Preparing For Easter: Judas Iscariot, The Traitor

I can only imagine the roller coaster of emotions Judas went through at this time. He may have felt good at making a bargain earlier, the life of Jesus for a month’s pay (and if that’s enough to make me sell out an innocent person, then I’m cheaper than anything you can get) but now he’s feeling remorse. He’s not the only one: Cain felt some remorse when God approached him regarding the death of Abel, his own brother. Cain, though, never repented, so far as we can tell, and likely went to Hell when he died. Saul had remorse when David spared his life, but never stopped trying to kill David, either. And we could list others. The two things all of these folks, and I dare say every human being who’s ever lived, is that we do wrong, we feel remorse (could that be our conscience talking to us?), but some do nothing about it. That’s the problem.

And Judas had that problem, now, because he felt remorse over betraying Jesus. No need to guess what he thought would happen or not happen, he realized he had done wrong. His conscience, or what was left of it, was speaking to him.

But nothing ever came of it. Nothing, that is, except he went back to the elders and chief priests and said, “I’ve sinned by betraying innocent blood”. Fair enough, I suppose, but notice he never named Jesus as the One Whom he had betrayed! The response from these leaders, though, was even colder than the night air: “That’s your problem, not ours. Take care of it yourself!”

The irony is that Judas could have done that very thing! If he had gone to Jesus and asked for forgiveness, mercy, anything, Jesus would have done it! But Judas, for whatever reason, decided to take his own life. I won’t go into anything further, except that suicides usually create more problems than they solve. I remember years ago a person in our neighborhood killed himself and left a note saying “All my problems are over now”. Someone in his family said, “That may be true, but ours are just getting started.”

So what does all of this mean? There are people, and always have been, who hate those who do good and live for God. Finding someone, anyone, to be a traitor and ruin the lives of those who do good is one of their favorite tactics. Oh, sure, the world promises money, fame, self-esteem, glory, you name it, if you do their things their way.

But is the reward worth it? Even Martin Luther wrote in one of his works that there is no feeling of loneliness as that felt by a traitor. He’s betrayed his friends, and sold out to those who hate him and those he betrayed. Useful for a moment, then useless after the deed is done, is about all any traitor has to look forward to.

What does this mean for me? In a sentence, if I don’t stay true to Jesus, or if I sell out for anything the world has to offer, then I’m a worse traitor than Judas ever dreamed of being.

Don’t be a Judas!

Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Version of the Bible (NASV)

Moffatt: The Bible: A New Translation. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1935