With Resurrection Day having just passed a few weeks ago, I have had time to reflect on the role Judas Iscariot played in the story of our redemption. Judas heard all of Jesus’s sermons. Judas saw all of Jesus’s miracles! Yet Judas betrayed Him. How could he? How does this make sense? Let’s start by reading what happened…

⁴⁷While he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. ⁴⁸Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man; seize him.” ⁴⁹And he came up to Jesus at once and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” And he kissed him. ⁵⁰Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you came to do.” Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him. ⁵¹And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. ⁵²Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. ⁵³Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? ⁵⁴But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” ⁵⁵At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. ⁵⁶But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left him and fled.

♱ Matthew 26:47-56 ♱

The betrayal of our innocent Savior God by one of His own creatures presents one of the most amazing anomalies of all human history. Apart from God using His sovereign will to utilize Judas’s depravity, we would be at a loss to explain the vile, inexcusable treachery he demonstrated that day. Let’s break this down…

How could anyone in their right mind betray the One they saw perform all those miracles and listened to all those profound sermons, the One he knew as the coming Messiah!? The simple yet uncomfortable answer is this: because God willed it to be that way. Jesus’s mission wasn’t to come and stay, ignoring the debt each of us owes for the treachery we bestow on others every day. We’d still be dead in our sins, destined to spend eternity in hell. Blood still had to be spilled to pay the debt for those sins. So God willed it that Judas would be the one to hand His Son over to the authorities for His eventual execution as that payment.

But none of that answers what we all want to know. How did Judas feel after they seized Jesus? What went through Judas’s mind when Jesus said to him, ⁵⁰“Friend, do what you came to do”⁠, knowing He already knew what Judas had done before it happened? No doubt that statement came with a scalding sting. No doubt Judas’s guilt overwhelmed him.

But believe it or not, betraying the Son of God wasn’t Judas’s biggest mistake in his life. Matthew 27:3-5 says, “³Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, ⁴saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” They said, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.” ⁵And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself.” Judas’s guilt utterly crushed him. He literally couldn’t live with himself so he did what, in his debilitated state of mind, the only thing he could think to do; he took his own life. But that’s only part of the tragedy. The real tragedy of Judas’s story is that he died not having asked the very Savior he betrayed, the only One who could have forgiven him, for forgiveness for that betrayal.

Now, here’s the gut-punch none of us can avoid: we are all Judas Iscariot! We all betray, disobey and deny our Savior, Christ Jesus, every single day! But our stories don’t have to end as that of Judas. Until our dying breath, we can believe in God’s Son as our redeemer and our Savior. None of us are promised tomorrow. We aren’t even promised our next breath. There is no time like the present to pray and ask God for forgiveness, commit to the faith God offers and to live within a community of faith to be able to grow into the disciple He wants you to be.

If you’re ready to make that commitment and don’t know where to begin, email me and I will help you. 🙏🏻 ☧