Until the End of the World

John 13: 21-30

What is the biggest betrayal you’ve ever experienced? I can think of a few in my life. Betrayal is painful and can cause seismic shifts in our understanding of the world around us. Betrayal always comes from people we had trusted. It can disorient us, making us question whether we ever really knew anything. It makes us doubt that anyone can ever be trusted. Betrayals usually blindside us. We never see them coming.

Unlike us, Jesus sees the betrayal coming. He is at the table with his disciples—his closest friends and companions. They have been together in this work since the very beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. Jesus called them. Jesus chose them. They had been through so much together. Despite their history and closeness, one of them would betray him. He announces this fact, and they are understandably confused. Even if Jesus saw it coming, the disciples did not. Well, eleven did not see it coming. One knew: Judas.

U2 recorded the best rock song about Jesus and Judas (although it’s probably the only rock song about Jesus and Judas). Entitled “Until the End of the World,” it is always the first song I listen to on Maundy Thursday. It imagines conversations between Jesus and Judas, even after Judas dies by suicide, brought on by his regret and remorse. Tradition holds that Judas was never forgiven because, while he felt regret and remorse for what he had done, he never repented. He never turned back to God. In the last verse of the song, Judas reaches back out to God, hinting at possible repentance. And he repeats back to Jesus His own promise—that He would wait “until the end of the world.”

I know that this is a fictional account. However, contemplating these themes of forgiveness, divine waiting, and unconditional love toward a betrayer captures so many of our Holy Week themes. It is not unreasonable to believe that Jesus would wait for his betrayer to repent. After all, Jesus knew that Judas would betray him, and he still washed his feet and ate with him. I like to believe that unconditional love and the opportunity for forgiveness extend even to the one whose name has become synonymous with betrayal. If Jesus waits until the end of the world for Judas, he waits for us too. He waits for us to return to him, no matter how terribly we’ve sinned or how deeply we’ve betrayed him. He waits for us until the end of the world.

Rev. Dana Ezell