Judas was deeply troubled. His Lord didn’t seem to understand where he was going. He was all the prophets had said, and more! And yet, when the people wanted to make him king (John 6, see last month’s article), the Lord had refused his rightful crown. That had been the very moment when he could have seized on the fervor of the populace and electrified the whole nation into action!
That disastrous Passover time, one year ago, led Jesus not only to drive away many of his supporters in bitter disappointment, but ever since Jesus had talked more of dying than reigning! If only he could be persuaded to fulfill his destined Messianic role!
“When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said unto his disciples, Ye know that after two days is the feast of the Passover, and the Son of Man is betrayed to be crucified” (Mt. 26:1-2).
Judas had had enough. He had no choice now. He must act before another disaster destroyed altogether this movement to release Israel from Roman domination.
Why the betrayal
Why Judas wanted to betray his Lord has been the source of speculation. Some have suggested he did it for the love of money. Others think his jealousy moved him to betrayal. Perhaps it was a mixture of these.
There is another suggestion, however, that has a consistency that rings true: Judas, being himself bitterly disappointed with Jesus’ first refusal of the crown (and with it the kingdoms of this world), betrayed his Lord in order to force him into an open declaration of his kingship and power. If Jesus would not willingly take the “right” path, Judas would make him take it.
Not only is this motive a consistent extension of the crisis recorded in John 6, but Judas also unknowingly fulfills the role of the wilderness adversary in reinacting the second and third temptations all over again (see Lk. 4:13). Finally, it is consistent with the reactions of faithless men to unfulfilled promises of God: They take the responsibility for fulfillment into their own hands, devising fleshly stratagems foreign to the purpose of God.
Tension
There is a noticeable tension between Judas and Jesus during this last week. Judas must have been very conscious of Jesus’ remarks about a betrayer. His dispute with Jesus over Mary’s waste of precious ointment served only to bring the matter to a head (Matt. 26:6-14; Jn. 12:3-8).
What was Judas thinking as he slipped out to make his seemingly ruthless deal with the rulers? Did he feel he had no other course open to him? “If betrayal will set this man on the right path, then betrayal it will be!”
“Then entered Satan into Judas… And he went his way, and communed with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray him unto them. And they were glad, and covenanted to give him money. And he promised, and sought opportunity to betray him unto them in the absence of the multitude” (Lk. 22:3-6).
The last meal
Recorded in chapter 13, John provides the most intimate account of the betrayal.
As the disciples sat together at that last meal, Jesus reached out to Judas one last time with a token of friendship. As their eyes met, many an unspoken word must have passed. Whatever Judas saw in the searching look of his Master we cannot know, but for Judas, the moment of decision had come: “And after the sop Satan entered into him” (in. 13:27).
Jesus saw that terrible moment when the sin of betrayal became master of Judas’ heart. Every line in Judas’ face revealed his rapidly hardening heart. Reclamation was no longer possible. The power of darkness and evil was now in control. “That thou doest., do quickly!”
And with a word, Judas suddenly rises and leaves his Master’s presence into the darkness of that night.
The betrayal
Judas knew exactly where to find Jesus. Jesus had often resorted to the garden beyond the brook Kidron. So, fortified with soldiers from the chief priest and Pharisees, he came to Jesus.
“Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he. And Judas also, which betrayed him stood with them” (Jn. 18:4-5).
How ironical the words! Judas, having walked in the counsel of the ungodly, now stood with the sinners. Perhaps this at least is to Judas’ credit that he never sat in the seat of the scornful as the chief witness against the man he had just betrayed.
The end
The outcome of Judas’ betrayal and his final end is pieced together in Matthew.
“Now the chief priests, and elders, and all the council, sought false witness against Jesus, to put him to death; but found none. Yea though many false witnesses came, yet found they none” (Matt. 26:59-60).
They found none? How could this be? Would these men arrest Jesus if they didn’t have the required witnesses all set to accuse him? Would they have threatened their whole flimsy case against him by leaving out this vital link? What had gone wrong? Where was their key false witness?
We may not be able to answer these questions conclusively, but Judas’ conspicuous absence from these proceedings is remarkable. Why wasn’t the man with the damning inside information there? Would not the witness of Judas have cinched the case beyond any cavil?
The evidence builds that Judas had no intention of following through with the evil scheme of these evil men. Indeed, the final piece of evidence is hard to put aside:
“Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he (Jesus) was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood” (Matt. 27:3-4).
Why this great concern for Jesus? If all he really wanted was quick and easy money — what would he care? Besides, Judas knew all along Jesus was innocent of the charges, so why now the concern? Finally, why the repentance when Judas discovered his actions had actually contributed to the condemnation of Jesus? Had something gone terribly, horribly wrong with all his well-laid plans? Was the man whom he wanted to be king, now going to be violently removed from this role after all?
Whatever the true explanation, all was now forever lost. Judas could see only one path left open to him: “And he departed, and went and hanged himself” (Matt. 27:5).
Lesson of the uncommitted disciple
Judas never was committed. He was never prepared to follow Jesus wherever Jesus might lead. Rather, he kept his own goals and tried to shape Jesus accordingly. When he found Jesus would not yield to his pattern, when Jesus would not go his way, Judas went his own way, alone.
A true disciple doesn’t shape his master to suit himself; he is shaped by his master. A true disciple does not lead his Lord; he follows, ever seeking to imitate the one who knows better (cf. Matt. 16:21-26).
Acts 1:25 sums up Judas’ whole life: “That he might go to his own place.” Judas had always been going to his own place, never to his Master’s. Every earnest disciple ought to ponder well this thought.
The path of failure
Could we betray Jesus? If we found Jesus leading us in a direction that we hadn’t expected, not leading us where we had wanted to go, could we turn away in our heart and become a subversive force among our brethren? Judas did, but it did not happen all at once. His downhill path to failure was at first a slow one — one of which he may not have been aware.
It began when he discovered that the directions he and Jesus were going were not the same. Then, instead of sitting at his Master’s feet to learn of this better way, he became a source of grumbling, complaining and discontent. Next, with his hands in the money bag, he became a disciple who was untrustworthy in little things. Finally, he graduated into faithlessness in a major way — selling the life of his own Lord and Master.
The danger for ourselves
This slow, downhill path can easily become our own path. It begins with a dissatisfaction with our lot as a brother or sister in Christ or a dissatisfaction with the ecclesia or with the course of our life: “It just isn’t what I thought it would be! My life isn’t going where I thought it would go! What Jesus wants of me just doesn’t have the appeal any more that it once did. The excitement is gone. The way is weary and tiring.”
Then comes the grumbling: grumbling about other disciples (“they think they are so holy”), grumbling about the things they (or the ecclesia) do, grumbling about the hard demands of Jesus’ way of life.
Faithlessness in little things follows quickly in the wake of discontent — ecclesial duties are neglected; the commands of the Master are compromised; we start using our association with the brethren for material gain.
Inevitably, this path rushes headlong into faithlessness in major areas; frequent forsaking of the Lord’s table, dereliction in ecclesial duties, outright strife and quarreling, infidelity.
Then there is the final step — departure from the faith, an outright rejection of one’s own Lord and Master, a departure into the oblivion of spiritual suicide.
Is it I?
These lessons from the life of Judas are sobering. “Lord, is it I?” No fate is ever sealed until one makes that final, dreadful, suicidal choice. Even betrayal can be forgiven if we have the courage to return to our Master, at last to follow him.
“And I looked and lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred and forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads. And they sung as it were a new song before the throne and before the four beasts, and the elders: no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth” (Rev 14:1-4).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One