The Last Days of Judas Iscariot: A Play

by Stephen Adly Guirgis

It’s not about joining a team or a church or choosing sides or learning a prayer. It’s not about man-made concepts of good and evil. It’s not about doing “enough” or “too little.” It’s not about shame and guilt. It’s about You. It’s about the collective Us.

The world tells me that God is in Heaven and that my son is in Hell. I tell the world the one true thing I know: If my son is in Hell, then there is no Heaven—because if my son sits in Hell, there is no God.

On the third day, I remembered how Jesus had said that God has the biggest love for the least of his creatures—and Judas was the leastest creature I had ever seen.

Your Honor, the only person who needs forgiveness is the one who doesn’t deserve it.

I think he was Jesus’s favorite too … Judas was almost an alter ego to Jesus—he was the shadow to Jesus’s light. He was the sour to the sweet and the cool to the warm. They often walked together, more often than not arguing—no one could get a rise out of Jesus like Judas could. I can remember times when Jesus emerged from an argument with Judas positively furious—shaking his head wildly, snorting, and clicking his teeth, red-faced with exasperation—and he would tell me what they had been fighting about—still agitated—but, inevitably, he would end up staring into space and sighing—smiling. I think that if someone were to say that Judas was good for Jesus that they would not be mistaken …

Jesus never talks about it. That’s how I know His heart hurts worse than mine.

He consorted with the Unclean, and women, and prostitutes. He performed Miracles on the Sabbath, He proclaimed himself Messiah! He forgave sin! Who was he to forgive sin?! Only God can do that! If that’s not crossing the line, then I don’t know what is!!

You hated your assignment, you hated Judea, and Mister Pilate, you hated Jews. Hated them. You hated the Jews because they contested you. You hated them because they fought back. You hated them because they clung to their religious beliefs and were willing to die for them. But most of all, I think, you hated them because you knew they were stronger than you. I think that bothered you a great deal. I think, Mister Pilate, that it made you resentful and vengeful and furious. I think it made you feel small and inadequate. I think it gave you skin irritations and nervous tics. I think it kept you up nights and made you count the days until you could return to the safe, bourgeois comfort of Rome.

I think that when Jesus was put before you, you did not see a God or a prophet, you did not see a lunatic or an innocent, you didn’t even see a human being. I think, Mister Pilate, that what you saw before you that morning was just one more Jew, and you didn’t hesitate. Why would you? … . … You didn’t wash your hands, Pontius Pilate—History did it for you. Isn’t that true?

SATAN: I love God because He is All-Powerful and All-Forgiving. I love God because his Justice is perfect. I love God because God loves me.

JESUS: Right now, I am in Fallujah. I am in Darfur. I am on Sixty-third and Park having dinner with Ellen Barkin and Ron Perelman … Right now, I’m on Lafayette and Astor waiting to hit you up for change so I can get high. I’m taking a walk through the Rose Garden with George Bush. I’m helping Donald Rumsfeld get a good night’s sleep … I was in that cave with Osama, and on that plane with Mohamed Atta … And what I want you to know is that your work has barely begun. And what I want you to trust is the efficacy of divine love if practiced consciously. And what I need you to believe is that if you hate who I love, you do not know me at all. And make no mistake, “Who I Love” is every last one. I am every last one. People ask of me: Where are you? Where are you? … Verily I ask of you to ask yourself: Where are you? Where are you?

JUDAS: … . . . Who’s that? JESUS: Is it ever anybody else, Judas?

JESUS: I have never gone away, Judas … Look at me. JUDAS does. I love you, Judas. And all I want—all I want—is to be not just near you—but with you.

And, you wanna know when you delivered your message differently? At the Temple, Jesus—that’s when. And you were beautiful there. And you left there three inches taller. And we all saw it. I loved you. That’s all I did. And that’s the truth. And now I’m here.

JUDAS spits in JESUS’s face. JUDAS: That’s what I think about you. JESUS doesn’t wipe it off. JESUS: I love you, Judas.

JUDAS: Why on my knees? They shoulda buried me standing up—’cuz I been on my knees my whole life! You left me.

JESUS: I’m right here. JUDAS: I would have never believed that you could have left me. JESUS: I never left you. JUDAS: That you didn’t love me. JESUS: I do love you. JUDAS: Why … didn’t you make me good enough … so that you could’ve loved me?

JUDAS: Where are you going?! JESUS: I’m right here. JUDAS: Don’t leave me! JESUS: I’m here. JUDAS: I can’t hurt … JESUS: I love you, Judas. JUDAS: I can’t … JESUS: Please stay. JUDAS: I can’t hurt … JESUS: Please love me, Judas. JUDAS: I can’t.

JESUS sighs, takes off his shirt, plunges it in the bucket, rinses it, and begins to wash JUDAS’s feet. JESUS washes meticulously and with care. He washes. And washes. Perhaps the water is mixed with tears. Lights fade. The end