Handed Over

As soon as Matthew mentions Judas as the one who will “betray” or “hand over” ( paradidomi ) Jesus (10:4), he records a fair bit about handing over and betrayal.  Often, Jesus warns that the disciples will be handed over (10:17, 19, 21; 24:9-10), but after chapter 17, the one “handed over” is often Jesus Himself (17:22l 20:18-19).

In chapter 26-27, Matthew uses the verb twelve times, sometimes to describe what Judas does in betraying Jesus, sometimes to describe what the Jews do in delivering Jesus to Pilate.  Judas’ betrayal is representative of the twelvefold betrayal of Israel as a whole, the Jews, the Judeans, the nation of Judases.

The irony of the priests’ and elders’ denial of responsibility for Jesus is heightened by the use of the word in 27:2-4.  Matthew tells us that the Jews “handed Him” to Pilate; Judas, who “handed Him over” confesses wrong; the Jews, however, act as if they never heard of Jesus (v. 4), even though a few verses before Matthew tells us that they did just what Judas did – handed him over.

In this, the Jews are paradigmatic of humanity as a whole.  Yahweh came to Israel, and Israel found Him too disruptive and demanding, so they handed Him over to the Gentiles.  But we’d be fooling ourselves if we thought the process ended with Pilate.  Pilate wants to hand Jesus back, hand Him off, get Him off the docket.

And so do we.  Our betrayals of Jesus are all of the same sort: He embarrasses us, He demands that we take the cross, He refuses to play by the power games of the world.  So we unload Him whenever we can.  He is a burden too heavy to bear, a fire of love burning too hot for us to handle.  We have only two choices: Cling to Him and be consumed with Him, or hand Him over before we get burned.