesus did, and because Jesus told us to do the same.
In Matthew, Jesus said so. In Mark, Jesus said so. In Luke, Jesus said so. In John, Jesus said so.
Love God, and love your neighbor as yourself.
But in the Gospel of Judas, its not about God and not about neighbor. It’s all about ME, and getting ME OUT of this world. It’s all about getting ME TO HEAVEN!
In Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the work of the Christian faith is not about getting out of Dodge, but about bringing the loving salvation of God INTO Dodge, and into the lives of every human being!
And so while Gnostic Christians sat around filling themselves with spiritual self-awareness, the rest of the Christian community went out and built schools for children, and hospitals for the sick, and governments founded upon principles of justice and freedom for all. They fed the hungry. They helped the poor. They stood up for the disadvantaged. They loved their neighbors so wonderfully that even a Roman historian would one day observe, “My, how these Christians love one another!”
And as they spread into the world embodying the Good News of Jesus, people became captivated by the idea that creation is good and that the world can be saved, and that they can have a part with God in making it happen!
Meanwhile, the Gnostic communities faded into the sands of the desert - and that bank vault in Hicksville, New York..
Although not completely.
Sandy and I were driving back from Nashville a few weeks ago. On one side of Interstate 40, I noticed a billboard. This is what it said:
“If you were to
die tonight, do you know for sure where you would spend eternity?”
I thought to myself, “My goodness, Gnosticism is still alive - and right here in Tennessee!”
There is an awful lot of religion in this world today that is mostly about getting ready to go to heaven when you die. It’s a brand of religion that centers on “gnosis” - knowing the right stuff – the right doctrines – the right principles – the right theology -so that you can safely get out of here when the moment comes.
Call it what you will, but what it is is Gnosticism. And it has the Christian Church – especially in modern America – by the throat.
So maybe you and I – just like the Christians of long ago – are standing at a critical moment in history. Maybe we - like them - have to make a choice. Are we going to have a faith aimed at getting us OUT of this world, or a faith that sends us INTO this world to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ?
Thinking about that billboard over on the side of Interstate 40, I wonder how much more life-changing and world-changing it would be if instead of asking, “If you were to die tonight, do you know where you would spend eternity?” we asked something like this:
[1] Some of the background material for this sermon is taken from an excellent book review, “The Gospel of Judas from Codex Tchacus” (book edited by Rodolphe Kasser, Marvin Meyer, and George Wurst, National Geographic) in The New York Review.