Sin … Betrayal
Sin … Betrayal¹
On the occasion of Holy Week and our remembrance of the betrayal of Judas, we want to say that sin in general is betrayal, whatever this sin may be.
And every sinful person is a person who betrays God… for the sinful person betrays the love of God, betrays the compassionate heart of God, and betrays the relationship of affection that binds him to God.
God considered us His children, and in sin we betray this fatherhood… and God considered the Church His bride, and in sin we betray this heavenly Bridegroom.
And God has overwhelmed us with His compassion, His love, His kindness, and His goodness toward us… and in sin we betray the goodness of God, being ungrateful and denying the compassionate hand that extended to help us, saved us, and was good to us.
And in sin we become betrayers of the covenants and promises that God gave us and that we had previously pledged to God. And how many promises we gave to God in times of our distress, in prayers and supplications during which we pledged much, and then we betrayed these promises in the hour of sin.
We betray the promises which God promised us in baptism, that we would renounce Satan and live in complete faith in God.
We betray the promises which God promised us in every Communion, and in every confession in which we promised God repentance, not returning to sin, and remaining steadfast in the life of righteousness; and in our sin we betray these covenants which we had previously pledged to God.
In the state of sin we betray God because we thereby join His enemies… the devil… we join the world and the flesh… and the love of the world is enmity with God.
We betray God by joining His enemies, we betray His Body and Blood when we have received this holy mystery, and we betray His holy house which we have entered.
God brought us into His house with all love, and we betray this house even while being in it. We are in His house and our hearts are not in His house, like Simon the Pharisee who was present with Christ while he was thinking wrong thoughts and judging Him in his heart.
Because of all these betrayals He asked us to be faithful: “Be faithful until death and I will give you the crown of life.”
God asks us to be faithful, and we betray this trust… and in contrast, our Lord in His promises and His love is faithful in His relationship with us, we who betray God because our hearts are not steadfast… hearts that shake with every wind, shake with every whim and every desire, and we do not have steadfast faithful love in God.
And God looks at our betrayal and is affected and patient; we must return, leave betrayal, and come back faithful to the divine loving Being.
Our sin is considered betrayal because it comes from children… from sons… from a flock… from loved ones; if this sin came from enemies it would not be considered betrayal but resistance or warfare or opposition… but betrayal is the sin that comes from children, and then He reproaches and says… “I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against Me…”
And betrayal when it comes from enemies is natural… when idol worshipers resisted God, this was something natural, and when the devil resisted God this was also something natural, and likewise when atheists resist God, this is something natural.
All this is resistance… but when resistance comes from the children of God, this is a difficult betrayal, and when the kindnesses of God are many and we betray them, then the betrayal is more difficult. And Scripture says: “He who ate My bread has lifted up his heel against Me.”
God always pours out His compassion, His tenderness, His providence, His grace, His protection, and His help for people, and despite that He finds people always betraying!
Sin is truly betrayal that was not expected.
And when we trace sin we find it so… take for example the sin of Adam and Eve. Many have spoken about it, but in it there is betrayal… imagine God having given them everything, creating them in His image and likeness in the best and most beautiful form, making them kings over the garden, and saying to them… rule this garden with all the wild animals, the fish of the sea, and the birds of the sky… and placing them in Paradise and a garden; and despite that, what happened?
Human betrayal and disobedience to God appeared, and forgetting all His goodness upon them in spite of God’s love and kindness. All the good they forgot and betrayed Him, not remembering God’s love. And like Demas, about whom Paul the Apostle said, “Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world”… and this Demas was one whom Paul made one of his helpers and coworkers in preaching; Paul used to say about him “beloved Demas,” and afterwards he says… “Demas has forsaken me,” and it is said that he worshiped idols after his faith. It is betrayal from Demas.
And take for example the wife of Lot… the angel of God saved her from the burning of Sodom and sent an angel who took her by her hands and went out with her with great compassion from the land of Sodom… what was the result? She betrayed God, she looked back, she longed for sinful Sodom while the angel was still holding her hands! Her heart was betraying God.
And also those people of whom Scripture said… they began in the Spirit and ended in the flesh… they began in the Spirit and formed a relationship with God for a time, and after living they returned and betrayed Him and finished in the flesh, and therefore God’s words about these betrayers were severe.
