Where is Our Loyalty?

Where is Our Loyalty?

Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God who is Creator, Christ, and Comforter.  Amen

In the Narrative Lectionary, we have now moved from the upper room to the garden in John’s Gospel telling of the last week of Jesus’ life.  We skipped what scholars have called the “Farewell Discourse” which are the final words Jesus spoke to the 11 disciples after Judas left.  We will catch some of this in the Easter season. 

Jesus was in the garden, a place where the disciples frequented, so Judas would know where he was going, and there he, with a detachment of soldiers and the chief priest’s police come to arrest Jesus.  What a chaotic scene! 

They ask for Jesus, he steps forward and the soldiers lose their footing and fall.  I wonder what they were expecting – certainly not such an easy admission of identity! 

Jesus tries to protect those who are with him – making sure they arrest only him and not the whole group.  Peter lashes out in fear and cuts off Malchus’ ear. 

Peter and another disciple follow the crowd and are finally in the courtyard where they can witness the mockery of a trial that Jesus underwent.  As they are in the courtyard, three times Peter was asked if he was a follower of Jesus and three times, he denied it. 

The rooster crows – bringing back to Peter’s memory the words Jesus had spoken to him just hours earlier…Will you lay down your life for me?  Very truly, I tell you, before the cock crows, you will have denied me three times.

Stupid rooster.

Stupid Peter.

Loyalty.  We don’t hear much about loyalty these days.  But this lesson is filled with instances of loyalty…and disloyalty.  

First, there is Judas’ loyalty to Jesus – let me unpack this a bit.  At a meal in Jesus’ day, there were two places of honor, one at the right and the other at the left of the host.  We know Jesus was the host of this meal and we know that John, the disciple whom Jesus loved was at one side, because John so poignantly describes John placing his head on Jesus’ breast. 

But, in order for Jesus to give the bread dipped in the dish to Judas, he would have had to be at the other hand.  The host would dip his piece of bread into the dish, and then give that bread to the person to whom he wanted to show his greatest love and esteem.

He did that by dipping into the common dish and then placing the dipped bread in the person’s mouth.  In doing that, he would show to all those present, and to the person receiving the sop, the love and honor he had for him.

Jesus knew that Judas was about to betray him.  Yet, there he sat, quite possibly in a position of honor at the meal, and Jesus gave him the bread.  Some would say this was perhaps to discourage Judas from doing what our gospel portrays…but what if Jesus did this to Encourage Judas to do what needed to be done to complete the plans they had made together?  Remember, Jesus washed Judas’ feet, too; and Judas held the common purse for the disciples – you don’t give that job to just anyone – but only the most loyal and honest among a group.  And now Jesus publicly tells the disciples that Judas is the one who he trusts enough to do the job of alerting the Chief Priest of Jesus’ whereabouts.  What if that other disciple that went to the courtyard with Peter was Judas, not John as many scholars suppose?  He would be known by the Chief Priest! 

Judas was loyal to the plan – even when he knew it would ruin him. 

Peter was loyal when things were going well and bragging would be beneficial.  He was loyal even after cutting off the ear of the slave, and followed Jesus to the trial.  His loyalty became a thing of the past when he stood in the courtyard of the High Priest and denied Jesus, three times.  His heart must have been in shreds when that rooster’s crow finished echoing through the courtyard.  Other gospel stories tell us he leaves the courtyard and weeps, but not here in John. 

And then there is Jesus.  He is loyal to the plan that God had laid out before him.  He knew who was going to put the plan into action, and loved him and held him in esteem.  He knew who would deny him when the going got rough, and loved him and at the end of this gospel commands Peter to feed his sheep.  Jesus knew that things were going to go from bad to worse, from flogging to death, but that the promised resurrection would come!  He was willing to endure all of this shame, face slapping, torture and ultimately death…for Judas, for Peter, for you, for me. 

Loyalty – loyalty to Jesus, to our faith, to each other as sisters and brothers in Christ – it’s what this whole story is all about. 

Where does your loyalty lie today? 

If your own life is your first loyalty, then you’ve turned your life into a lie.  Your life is a gift from God. 

If your family is your first loyalty, then you’ve turned your family into an idol.  Family is a gift from God

It your job is your first loyalty, then you’ve turned it into a false god.  Your job is a gift from God. 

Loyalty to God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – is to be our top priority as Christians.  Now…that is as counter-cultural as I can think!  We are taught, especially in our advertising, that you take care of your self (how many you deserve…ads can you think of?), your family, your work and God will bless you, but it’s an  inverted image.   Maybe that’s why we are so anxious and unhappy as a society.  There’s an old song I learned as a kid called “JOY.” 

Jesus and others and you, what a wonderful way to spell JOY.

Jesus and others and you, in the life of each girl and each boy.

J-is for Jesus, for he has first place.

O-is for others you meet face-to-face.

Y-is for you, and whatever you do,

Put yourself third and spell JOY.

In the remainder of this Lenten season, I invite you to examine your loyalties, and if you don’t already, but God first in your life through: prayer, fasting, Bible reading, taking care of those less fortunate.  God first, then family, friends, job, nation, self (in alphabetical order).

Loyalty…it’s not just a word…it’s a lifestyle. 

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen