Francis Machingura
The Judas Iscariot episode in the Zimbabwean
Religio-Political debate of “selling out”
Introduction
The concept of “selling out”, although having its background in the
world of the Bible, that is, the gospels, has created a fertile ground in the
contemporary religious, social, economic and political environment of
Zimbabwe. However, the vocabulary of ‘selling out’ (Mutengesi in Shona
or Umthengisi in Ndebele) dates back to the struggle for the liberation of
Zimbabwe where the concept of ‘selling out’ was used and is still used
for political mobilization as well as justification of politically motivated
violence against opponents. This includes physically and psychologically
“subtracting” opponents from either the religious or political scene.
Besides the concept of ‘selling out’ having a political background, the
present Zimbabwean political leadership has found the biblical character
of Judas Iscariot, a willing pony in their fight and bid to close up any
political space. People who politically do not subscribe to their ideas and
policies are stereotyped as ‘sell outs’. Yet the role that was played by
Judas Iscariot in the Messiahship of Jesus (Mk 14; Mat 26-27; Lk 22 and
Acts 1:18-19) cannot be overlooked, considering that ‘had Judas not be-
trayed Jesus, all the volumes of heroic narratives, books and articles
about Jesus would not have been there’. Jesus occupies a special and
important place in the major religions like Judaism, Christianity and
Islam due to the facilitative role played by Judas. As much as Jesus is
accorded that place the same must be done to Judas Iscariot as he fun-
damentally played a theological role in betraying Jesus. Even if Judas had
not betrayed Jesus, someone still had to do it and in this case Judas was
there to play the role of a facilitator in the Messiahship of Jesus.
Since Judas Iscariot did something so critical and necessary for Jesus’
mission, why is he reviled? Why isn’t he also a saint like the other disci-
ples of Jesus?^1 If Judas was the disciple of Jesus, he could have loved
Jesus as much as other disciples; so wasn’t his job as much harder than
Peter and others considering that the power of prophecy was in support
(^1) A Cline, Judas Iscariot: Profile and Biography of Judas Iscariot, http://atheism.about.com
/od/bible peoplenewtestament/p/JudasIscariot.htm, accessed 21 March 2010.