Bible Passage: Psalm 41:9
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: March 17, 2021

Bulletin Lent 5th Midweek

In the name of, and to eternal glory of, Jesus,

Without fail we come around to this point each Lent.  At some point we must deal with Judas in the Passion story of our Savior.  He is viewed as the “villian.”  The antagonist.  The bad guy.  He is both thief and traitor.  In Dante’s classic work, Inferno, Judas is placed in the deepest pit of hell.  Some will try to psychoanalyze him in an attempt to explain the inexplicable thing that he does.  What is it in a person that can be so horribly wrong that it would lead a friend to betray a friend to death?

It will not be our goal tonight to psychoanalyze Judas.  For that would be wasted time and love’s labor lost.  Rather, tonight we want to see Jesus.  We want to see Jesus as he speaks to us about Judas and what he does.  We want to see how it all was foretold and prophesied, you guessed it, in one of the psalms.  Tonight, we focus on that psalm verse that prophecies to us about A Friend’s Heel.

Our text comes to us from one of the songs David wrote.  We don’t know exactly when David wrote Psalm 41.  Based on the content of the psalm itself, it seems to come from a time in David’s life when his enemies were ganging up against him.  David says they are lying about him and wishing the worst for him.  And then in verse 9 David speaks about a close friend, a trusted friend, who turns on him.  David says this is a person who shared his bread.  This may not seem all that significant.  But at that time and in that culture, to break bread together was the highest demonstration of friendship and fellowship!

David describes what this close friend does to him with these words:  he…has lifted up his heel against me.  What does that mean?  To lift up the heel is to kick.  It seems to be a term taken from farming.  I remember when I was a boy and I went out to the farm where one of my friends lived.  When we went out to the barn he warned me not to get too close to the cows and horses when I was behind them because they might kick back with their hind legs.  It really scared me!  To this day I always remember that warning when I am around cows and horses.  David says a close friend of his kicks him out of nowhere!

We don’t know who exactly David was referring to; he doesn’t give us a name.  But for David, it might have been a man named Ahithophel.  Ahithophel was one of David’s top advisors.  His counsel was viewed as if it had come from an angel.  But Ahithophel turned on David.  When David’s son, Absalom, rebelled against his father and tried to gain the throne, Ahithophel went over to Absalom’s side.  For David it was a “kick in the teeth.”  David had “a friend with a heel.”

So did the Lord Jesus.  Judas Iscariot.  “Iscariot” means “man from Kerioth.”  Kerioth was a city in the border region between Judah and Edom.  We don’t know at what point Judas attached to Jesus, but he was there early on and it began as friendship.  Judas is even one of that special group whom Jesus hand-picked to be called “apostles,”  or “The Twelve.”  The disciples showed they trusted Judas by making him the keeper of the money bag, the treasurer.  Every day for nearly three years Judas had “table-fellowship” with the Lord Jesus, sharing his bread day after day!  A friend!  A friend, however, with a heel…

We don’t know exactly when things soured for Judas.  Scripture tells us Satan was working on him, even entered him.  We do know that Jesus scolded Judas after Mary had anointed Jesus with perfume.  Judas hypocritically remarked that the perfume should have been sold and the proceeds given to the poor.  Jesus called him out.  And it was right after this incident that Judas went to Jesus’ enemies and made the bargain to sell Jesus for thirty pieces of silver.  And this is exactly what Judas did.  History remembers the kiss of Judas that gave Jesus away.  Jesus calls it a kick in the head from a friend.

And right here is where minds race!  How could he?  How could he be so cold and cruel?  Even at the moment when Judas gave the identifying kiss/kick, Jesus calls him friend!  Friend, do what you came for. (Matthew 26:50)  But let’s forego the foray into psychology.  Let’s rather talk “depravity.”  Human depravity.  It’s a term we don’t hear much, not in polite society anyway.  We don’t speak of it much because to do so means we must talk of our deepest, darkest secret.  We must admit the true nature of man.  There is a depravity to us all.  A depravity of our nature that is capable of ANYTHING.  And yes, I mean ANYTHING.  Human depravity is on display everywhere!  Disconnectedness from God has brought out the worst in humanity!  In TV and movies and music.  On websites and apps and downloads.  It is in textbooks and school hallways and even at the highest levels of government.  Godlessness, violence, sensuality, everywhere!  It was on display in the Garden of Gethsemane in the “30-coin kiss.”  And it is on display in my sinful nature, too!  There is a depravity I must confess, that you must confess. There is something horribly wrong in me.  I have a heel!  And I kick against my God and I kick against my neighbor!

But thanks be to God we have a Friend with a heel, too.  Jesus.  It is interesting that the very first prophecy in the Bible about Jesus wants us to concentrate on his heel!  It is the prophecy of Genesis 3:15.  There it was said to Satan, the very same Satan who had worked so hard to get Adam and Eve, who worked so hard to get Judas:  I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will bruise his heel.  Isn’t that good news!  The fallen world, that lifts up its heel against God, is directed to the heel of Jesus!  And what is this we see?  He does not lift it up against me and you and kick us straight into hell!

We cannot miss that Jesus’ heel gets bitten.  He would have to suffer and die for human depravity.  Just imagine what that means.  Think of all that human depravity has done, is doing, and has yet to do.  Think how vile, how sleezy, how slimy human depravity is!  Now, think about Jesus doing it all.  Make you squirm?  Friends, that is what you are looking at when you see Jesus in agony on the cross.  There he has become for us the most depraved man ever.  But it was depravity put upon him.  It was our depravity!  It was depravity he welcomed.  He willingly took the bite from the devil on his heel.  Because by his death and rising, his heel crushed the devil’s head.

As a result, listen as Jesus leans in to speak to you!  Do you hear what he calls you?  I have called you friends. (John 15:15)  “Jesus, you do not hate me??  Jesus, you do not dislike me??  Jesus, you take me to be your – I can hardly say it! – your friend??”  Yes, dear friends, ‘tis true.  What a friend we have in Jesus!  Can we find a friend so faithful!  Eternal thanks to God that eternal life is ours because of a Friend’s heel!

Amen.

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