There are Three Sides to Every Story

As we near Easter I hear the Easter story everywhere. In church, in my devotions, on the radio, etc. This is a story I am very familiar with. Growing up in a Christian home I heard it dozens of times every year. I even taught it in all my English classes while I was teaching abroad. Like many great stories it is one of good vs evil with a hero and villains. But recently I have started to look at it differently. Most of my life Satan has been appointed as the villain, and his minions include the Pharisees, Judas, and the mob crying “crucify him”. Now, Satan is certainly a major villain in the story as a whole. I mean, he rebelled against God and took a third of heaven with him. He deceived Eve in the garden leading to sin entering the world. And he does whatever he can to draw us away from God. But in the Easter story, Christ’s sacrifice is what defeated sin and death and redeemed us to a right relationship with God. That doesn’t sound like something Satan would have wanted it. Over the years I’ve heard songs and seen movies depicting Satan as a kind of puppet master orchestrating Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion. And then he’s surprised when Jesus is raised from the dead. But that just doesn’t make sense to me. I would think that he probably knew what was going on and wasn’t happy about it.

And then there is Judas. There’s no question that what he did was wrong. Going behind Jesus’ back. Taking payment for betraying Jesus. And Jesus himself said it would have been better if he were never born. We also know that he had some major character defects because he was in charge of the money and would often steal from it. But consider this, what if he thought he was doing the right thing. I’m sure in the beginning he was excited about being called to follow Jesus and witness the miraculous things he was doing. But Jesus had become quite the rebel, a liberal upstart even. He was continuously going up against the leaders and the Law. Maybe Judas thought Jesus had just gone too far and needed to be stopped before people started getting hurt. I have seen people go to great lengths based on a lie that they genuinely believed to be right. They bought into something and their conscience couldn’t help but act upon it. I’m not quite convinced that Judas could have sat there as Jesus washed his feet if he didn’t think what he was about to do was right. Maybe he didn’t even think it would go as far as it did. God’s plan would have gone on with or without a traitor, so it would have been better if Judas was never born because now he is forever known as the betrayer of Jesus.

So, is there a point to this? Not really. Maybe just that sometimes the terrible things that happen have a righteous purpose and we’ll be better off after going through it. And that if someone you love hurts you maybe it’s because they are suffering and began to believe a lie. A person trapped in trauma can’t be expected to be able to see clearly. Let’s pray for their healing and receive healing from the hurt we’ve experienced.

Peace!