“Get On With It, Mate!”

Posted byBert Moritz & Pieter StokPosted inChristian Life, Church and Family, Evangelism, Faith, Family, History, Preaching, WorshipTags:, ,

Arent de Graaf. Trowel & Sword. March 1987

Preamble: Dates can be very restricting. Take Christmas for instance. In the weeks leading up to that particular day, churches, preachers and Christians tend to focus on the events leading up to the birth of Jesus. But once the celebrations are over, seldom does it rate a mention for the next eleven month until the whole process starts again the following Christmas. Likewise, with Easter. The same could be said for other important dates such as birthdays, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Labour Day, dare I say it, even Grand Final day. Today we break the mould. The following article was written as part of the lead-up to Easter; appearing in the March 1987 edition of T&S. We could have waited until March next year but instead we have chosen to publish it now, in September. The message is clear. Don’t allow a calendar to dictate when to talk about Jesus birth, life, death or resurrection, etc. Every day is a good day to think or speak about these things.

“Get On With It, Mate!”

Matthew 26: 49,50 Going…to Jesus, Judas said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed Him. Jesus replied, “Friend, do what you came for.”

Judas and Jesus were mates.

Three years they had shared everything: their food and their lodgings, their travels and their rest, parties at weddings and heckling at meetings. They had shared everything. So they were mates in the good sense of the word.

And now Jesus’ mate came to dob Him in.

It is awful enough when your enemy comes to destroy you. When he finds you at last to finish you off. When he has you in his sights and pulls the trigger. Or hands you over to the executioners who have no mercy…  And when your good mate is the one to dob you in to those enemies, would that not make him the worst of all enemies? Would you still call him “friend”, and mean it, too? Would you call him your mate who betrays you with a kiss?

Jesus did.

And I do not think that He was in the business of making words meaningless, like so many use “mate” without meaning friendship. Neither do I think that Jesus was being sarcastic here, either. We know that from the way Luke tells this story: “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” You of all people? You who know so much and shared so much?

O Judas! My mate!….A bit like: “Absalom, my son!”

The suffering of Jesus was made deeper and more bitter by His friends. The people whom He loved. The people who at times loved Him too, or so they thought. But their love was full of misunderstanding. They did not know or realise who He really was. They made him feel more alone than enemies would have done, just like one can feel more lonely in an unhappy marriage than when staying single. To have somebody very close who yet does not know who you really are, who yet does not communicate with you on that deep level of full understanding and acceptance.

And now our Lord goes through the agony of a divorce, when the one who shared with Him turns against Him. When the lover turns stranger. Some Greek manuscripts have a question mark here in the Matthew text. Then you would have to translate what the NIV text note has:

“‘Friend, why have you come?”

Why you of all people? You who have seen so much and shared so much? You who have been to church and been in office! You who have made your profession and said: “I will follow You wherever You go?” You who have married in church and sang the hymns with God’s people? Why have you come?

Was it Judas’ dreams that made him come in the first place? Dreams of earthly glory and of liberation for his nation? Dreams that turned sour when Jesus’ kingdom proved not of that kind? Why have you come now with that kiss? Because things did not go as you wanted?

Why have you come? He could ask you and me that, couldn’t He? What am I doing in the church? What am I seeking there? Just my dreams, or my expectations? A place to be safe, a circle of relatives and friends with whom I am comfortable? A social set-up that caters to my wishes? An environment that makes me feel snug, or just a platform for my voice and my ambitions?

But then when for Jesus there comes the cross due Him for my sins, am I still going to stay with Him, knowing that now I must repent and see myself through His holy eyes? Am I staying with Him then, when all I can do is lose my self-built self-respect and rely on mercy to see me through? Or am I then siding with His enemies saying: “He isn’t what I dreamed about Him?’

When He asks me not to find myself but to lose myself and carry a cross after Him, when self-denial and not self-realisation is the price I must pay? Yes, well may He ask of each one of us: “Friend, why have you come?”

“Judas..” He says. “My friend!”

And still there is love, because His love perseveres to the very end. He is not in the business of using words cheaply.

But Judas didn’t see it, did he? That is the tragedy of Judas. That he never really got to see that. If he had, and his tears later on would have been like those of Peter, he would have been singing now the very song of that great love of Jesus! Like Peter and Paul – denial and murder notwithstanding! – came to see it with wonder; “He still calls me friend!”

You see, that other translation that we have now in our NIV makes sense too, because that’s what we find in John 13:27 when Judas goes out into that night: “You may as well get on with it now.”

When Jesus says that here in Matthew he has just risen from his knees and the drops of sweat-turned-blood are still on His brow. He is ready now. He knows now.

There is no way but the way of the cross. To make the Way to God for the likes of Judas and Peter and Paul, the likes of you and me. He knows it now and sets His face towards that ordeal. Let’s not delay, let’s not dilly-dally:

“Get on with it, mate of Mine!”

Because I want to get on with it! I want to bear the burden of My people! I want to pay with my blood and the agony of My soul for the sins of My Church! I want to make them come from East and West; come into My peace! People who – to the question: “Why have you come?” would answer in deep tearful joy: “Because He drew me, and made me His by His blood!”

Judas never saw that. And Jesus who was a Friend to His friends, a true Mate if ever there was one, suffered under that. The doctrine of election was never for Him an easy cop-out that lets people drop off into hell un-mourned. He is like His Father who said centuries before that. I “do not want the death of the sinner!”

He was an enemy, this sinner, like we all were, but he remained one. Yet he too, had a part in the plan that was to make friends out of enemies of God. He was told to get on with it and he did. Because Jesus wanted to get on with it.

And – praise God! – He did.

Till he could say: “It is finished!”

Arent de Graaf

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