Today is a holiday in much of Christendom known as Easter Monday. What can Easter teach us about friendship, betrayal, and forgiveness?
Friendship, Betrayal, And Forgiveness In The Context Of Easter
One highlight of Eastertide for me is the Great Vigil of Easter, an ancient service of liturgy and reflection that marks the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus. It takes place on Holy Saturday at dusk, the evening before Easter, and begins by the lighting of the Paschal Candle. The term Paschal comes from the Latin word Pascha, which came from the Hebrew word Pesach, which in Hebrew means “Passover,” and relates to the Paschal mystery of salvation.
The service goes on to recount the history of the faith through readings from the Hebrew Bible and later the New Testament, which provide timely reminders of the history that undergirds the Christian faith culminating in the death and Resurrection of Christ and an admonition by Jesus to love one another (John 13:34).
This familiar service offers a moment to take stock of my life and also reflect upon the previous year and even see, looking down at Augustine, how much has changed (how much he has grown) over the last year.
As I reflected upon Easter this year, I was drawn in my own study to the counter-narratives of two friends who betrayed Jesus, Peter and Judas.
Proud and prideful, Peter declared that he would never betray Jesus. When Jesus was arrested in the garden on Thursday night, Peter rose to defend him, cutting off the ear of a member of the arresting party. He even trailed Jesus to court, hanging out in the courtyard as Jesus faced a sham trial on trumped-up charges.
But Peter was human and when accused of being a follower of Jesus, he denied it, first casually, then forcefully, and the third time with anger and cursing. Jesus had earlier told his disciplines, “But whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven,” which must have struck Peter particularly hard because he ran off in anguish.
Meanwhile, Judas had also been a disciple of Jesus for three years, learning from his Rabbi like the other 11 disciples and living life with a Man who was already changing the world. But whether driven by avarice or jealously or simply disillusionment, Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver to the Jewish authorities, arranging for him to be captured so that he could be tried and executed.
In an amazing display of regret, Judas returned to the high priest and attempted to give the money back, stating, “I’ve sinned. I’ve betrayed an innocent man.” But the priests responded, “What do we care? That’s your problem!” in a damning indictment of the temple system. We see a penitent sinner coming to the high priest to confess his sin, but the priest says he does not care!
What follows is tragic: Judas flung the coins in the temple, walked away, and hung himself. Judas was sorry he had betrayed his friend, but he still did not believe Jesus was the Messiah. He therefore had no hope that he could be forgiven or reconciled to God; he believed he had messed up so bad there was no path to restoration. His greatest issue: he had no true love for the one he sinned against.
Peter, who had boldly declared that Jesus was God, met the risen Christ by the Sea of Galilee. Struck by shame, Peter was reconciled and his faith was renewed. He expressed his love for Jesus, a true love deeper than emotion. A burden was lifted. Peace filled his heart.
Both men were sorry. Both men had regrets. But only one received forgiveness and peace. How? Only one actually loved. And rooted in that love, one asked for forgiveness while the other could not bring himself to do so.
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”
Sometimes friends betray friends. It may be that a “friend” was never a friend in the first place, but sometimes even friends can say or do things they regret in the heat of the moment. While ultimate peace comes through the forgiveness of sins offered through Jesus Christ, there is great temporal peace that comes from the display of love via repentance to those humans whom you have harmed. And we are called to forgive those who repent, a high calling to be sure, but a blessing of humanity.
Finally, for a different perspective on Resurrection, I would invite you to read this New York Times interview with NT Wright, whose orthodoxy on Resurrection has become almost countercultural in the post-modern world. Without Resurrection, the Christian faith is a sham.
And for a more eloquent contrast of Peter and Judas, this sermon:
Thanks Matthew. That’s encouraging. I hope the Holy Week was a wonderful time for you and your family.
This is beautiful and timely and pertinent to so many situations. Thank you for writing this and for being a leader in the darkness.
Regardless of one’s faith this is a powerful and important message of forgiveness. Thank you, Matthew.
TLDR: An essay to men and women.
On Holy Saturday it finally hit me: “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”. –John 8:7
I should be the last person on earth casting stones.
During Lent I thought 24/7 about all the many mistakes that I’ve made in life. Concurrently I contemplated the fact that I’ve been calling out problems and individuals while at the same time knowing that I am so far from perfect myself — a glaring juxtaposition. It is not and has never been my actual intention in life to attack others. Yes, it has happened, and many times. But it is my intention and will of my heart to love.
Love is in everything, but not everyone sees it. Love is in both the crucifixion and the resurrection, and you can’t have one without the other. It’s the yin and yang — the light and darkness within us all. Love is the lesson. God is in everyone.
This Lent was very significant for me, a roller coaster, for sure. I, for one, was all over the place trying to deal with the current state of the world and my own life while also trying to fix my past transgressions while at the same time inadvertently causing new ones. When you unplug from the matrix you see the indoctrination, the propaganda, and the deception behind the facade. It becomes hard to relate to others that are still living in that mainstream world. Combine that with being an emotional person and it’s not the best mix.
Collectively, I’ve felt like we are all on Sully’s plane that has lost both engines and we seemingly aren’t surviving the coming landing. Meaning, if the United States ever did fall, there is nowhere else for us to go.
That’s why I went so hard on politics and controversial issues. Because we need to survive this water landing. I simply have not felt that we can survive it with Biden/leftist elites & policies at the helm. White supremacy, racism and climate change are not the biggest problems we face at this time — not even close.
And it is truthful to call out that there is a lot of hate in the Democrat party..poor people who hate rich people, black people who hate white people, gay people who hate straight people, feminists who hate men, kids who hate their parents, journalists who hate Republicans.
