Mary
Iscariot's joy and excitement over the upcoming Passover feast is somewhat
dimmed when she realizes that her only son, Judas, will not be joining
her and her husband Simon for the traditional ceremonial feast.
As it happens, however, her friend Amashia's upper room is being reserved
for the teacher that they call Jesus and that they believe to be the Messiah.
Amashia
invites Mary to serve so she overhears Jesus' conversation and prediction
about his betrayal, but she never considers the fact that it might be
her own son. When he comes to her, distraught, after the betrayal
and arrest, she denies the truth of his confession of what he has done,
confident that her son would not betray their Lord. At her vehement
reaction, Judas rushes out, and soon after she receives the message of
his suicide. When she and her husband see their son's disemboweled
body, he rejects her as abruptly as she had rejected Judas, saying, "Woman,
you have failed as a mother. Your son has brought shame and disgrace
to my house."
After Simon hires a gentile to bury Judas so that he would not be defiled
by touching his son's dead body, he and Mary become recluses and strangers
in their own house. They do not talk or even eat together.
Both are in total withdrawal, but at least Simon keeps up a pretense of
normal activity, continuing to carry on his business. Mary does
not.
After
many rebuffs, Amashia is able to see Mary and to entice her with stories
about the young women they had been teaching at the Women's Court of the
temple. Mary hesitantly joins the group, veiled so she will not
be recognized. As she listens to Amashia's words about her inspired
teachings on motherhood and the importance of individual responsibility,
Mary begins for the first time to see she may not be responsible for Judas'
actions. As Amashia urges the young women to teach their children
responsibility and to hold them accountable, Mary sees that Judas had
made his own choices and that they were not her fault. The Judaic
tradition emphasized that the outcome of any adult male was the direct
result of his mother's training, but these women realize that even though
they were responsible for training their children, they were not responsible
for decisions made by those children.
Mary
finally begins building bridges both with the young women who had always
looked to her for guidance and with her husband. Being a part of
the growing number of Believers in Jerusalem, she is often filled with
the Spirit and expresses to the young women its message of freedom and
individual responsibility. She finally accepts the cleansing that
Jesus offered even to her, the mother of his betrayer. She understands
that the tragic events happened in order that every person might have
the opportunity for salvation. Mary Iscariot moves from pride to guilt,
from despair to redemption and steps out in faith as a teacher in her
time and a teacher for us today.
