When you hear the name of Judas, what is your first reaction?
· He betrayed Jesus
· He sold Jesus to the Romans for thirty pieces of silver
· He’s a bad guy through and through.
Sometimes we’ll refer to a particularly nasty betrayer in our modern life as “a Judas.”
Have you heard the phrase, “Your name is mud.”? Well, that phrase is actually, “Your name is Mudd,” as in Dr. Samuel Mudd who gave medical help to John Wilkes Booth, who broke his leg while escaping after shooting President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Although Dr. Mudd was accused and investigated as being a conspirator of Booth’s in the assassination, it was a widely circumstantial case, and he was never found guilty.
Regardless, 160 years later the derogatory phrase based on the good doctor’s name is still in our American lexicon. And calling someone a Judas for purposely betraying some has now lasted over two thousand years.
I’m sure if you’re reading this essay, you know the story of Judas, but let’s do a short recap. He was one of Jesus’s Twelve Disciples – in his inner circle. He traveled all over with Jesus and the rest of the chosen, and he was given the job as being the group’s treasurer, ie, he was in charge of their money. When Jesus sent them out in pairs to the surrounding lands to preach and perform miracles, Judas was one of them.
But during the Last Supper, let’s read: (Mark 14:17-21): When evening came, Jesus arrived with the Twelve. While they were reclining at the table eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me – one who is eating with me. They were saddened, and one by one they said to him, “Surely you don’t mean me?” “It is one of the Twelve,” he replied, “one who dips bread into the bowl with me. The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.”
The fact that Jesus shared this admonishment with the attendees of his Last Supper means that he knew that one of his inner circle of Twelve Disciples would betray him. He knew this because it was God’s plan.
Because man stepped outside the will of God, His chosen people in the Old Testament made annual sacrifices of animals and fruits to atone for sin. These sacrifices ended with the “once and for all” sacrifice made by Jesus Christ when he freely allowed himself to be arrested, tried, convicted and put to death.
It's a big, magnificent, horrible, wonderful plan for a loving Father to make to secure salvation for all his earthly children. But one of the details of this big plan is to get the Roman soldiers in the right place at the right time to arrest Jesus.
Judas played that role.
He was preordained by God to play that treacherous role of betraying the Lord and Savior of the world, an act that would lead to Jesus’s death.
That brings up a couple questions for me:
Did Jesus know Judas would be the one? Jesus definitely knew one of the Twelve would betray him, based on what he told them at the Supper. But he did not tell them which one. In fact, the others were astounded and asked, “Surely you don’t mean me?”
But if we piece together clues in the gospels, we conclude that Jesus did indeed know that it would be Judas. Mark 14:20 (listed above) specifies that the one who betrays him will not only have broken bread with Jesus, but be “the one who dips bread into the bowl with me.” I’m sure you’ve seen the famous artistic recreation of The Last Supper by Leonardo DiVinci. Thirteen people attended the dinner, all sitting around a table. It wouldn’t have been likely that all of them would’ve dipped their bread in the bowl set near Jesus. Evidently Judas did.
Matthew goes a step further in his gospel. Let’s look at chapter 26 verse 25: Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said, “Surely you don’t mean me, Rabbi?” And Jesus answered, “You have said so.”
The gospel writer John also confirmed that Jesus knew not only that one of his disciples would betray him, but he knew it would be Judas. And going further, he’d known since his ministry had begun. John 6:64: For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him.
Did Judas know he would be the one? Judas was a faithful follower of Jesus for most of Jesus’s ministry. But ultimately, he betrayed Jesus which led to Jesus’s arrest, and subsequently, death. Why did Judas do it?
The immediate reason is he received money for the transaction (thirty pieces of silver). There are suggestions in the gospels that Judas was highly motivated by money. John 12:5-6 documents Judas’s words as, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.
Judas's potential motives for betraying Jesus have been widely debated, with some suggesting he may have been disillusioned with Jesus's peaceful message and was seeking a more forceful Messiah.
But I think the definitive answer to this question is, yes, Judas knew he would be the one. Why? Because he initiated the contact with the chief priests. Matthew 26: 14 says, Then one of the Twelve – the one called Judas Iscariot – went to the chief priests and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver. From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over.
Since Judas’s betrayal of Jesus was in God’s plan, did he have any choice in the matter? To answer this important question, I’m going to quote an expert! This is from Dr. Roger Barrier’s article, Did Judas Have a Choice, or Was He Predestined to Betray Jesus?
“Did Judas have any choice in the matter? It seems not. He could not avoid or change his destiny. He was foreordained to commit this brutal act. The moment Satan entered Judas the die was cast (Luke 22:3).
Now we come to the free will part. Once Judas had completed his ungodly mission, he was free to make things right with Jesus. Jesus died for Judas, too. You know that if Judas had fallen on his knees, repented and asked for forgiveness that Jesus would have welcomed him into the kingdom.
Peter also betrayed his relationship with Christ; but he is in Heaven's glory. Why? Because he returned to Christ and repented. The Bible says Peter not only felt shame and despair, he repented and asked for forgiveness.
The story of Judas is a paradox. He is the epitome of predestination along with its opposite, free will. He had to betray Jesus, but he was free to return to Christ if he had so wanted. Wouldn't that have made a great story of redemption and salvation!”
And with that, let’s pray: Dear Father, thank you for the amazing complexity of your Living Word, and your plan to redeem mankind through your son Jesus. Please continue to give us all the thirst for knowledge; for digging into the books of the Bible and learning more each time we read it. Illuminate the divine truths that you want us to see and help us to apply them into our own lives. Amen.
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