And look at what He says: Hebrews chapter six: “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the world to come, and then have fallen away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.”
Imagine God having treated these people with utmost compassion and generosity and grace… He enlightened them and gave them the heavenly gift to taste… and gave them the good Word of God to delight in, and made them partakers of the Holy Spirit, and gave them the powers of the world to come, and despite that they returned and put Him to shame, and left God and betrayed Him.
And because of that also God returns and speaks about those who betrayed Him and says on the tongue of Paul: “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.”
If we sin willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth… after having known Him and walked with Him… then this is grave betrayal… how can we betray God after knowing Him?
Perhaps there is an excuse for those who did not know God… but those who knew Him, tasted Him, experienced the Church, the sacraments, the divine graces, the spiritual life, prayer, contemplation, experienced clinging to God, experienced the good Word of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit… these people, if they betray Him and abandon Him and join His enemies, their sin is terrifying and severe… and so Christ says: “Whoever denies Me before people, I will also deny before My Father and His angels.”
Those whom God entrusted with His temple and they defiled it, and entrusted them with His house and they made it a den of thieves… and entrusted them with a ministry and they attributed it to themselves… this is the betrayal of God.
The Lord Christ experienced the betrayal of many; once, while He was speaking about partaking of His Body and Blood, Scripture says: “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. Then Jesus said to the twelve, ‘Do you also want to go away?’”
They walked with Him then turned back and no longer walked with Him; He knew the betrayal of people, He knew that the time would come when each one would go to his own and leave Him alone.
Therefore Scripture considers anyone who turns away from the path of God after knowing Him a betrayer.
A mistake from a friend is considered betrayal, but from an enemy is enmity; and because of this Scripture says… Israel betrayed the Lord and worshiped other gods.
This means that when a person leaves the Lord, the other gods may be money… the flesh… the desires, and this is betrayal.
The person who betrays God places himself with Judas in the same rank, and we often blame Judas because he sold his Master and betrayed Him, but how many betrayers like Judas!
Judas is merely a symbol… merely an example and an image among the corrupt images that express many.
And if sin is betrayal, then let us fear sin; sin is not merely a fall… it is betrayal. Betrayal of the loving heart of God… betrayal of the beautiful past we spent with God.
Is it permissible after God has considered us among His friends, counted us among His beloved ones, among His children and His flock and His own… is it permissible that we return and turn away again?
Turning away in the relationship with God is a type of betrayal…
The angels say among themselves: “Where is that friend who used to pray and worship and partake and live the life of holy obedience… he has returned and betrayed God and left His way.”
They look at the sinner as a betraying person who has left fellowship with God.
In the Old Testament and New Testament there are many examples of this type of people who had gifts and then returned and betrayed God. Scripture speaks about the betrayal of Balaam who was gifted and had prophecy and prophesied about Christ; God gave him gifts and said about him… Balaam who sees the visions of the Almighty.
He is a man whose eyes were opened, who sees the visions of the Almighty, and despite that he betrayed God for material gain and left God and became an example of error that misleads many.
God reproaches the betraying humans and says:
“O son of man, make Jerusalem know her abominations. Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth are from the land of Canaan… As for your birth, on the day you were born… no eye pitied you… But I passed by you and saw you struggling in your blood, and I said to you, ‘Live in your blood’… I said to you, ‘Live in your blood.’ I made you flourish like a plant in the field, and you grew and became tall and reached the ornaments of ornaments… you were naked and bare. And I passed by you and saw you, and behold, your time was the time of love; so I spread My skirt over you and covered your nakedness, and I swore to you and entered into a covenant with you, says the Lord God, and you became Mine. I washed you with water, cleansed your blood from you, anointed you with oil, clothed you with embroidered cloth… adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your hands and a necklace on your neck…” It is God’s reproach to the betrayers.
The human soul is like this—God repairs it, raises it, works all good for it, and it remains in its betrayal; if it feels strength in itself it goes far from God, and if it feels grace around it, it goes far from God… it is a betraying soul.
Let us, as we remember these betrayals, return to God once more… that He may have mercy on us and grant us faithfulness and loyalty.
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Article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III published in Watani newspaper on 15-4-1973
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