Episode Details

Betrayal is one of the deepest wounds we carry — and one of the hardest to understand, whether we’re the ones left asking “how could you?” or the ones who left someone else asking it of us. This week in our Faces of Our Faith series, Pastor Jeff turns to Judas Iscariot, the disciple whose name has become shorthand for treachery. But what if Judas wasn’t a villain who stopped believing in Jesus — what if he believed too much, in the wrong kind of power?

Drawing on Walter Wink’s distinction between “power over” and “power with,” this sermon reimagines Judas not as a mole planted from the start, but as a disciple who ran out of patience waiting for Jesus to seize power the way the world expects power to be seized — and who tried to force his hand. Along the way: a detour through The Empire Strikes Back, a hard look at how we all sometimes use Jesus to get what we want, and a word of grace for anyone who’s ever named Jesus “Lord” while quietly bargaining for something else.

Because the story doesn’t end with Jesus writing anyone off — not Judas, not Peter, not the twelve who scattered. It ends with a God who pours himself out instead of cashing anyone in.

Mark 14:1-2, 10-50