Y’all,
A couple years ago I was studying the gospels and one verse stood out to me. It still does. In fact, I think of it often. And the moment I remember so clearly, brought me to my knees, my eyes filled with tears, and reminded me of how great a love Jesus has for every beautifully messed up soul on this planet. You know how you can read or hear something 100000 times and then one day, “Ooooohhhhhhhh”. Well the verse that I had this experience with is:
Jesus replied, “Do what you came for, friend.” Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him. (Matthew 26:50 NIV)
the word in this verse that changes everything for me is “friend”. I realized I had been reading this verse with my own voice, flaws, imperfections imposed on it. I was imagining how I would feel if I were Jesus. This is how it went for me. “Do what you came for friend.” (In the snarkiest, snatchiest, rudest, most hateful tone possible. After all this man just betrayed me to a horribly painful death WITH A KISS. He certainly is not my friend. I am only calling him a friend now to remind him that he WAS my friend. I am rubbing his face in the shame of what he is doing to me.)
But oh glory to God, Hallelujah, Amen, fortunately for all mankind, I am NOT Jesus. I am Stacie, an imperfect, incredibly flawed human. But Jesus? He is perfect, without sin, spot or flaw. So when he looks at Judas and calls him friend, he actually means it. With all sincerity. He doesn’t speak sarcasm, irony or passive aggressive. He just speaks love. Pure and simple love. Jesus can look at this man who has betrayed him and still call him friend. WOW.
Jesus could look at this man whom He had loved so purely, so lavishly, knowing that he had betrayed Him and yet, still see a friend. He still saw someone worth dying for. And yall, I am so thankful that He can look at Judas with eyes of love because let me be clear here, I AM JUDAS. You are Judas. It might sound crazy, but I actually feel compassion for Judas. I have hated on him. We have hated on him. We speak his name like a curse word. We use it as a stab to someone who has betrayed us to call them “judas”. But I find it so interesting that Judas betrayed him with a kiss. Not with a slap. Not with a point. Not with a word. He betrayed him with an act that in any other situation one would view as LOVE. To the innocent bystander Judas was just giving Jesus a kiss on the cheek. What someone else might see as an act of love, only God could know was born of hate. And there have been moments like that in my own life. I have put on a show of humble devotion but really been seeking self-promotion or seeking to serve my own desires. We have all had those moments. The times in our lives when what we’re doing might seem innocent enough, but only God knows the heart. He knows when we are really acting from selfishness. He sees the person serving in ministry who really just wants to be seen. He sees the person being kind to someone for their own benefit. He sees it all. How many times have others looked at me and seen devotion or love but Jesus felt a stab in the back? It makes me sick. To think that i would care more about what others see when they look at me than what Jesus thinks when he sees me.
But praise God, the same loving heart that could still call Judas his friend, still calls us friend. Beyond all our mistakes and our failures, He still loves us. He still loved us enough to die to redeem our souls from the bondage of sin. And this verse that I have skimmed over so many times in the past gives me such a lesson (aka wake up call) on what friendship really is. This is the picture of grace. Long-suffering. Forgiveness.
I am ready to write someone off when they don’t text me back in a reasonable amount of time. You didn’t like my Facebook photo? you’re dead to me. Canceled a plan at the last minute? do I EVEN know you? But here is Jesus looking in to the eyes of someone he loved, who had just performed the ultimate betrayal and he still loved him. He still called him friend.
As I prayerfully prepare myself for what the next year will look like, I am asking for grace in every new friendship. In two short weeks I will find out who my teammates are. The five or six people I will be living, working, crying, laughing, serving, growing, pushing with. It goes without saying that there will be moments when we are exhausted and annoyed by each other. But those are the moments I am going to remember this lesson that my Jesus taught me about what a friend really is. And hopefully, only by His help, I will be able to love and support each of them in the way they need.
If you would like to help me put this lesson in to action on the mission field, with my team of fellow soldiers, please consider sponsoring me. Any amount is a huge blessing. All donations are tax-deductable. Committed monthly donations are also a great option available by clicking “Support Me’ on the left side of your screen. With your help I am surely chugging along to meet my goal of $20,000.
God is good y’all,
Stacie
