A Great Insight
For you will certainly carry out God’s purpose, however you act, but it makes a difference to you whether you serve like Judas or like John. (C.S. Lewis)
Good out of Evil
My God is the only one I know who can bring good fruit out of the evil acts of men.
Judas chose of his own free will to betray Jesus for money. At the same time, Jesus voluntarily chose to die on the cross. Our Savior knew his gruesome death would open up heaven for everyone who believed.
Here’s the saddest part. Judas could have repented and entered heaven. Peter did. The criminal crucified with Jesus did. The Lord’s sacrifice covered Judas’ sin too. But instead guilt overwhelmed him and he committed suicide.
A few days later the remaining apostles met Jesus alive again, in His new resurrected body.
The Unbelieving Apostle
I call Judas Iscariot the unbelieving apostle. Because he didn’t believe Jesus’s teaching on:
- Choosing to worship God instead of at money’s altar (Luke 16:13 NIV)
- God’s deep forgiveness of everyone’s sin. (Matthew 12:31 NIV)
- Traveling around, preaching repentance, healing people and casting out demons, Judas didn’t trust in Christ’s words about repentance for himself. (Mark 6:12-13 NIV)
Did Judas believe Jesus fulfilled the ancient prophesies about the Jewish Messiah? Here’s my opinion: I don’t think he cared. That’s not why Judas followed Christ.
Why did Judas Choose to Betray Jesus?
The catalyst for Judas’ betrayal seems to be when the woman anointed Jesus’ head with a very costly perfume in Matthew 26. That’s when the disciples got upset.
8 When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked.
9 “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.”
10 Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 11 The poor you will always have with you,[a] but you will not always have me. 12 When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. 13 Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”
Matthew 26:8-13 NIV)
The next three verses showed Judas making a deal with the chief priests to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.
Why?
As a thief in charge of the money bag (John 12:6), he felt cheated. All that wealth wasted—it should have been his!
I’ll bet the Lord’s rebuke stung too.
My Spiritual Point
In the end, I call Judas the unbelieving apostle. My pastor did a word search in the gospels and discovered Judas Iscariot only called Jesus Rabbi, meaning teacher. He never called Him Lord. Yet in Matthew 8, a centurion, two blind men and a leper all came to Jesus and called Him Lord when requesting healing.
Do you know what I think?
I think the only lord reigning in Judas Iscariot’s heart was himself.
Who’s reigning in yours?
The fisherman’s image comes from Pixabay.com.