Furthermore, the LGBTQ+ agenda has become too forced. A majority of Americans believe that children are being convinced of biological lies that are confusing them and causing mental health issues. It’s not love or inclusion to deceive and confuse children. Love does not promote lies. “Love rejoices in the truth.” -1 Corinthians 13:6
That doesn’t mean I worship Republicans either, not even close, there’s obviously a lot of issues, hence why I will always be independent. That being said, it seems like we are crashing and not surviving for sure with Biden. Voting probably doesn’t matter, but just in case it does, getting rid of Biden really seems like our last chance at saving America.
Concurrently, I never meant to come at Ben/OMAAT/et al so hard. I don’t know him or a lot about him.. Matthew was my first foray into Boarding Area during COVID and I’d have to spend 200+ hours a week to even try to catch up on all of the posts between him, Gary and Ben alone. Like Ben, I am a Taurus and Taureans are coined the lovers of the zodiac and generally are good people. I am sure that deep down that Ben and his family and friends are good people, too. We just strongly disagree on much.
The best way I can explain my comments is that it was not about attacking ‘Ben, the individual’ as it was more about ‘Ben, the ideology’. My posts were overall intended to debate the collective course that we are on versus him as an individual.
Despite what Aaron has insisted, I am gay, and it has been challenging to counter other gays with my viewpoints. Still, I am not a robot. I have emotions. I felt empathy for the situation with Ben’s mom and what he was going through with her cancer, for sure. I am sure that is/has been very challenging.
At the same time, Obama said recently ‘silencing those who disagree with us is a sign of weakness, not strength, and it won’t lead to progress’. I don’t think the public should be mad at people like me for proving that the government/deep state/elite are lying to us about so much. We need to be mad at them. I invested the time in speaking the truth here because I sincerely did care about all of the collective. I was just triggered.
But, when I point the finger at someone else, I’ve got three pointing back at me, as they say. When have people not been triggered by me? Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. I’ve often resorted to anger that was inappropriate, like a billion times more than I can count. I’m not proud of it. It’s certainly one of my biggest flaws. Ego is not our amigo. Obviously I have no idea who is who, and I shouldn’t say, for example, Aaron = Ben when I don’t know that. I am Taurus sun, Gemini rising, Leo moon, and Pisces Venus, so I also can have unfortunate hubris and delusion at times, perhaps like anyone else.
Yesterday I saw a video pop up on YouTube from a black content creator, titled something like ‘never give in to the mob and woke culture, they have no power over you’. I didn’t watch the video, but I was thinking in my head ‘maybe this is a sign that means you should never apologize for your posts about Ben/OMAAT/et al’. But then I said no, WWJD — what would Jesus do? I was raised a strict Catholic and Jesus would have said to apologize and to try to heal, to speak the truth, but with love.
Having dated interracially for a long time now, I have always felt that it is an important journey to build bridges between different cultures. The same is true I think for how America heals–bridges need to be rebuilt. So many were burnt down. The theme of bridge building just didn’t come out in 99% of my posts due to my own frustration, and my own ego. My own fault.
We’ve all made mistakes, me more than anyone. My life honestly almost went like Kayleigh’s, the flight attendant from United. I’m just lucky to be alive. I almost let the world get me. No more. While I didn’t comment on that article I said personally at the time that it was a shame people couldn’t be respectful despite transgenderism concerns. Many comments were grossly inappropriate. We can be against the grooming, mutilation, and castration of children but still offer respect to fellow humans, even in challenges or perceived sin. “Forgive them as they know not what they do.” –Luke 23:34
Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. Easter is a fresh start, to be bold, and better, and brave. We need to continue to course correct our individual and collective lives, but in a loving way. People, like Matthew, have been saying this all along, but it just didn’t get through to me.
To Brandon, Santastico, and the many others who have been supportive over recent past and past years, thank you. Thank you for being willing to go up against the machine. What other choice did we have? This wasn’t a show, it was reality. Yes, any human can choose to look away, but I appreciate the support on the road less traveled.
To Maryland, Jake K., Stuart, Aaron, UA-NYC, Matthew, Kyle, Ben, Tiffany, Gary, and to the many others that I’ve offended past or present, I do sincerely apologize. Y’all are some very talented people. Matthew made a very bold and daring trip to Ukraine and has dared to be different. Kyle thinks outside the box. Gary has very interesting articles, has had some A+ articles lately, and Ben is truly blessed and a blessing as a window into both the influencer and luxury lifestyles. Thank you for all that you do to keep us informed and entertained.
To Matthew specifically, thank you for the forum. The conversation, while challenging and sometimes a disaster, was still advanced. When you think about it, LALF & its loyal fans are basically a think tank, similar to Flyer Talk. That’s pretty cool. So thank you. Please forgive me for my transgressions. This country is worth saving. You’re helping save it.
I think I’ve said this before, Marianne Williamson said this and it’s true: We are all just walking each other home. Some of us are on the 9 o’clock and some of us are on the 10:05. Still, the destination is the same–for each of us. I’m done demonizing others’ past positions. We can chalk it up to growth, if you want, if one accepts the olive branch. If not, it’s all good, too. I just have to forgive and move forward as I can’t live with hate in my heart.
An astrologer that I follow on Instagram posted this tweet from another account:
“Men with love and compassion can heal all types of spiritual afflictions. There are not enough of them. The devil intends to keep it this way. When there are a great number of men with love and compassion, great things happen. And the women of the world are waiting for this day.”
To all, including the many who will never see these comments: be blessed and safe travels. Heal the world with respect and decency. Don’t make the same mistakes I did.
It’s all a blessing.
One love.
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