Judas: The Tale Of A Traitor

John’s gospel, chapter 13, tells us that Jesus gave Judas a morsel or piece of bread, most likely. Once Judas took it and ate it, Satan entered into him (John 13:26-27). This, to me is one of the most chilling verses in the Bible.

Unsaved friend, if you don’t have Jesus in your heart as Lord and Savior, you risk having Satan enter into you, too, and he may never leave you until you die. Don’t take the risk! Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved—today!

Judas then left the disciples, went to the chief priests, and received a group of soldiers (whether Jewish or Roman matters not) to arrest Jesus. They found Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane (compare Matthew 26:36 and Mark 14:32 with John 18:1-11) and arrested him. The next to last recorded words of Judas were “Hail, Master! (Matt. 26:49),” as he led these soldiers directly to Jesus before he kissed the Lord as a sign of recognition.

Then, at a time after the soldiers led Jesus away, Judas had a pang of remorse, as some say. Maybe the awful nature of what he had done finally caught up with him. Could it be, that Satan departed from him, as quickly as he had entered Judas just hours before? And, maybe for the first time ever, good solid guilt took its place instead of the giddiness, perhaps, of receiving free money? We may never know what exactly happened but one thing is for sure: he knew he had sinned, but he did the wrong things before the wrong people.

Judas went back to the chief priests—the ones who had given him the money in the first place—and told them “I have sinned!” But Judas did not try to find Jesus, nor did he appeal to God or confess to God. He only acknowledged he had sinned but that wasn’t enough. There was no sign of repentance or feeling truly sorry for his sins. He only was sorry that either he was caught or that things didn’t work out the way he had perhaps planned or hoped? Again, we may never know all the mind of Judas, but we have the record.

And that speaks for itself. Somewhere I remember a poem that went something like this:

Judas, sorry for his sins was not.

‘Twas only sorry he was caught!

Conclusion: These verses from the Gospels tell us everything we need to know about Judas. Not every preacher is a genuine believer and not every teacher or miracle worker is a true follower of the Lord. The emphasis on money—and being trusted with the group’s moneybag—should have spoken volumes about Judas but there is, sadly, no record this ever happened.

Judas could have done so much good, but he gave it up when he became a traitor. But if I don’t stand up for Jesus when I have the chance, I’m as much a traitor as Judas was.

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. http://www.lockman.org