I love to listen to music but I can also be oblivious in my listening. I can listen to a song a handful of times and even sing along to it without realizing what it is that I’m singing. And then when my brain finally registers the words, it’s like I’m listening to the song for the first time. A perfect example of this defect of mine was with the song…Baby It’s Cold Outside. They play this song so often during Christmas on the radio that it’s almost impossible not to hear and sing along to it; but when you really listen to the words, it’s actually about a man who’s trying to use alcohol, the cold weather, possibly even a roofie to pressure his date into not going home. I turn it off every time it comes on now.
This happens to me with music all the time but the song that stands out the most is one that mentions Judas’s Kiss. I used to drive to Dutchess Community College twice a week for evening classes when I was working on my Associate’s degree… and since I hate to drive alone, the radio would keep me company. I had listened to this song many times, but this particular time I was actually paying attention to the song’s lyrics, and when it got to the bridge, it utterly devastated me. Like I’m actually balling, crying in my car on Route 55 at a stop light.
The song is a single released on the album “These Simple Truths” by the Sidewalk Prophets. It was written in 2009 during a thunderstorm in a basement after one of the writers said to the others, “Sometimes I feel like Judas’s Kiss.” That statement inspired the bridge of the song which was the first part that was written. Because I’m not savvy when it comes to musical terms, I looked up what a bridge of a song is and according to google… it’s “the contrasting section of a song that typically follows the second chorus that provides a break from the repetitive nature of the verses and choruses. The bridge can also serve to connect the verses and chorus thematically and lyrically, sometimes offering a new perspective or a twist on the song’s story.”
The bridge of this song is what got me since I was very familiar with the song’s chorus that goes like this:
But You love me anyway
It’s like nothing in life
That I’ve ever known
Yes You love me anyway
Oh Lord, how You love me
We hear a lot about God’s grace at church. How forgiving, merciful, loving and kind God can be even though we don’t and can never deserve it. Colossian 1:21, 22 says this about grace: “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation (NIV).” We are reconciled by Christ’s physical body and not by anything we have done.
As we observe Holy Week, we hear or read about the events of the last week in Jesus’s life and if you are anything like me, you use your gift of hindsight and the testimonies given to us in the New Testament, to judge the disciples, the pharisees and even Judas for their shortcomings and their participation in the crucifixion of our savior Jesus Christ. Peter denies Jesus three times even after Jesus tells him in Matthew 26:34 “Truly I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times (NIV).” How many of us believe in our hearts that we would never do that? But do it every time that we put anything first above God. When we choose to watch a movie or a game instead of reading the word or praying because we don’t feel like it or are too tired. Or have we ever thought ourselves better than others but act like the Pharisees when we replace our judgment of sin above the gospel? In Matthew 7:3 Jesus says, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye (NIV).”
In the Message translation, Matthew 26 starting at verse 47 says:
The words were barely out of his mouth when Judas (the one from the 12) showed up, and with him a gang from the high priest and religious leaders brandishing swords and clubs. The betrayer had worked out a sign with them: “The one I kiss, that’s the one – seize him.” He went straight to Jesus, greeted him, “How are you, Rabbi?” and kissed him. Jesus said, “Friend, why this charade?” Then they came on him – grabbed him and roughed him up.”
Judas’s kiss is the symbol of ultimate betrayal. Judas was Jesus’ disciple and saw many “signs and wonders” during the three years he spent with him; from raising the dead, healing the blind, the lame the deaf to calming storms. Not hours before, Jesus washed Judas’s feet and shared the passover meal with him. Psalm 55:12-13 says, “If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were rising against me, I could hide. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship at the house of God, as we walked about among the worshipers (NIV).” How many of us have experienced this type of heartbreaking betrayal? Or have been the ones doing the betraying? How many of us have turned our backs on God because we were angry like Judas that he didn’t do what we expected or wanted him to do?
That day in my car, I felt convicted but also overwhelmed by God’s love because of the magnitude of His grace. I realized, as I listened to the song’s bridge, that I was as guilty and responsible as those who actually put Jesus on that cross because my sin was up there too.
I was the thorn in his crown
I was the sweat from His brow
I was the nail in His wrist
I was Judas’s kiss
I was the man who yelled out from the crowd
For His blood to be spilled on this earth shaking ground
But He loves me anyway and He loves you!