Weekly requests poured in by mail asking for legal permission to quote and use an author’s writing material. One day a request came, like many previously, asking for permission to use some published work. The sender, from Houston, Texas, was asking if she could use the author’s material as she worked with “at-risk kids.” The author fired off a note giving legal permission and requesting her to submit a report of her activities. Later that same day, as the author was writing, she realized she had slipped into the pattern of living at the transactional level of life, and failed to live at the transformational level of life. The author then wrote a note to herself to call the recipient of her permission to use material and see how she was doing in her ministry. 1
Daily, we Christians live at the transactional level of Christianity and many times fail to get to the transformational level. Starbucks coffee, please. Mocha, 2% milk, no whip. Transaction, Yes! Transformation, No!
Listening to a daughter grouse about the immaturity of another girl her age, a dad is compelled to “correct the daughter” with words of criticism, indicating that she was insensitive and uncaring. Later Dad would find out how his words had cut deep into a little girl’s soul - spilling blood. Transaction, Yes! Transformation, No!
An employer is frustrated with an employee. Out comes the big club of authority. They immediately fire off a series of questions in an e-mail. Concerned about the employee? Not really. Just interested in seeing if the employee can legitimize their actions and conduct; demanding that changes be made or privileges would be removed. Transaction, yes! Transformation, No!
Transactions are literal. They happen everyday in thousands of ways. Transactions are easy to spot because they are empty of elements of transformation. Jesus sought and taught transformation, not transaction.
The real joy of writing and preaching this material on Judas is that it works on me as I work on it! As we consider the value of Judas’ life as an apostle, a thinking person would ask, “Why did Judas sell out Jesus Christ?” My guess is that the following issues were present in Judas’ heart:
1. Perhaps the securities and exchange investigation about the legitimacy of the apostles’ books was getting too close. Judas had been guilty of embezzlement on several occasions.
The one that Jesus loved, John, would point out this fact 60 years later in the Gospel that bears his name. At the time, Judas had all the disciples fooled.
5“Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” 6He 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. (John 12:5-6)
Transaction, Yes! Transformation, No! Judas lived his entire life with Jesus on the Transactional Level and never made it to the Transformational Level. It is the only reason that makes sense as to why he failed to change.
2. As an outsider, I wonder if Judas was constantly concerned about where he stood in the pecking order. Those whose order is slipping often look for opportunities to knock someone else off their place. The result? Immediate transaction of elevation - importance. “Look at what I am doing. Putting others in their place is so valuable to God.” Judas may have been reacting to some imagined slight by the others. Transaction, Yes! Transformation, No!
3. Maybe Judas thought nobody was noticing the importance of his role as treasurer. The solution? Force someone’s hand, then you get noticed. It is possible that Judas got fed up with the fact that Jesus wasn’t doing it the way he had expected. Of course, who would know better than Judas how to run the show?
He was with Jesus a mere three years,
Successfully completed a few evangelistic campaigns,
Put some budgets together as the treasurer.
Judas might have been thinking that if he forced Jesus’ hand, “We can take the church-world by storm.” It was worth the effort; it made good sense to Judas. He had lived his apostolic life with Jesus at the Transactional Level - Judas knew little of life lived at the Transformational Level.
Since life is complicated, and seldom is there an easy answer to any problem, and our analysis is more often wrong than right, Judas likely sold out Jesus for a combination of all of the above.
25Then Judas, who was betraying Him, answered and said, “Rabbi, is it I?” (Matthew 26:25)
Anybody want to live at the transformational level of life with Jesus? Then build into your faith regular deposits of emotional intelligence. Judas possessed little. The results were devastating.
Judas the traitor. Every time Judas is mentioned in Scripture, we find a notation about his universal act of betrayal. Judas walked with Jesus as an apostle and then betrayed the perfect, sinless Son of God. His is the most colossal of all failures in mankind’s history.
Judas is a warning flag about the potential of spiritual carelessness, squandered opportunity, sinful lusts, and hardened hearts. What’s ironic is that countless others have accepted the claims of Jesus Christ with far less spiritual intelligence. Judas enjoyed every privilege Jesus had to offer. He was intimately familiar with all Jesus taught. He was acutely aware of all that went on behind the scenes of life with the Savior.
Over time Judas became increasingly more disenfranchised and embittered with faith, the church, and spiritual matters. Instead of working this out in a public setting of discussion, debate, and dialogue, Judas hid it from everyone - except God. In the end the day and door of salvation closed for Judas.
Judas Lacked Spiritual (Emotional) Intelligence
The great anti-toxin to Transactional Christianity is emotional intelligence. In short, the Bible offers a powerful and persuasive picture of Judas as one who lacked Transformed Living.
The Bible is filled with evidence that the mind and heart are synonymous. We see this in Proverbs. In one passage the text may mention the mind and in another it may refer to the heart - same description, different usage. The heart and mind are used interchangeably in the Bible. If God touches your mind (intelligence) there is a good chance He is going to get your heart (spiritual) at the same time.
A study done by leading psychologist Daniel Goleman of nearly 200 large, global companies revealed that emotional intelligence, especially at the highest level in the companies, is the sine qua non [an indispensable and essential action] for leadership2. Without it, a person can have first class training, an incisive mind, and an endless supply of good ideas, but they still won’t be a good leader.
Each apostle was being trained for leadership. God is developing you for leadership in His kingdom. Each apostle had unique giftings. Each possessed a different personal history. Each heart was tuned into a different frequency of loves and interests. All possessed emotional intelligence - all except Judas.
What is emotional intelligence? The components of emotional intelligence are self- awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skill. The first three had to do with your life and the last two have to do with your life’s affect on others. Think of Judas in light of these character issues. You can take this study for beyond my limited space and writing development. I will give attention to the first two with a different twist on captions.
