What would have happened if Judas, after his betrayal, had not hanged himself, but a couple of days later had met Jesus for breakfast on the shore of the lake?! The author Albrecht Gralle sketches an intriguing scenario in order to illuminate the events of the Bible from an entirely different point of view.
Albrecht Gralle. Translated by Lilija Tenhāgena
Breakfast for a Betrayer
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Having heard of Jesus’ death sentence, torture, and execution, Judas, unable to take his own life, wandered about like a beaten dog.
At night he was sometimes heard screaming. He could not, simply could not, find rest; he constantly needed to keep moving. Even when he fell asleep for a moment, his arms and legs twitched, and it looked as though even in his dreams he continued his restless wanderings and tried to flee from himself.
After several days and nights of wandering, he came to the Sea of Gennesaret. In the light of the rising sun he saw fishermen in a boat on the lake, and in the morning mist a man on the shore who was waving to the fishermen in the boat and calling something to them.
Judas stopped and raised his hand to shield his eyes from the sun. The men in the boat seemed familiar. He could not make out their faces, but by his impulsive movements he recognized Simon.
Now Simon even pulled on his outer garment and threw himself into the water to swim to shore. The stranger on the shore must be a remarkable person, otherwise Simon would not have put on the impractical outer garment in order to swim to shore!
Judas stopped behind a tree on the shore, the kind that sometimes served the fishermen for tying up their boats. From there he carefully watched what was happening.
Perhaps go over there? No, better not. They would push him away, and even if they did not, there would be hatred in their eyes, and among them he would feel like an outcast.
Although it must be said that the other disciples, too, played no great roles in the whole chain of tragic events. When he arrived in the Garden of Gethsemane accompanied by soldiers, they took fright and all fled.
Of course, there is a difference between cold, calculated betrayal and a thoughtless act in a moment of despair.
But his betrayal had not been so coldly calculating at all. Yes, he had a weakness when it came to money, and he had always been the one who, with a cool head, brought the others back down to earth when they rose too far into spiritual heights. Very early on he had realized that with Jesus everything would head in the direction of a deadly conflict. Jesus knew it too. So then…
But he had not been able to imagine that Jesus, without any resistance whatsoever, would allow himself to be arrested and led away like a criminal. With a single wave of his hand Jesus could surely have commanded a legion of angels to drive the soldiers away like pesky gnats!
Judas had not reckoned with the fact that Jesus would not defend himself when the high priest interrogated him. He, of all people, who with a few words knew how to silence any opponent, remained silent. He could surely have convinced the high priest that he, Jesus, was the Messiah! Instead he allowed himself to be led away like an animal to the slaughter and nailed to the cross.
No, that Judas had not wanted at all! He really had not reckoned with a real death, with a crown of thorns, with blows, blood, pain, and torment.
Standing behind the tree, Judas watched the men pull the boat ashore and the nets nearly bursting from the great catch. Strange — this sight seemed so familiar to him, as if he had once seen it before…
That’s right, back at the very beginning, when the Master called the first disciples, he too had… But… no! It could not be! These characteristic hand movements, turning toward people… Exactly like that, Jesus…
Yes, he had heard the rumors that Jesus was said to be alive again, but he had only smiled bitterly at them. Again such a deluded idea, spread by people who cannot cope with reality and look at the world with naive eyes. The dead are dead. Unless God himself were to raise him, and…
Judas dug his nails into the bark of the tree. God in heaven, it really is HIM! No doubt about it! Such a familiar scene… A handful of men around the rabbi…
Look! The stranger and yet so well-known one has roasted fish over the fire. The way he divides the fish and the bread… It almost calls to mind the last shared meal…
And he is having breakfast with the men. So he cannot be a figment of the imagination, cannot be a lingering nighttime ghost that defies the sunrise. It really is HIM!
Incredible!…
But if it really is the Master himself, then… yes, perhaps then this betrayal was not so… No! No excuses! Cold-bloodedly he had betrayed Jesus and taken money for it, even though he later brought it back. Betrayal is and remains betrayal!
But what is this? The one standing on the shore turns this way and waves his hand! Judas looks back, but there is no one behind him. So Jesus has seen him and waved to him?! Now the others are also looking this way, as if the tree behind which he stands were made of glass.
Hesitating, he took a step and slowly approached those standing there. When he had come close enough to smell the roasted fish, the others recognized him, and he noticed how they froze. As if he were a dead man who had come out of the realm of the dead. That is exactly how he felt himself. The last days had been nothing but torment.
He heard whispers: „A vile betrayer… let him not show himself here!” But Jesus only looked at the disciples and began to write something in the sand — just as he had once done when the woman caught in adultery was dragged to him. And the men understood, remembered their own cowardice, and went back to the boat. They probably sensed that they were now in the way here.
Then Judas stood before Jesus with his eyes lowered.
„Judas, my friend,” he heard the inimitable voice. „So you came! Here, you shall have breakfast!”
Silence. Judas nodded and kept looking at the ground. Impossible now to raise his eyes and look the Master in the face.
„I… don’t want to eat.”
„Do you regret what you did?”
„I… do regret it,” he breathed out in a hoarse voice.
„Where are those who wanted to judge you?”
„They… they have gone.”
„Yes, they have gone, and the invisible stones have fallen from their hands. It seems that in life many things repeat themselves.”
Silence.
„Judas, look at me!” he asked quietly and insistently.
A moment passed before Judas dared to raise his eyes and look into the face of the man he had betrayed. In this face there was neither reproach nor a thirst for revenge. But he could not bear this gaze for long.
„I do not judge you,” said Jesus. „Your guilt is forgiven.”
„Forgiven?” Judas asked in return. „Just like that? Without punishment? Without my being able to do anything for the
good?”
„You have already done something, Judas. You repented, and you loathe your own betrayal.”
„But anyone would do that!”
„That may be, but it does not diminish the worth of your repentance.”
Judas said nothing. He needed to think about this turn of events. It came so quickly and unexpectedly!
„And do you really mean it… with that forgiveness?”
„Yes, I mean what I say. If I say yes, then I mean yes.”
Judas groaned quietly. At last he forced out the words: „There is no forgiveness for a man who has betrayed the Messiah! It is as if I had struck God himself in the face!”
„All sins and blasphemies are forgiven to people — in this world and the next.”
„Yes, but not the sin against the Holy Spirit,” Judas objected.
„If you had sinned against the Holy Spirit, then you would not be here now, and you would not be repenting of what you did, and you would not be longing for forgiveness.”
„Lord, my guilt is so great that I cannot accept your forgiveness! It is… it seems to me so cheap, so childish! I am sorry…”
„No, but I am truly sorry,” Jesus said gravely.
„Perhaps I need more time,” Judas said as he turned away.
As he left, he heard the Master’s voice: „Before you go, Judas, remember: it is not time that heals wounds, but your reliance on my forgiveness.”
As Judas slowly moved off along the shore, Jesus murmured to himself: „How hard it is for one who cannot accept a gift to enter the Kingdom of God! It would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle!”
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Scripture passages referenced by the story: John 21:1-14; John 8:1-11; Mark 3:28-29; Matthew 19:24
Original: Albrecht Gralle: Frühstück für Judas und andere fast unmögliche Geschichten.
© Oncken Verlag, Wuppertal und Kassel, 2000
The translation is published with the permission of the author and the publisher.
Veröffentlicht mit freundlicher Genehmigung des Autors und des Verlags.
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Illustration: By the Lake. Arta Skuja, 2026