1. Spiritual (Emotional) Intelligence starts with honest self-assessment.
25Then Judas, who was betraying Him, answered and said, “Rabbi, is it I?” (Matthew 26:25 – NKJV))
Judas’ question “Rabbi, is it I?” illustrates the first quality of emotional intelligence - self-assessment. Self-assessment means you have an accurate understanding of your emotions, flaws, temptations, expectations, needs, and passions. Self-assessment always starts with getting the log out of your own eye.
The world of psychology refers to it as “An Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living.” The Greeks and Romans called it, “Know Thyself.” The Psalmist says, “God desires truth in the inner parts” (Psalm 51:6). Judas’ question “Rabbi, is it I?” came about three years too late and never gets the job done when asked only once. Show me another place where Judas, or for that matter any of the disciples asked, “Lord, is it I?”
People with high degrees of self-assessment recognize how their feelings, emotions, temptations, needs, and passions affect them and other people, and most of all how it affects their relationship to God. A person who lacks self-assessment is prone to make decisions that bring internal and external turmoil by treading on wrong beliefs and values.
Judas sold Jesus for the price of a common slave - $14 dollars on today’s New York Stock Exchange. As soon as the deal was complete, Judas’ conscience came alive. Judas was now a prisoner in a chamber of horrors - faulty self-assessment.
3When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders. 4“I have sinned,” he said, “for I have betrayed innocent blood.” (Matthew 27:3-4a-NIV)
Don’t mistake Judas’ remorse for repentance. As subsequent events showed, he was sorry all right - only because his sin did not appease his conscience. His incorrect self-assessment left Judas more betrayed than Jesus. The passage goes on to say,
5So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself. (vs 5).
The first leadership quality that Jesus was looking for in an apostle was the ability to be brutally honest with their emotions, feelings, temptations, fears, anxieties, frustrations, passions, and flaws. It would take Jesus three years to teach self-assessment. All would make a passing grade - except Judas.
2. Spiritual Intelligence depends on self-control of emotions.
4But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5“Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” 6He 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. (John 12:4-6 - NIV)
Judas objected. The governor on his emotions had been disconnected. Judas lacked self-control. He was a guest, like the others at the home of “Simon the Leper,” at a meal for Jesus and His apostles. Lazarus was present and, as on other occasions, Martha served while Mary continued to worship at Jesus’ feet. On this occasion Mary took some precious and costly oil and anointed Jesus’ feet. Perhaps she had been saving it for a special occasion. The perfume was valued at a year’s wages. Perhaps Mary’s act represented the love that she, Martha, and Lazarus all felt for Jesus.
Then Judas rudely interrupted the worship service with an off-the-wall comment:
Why was this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denarii’s and given to the poor? There are many religious questions in Christianity that are really masks for insincere motives. Although the disciples shook their heads at Judas’ question (Matthew 26:8), John later tells us the real motive - sheer greed.
Once poured out, the oil could never be used again. This sure seemed like excess. Judas was thinking Transaction. Mary was thinking, feeling, and experiencing Transformation. Judas had financial values but lacked spiritual values.
The contrast is staggering. Jesus is anointed with overwhelming love by Mary while he is being rebuked with overwhelming hypocrisy by Judas, all at the same time.3 Judas wasn’t concerned about the poor, it was a ploy. A ruse. A cover-up. A dodge. He was concerned about himself.
Judas gets a gentle rebuke “Let her alone; she has kept this for my day of burial, you will always have the poor.” (John 12:7) But instead of accepting correction, Judas’ heart becomes increasingly more callous. As Matthew 26:14-16 tells us, Judas immediately went to tell the chief priests. He slipped into the night, went over the Mount of Olives about a mile and half, and stole away to Jerusalem to find some willing co-conspirators. There he sold Jesus to His enemies for a pocket full of coins.
The great value of people who control their emotions and limit the damage of their temptations is that they build relationships and alliances that produce trust and fairness.
People who master their emotions are able to flow with change. When challenges arise these individuals safeguard the cause and organization from alarmists who try to dictate the agenda. Calmly moving through the challenges, they watch God at work.
Judas failed in all those areas. His relationships were fake. He failed to adapt to the changing face of Jesus’ plan for the church. He rang the bell of panic every chance he got.
The e-mail was like many that arrive in my e-mail. Unique. Passed around often. Thought provoking. It reminds us that God prefers diversity. Judas could have learned the lesson and been changed by Christ if he had gotten past the concern that he was the only non-Galilean in the bunch.
The email: If we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like the following. There would be:
57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south
8 Africans
52 would be female
48 would be male
70 would be non-white
30 would be white
70 would be non-Christian
89 would be heterosexual
11 would be homosexual
6 would possess 59 % of the entire world’s wealth, and all 6 would live in the United States.
80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth
1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education
1 would have a computer
When you see the world from the compressed perspective, it reminds us of the value of acceptance, understanding, and diversity. Jesus started with 12 and ended up with 11. Jesus was big on diversity. Had Judas learned this, perhaps he would have made it to the final list.
One only has to look at the rainbow or the many life forms below the ocean and above ground to see that Jesus’ agenda was to honor and develop people from all cultures. Judas, those Galileans needed your Judean influence. You should have accepted yourself.
Summary Comments
1. Judas lived his entire life with Jesus on the Transactional Level and never made it to the Transformational Level. It is the only reason that makes sense as to why he failed to change.
2. Judas is a warning flag about the potential of spiritual carelessness, squandered opportunity, sinful lusts, and hardened hearts.
3. Over time Judas became increasingly more disenfranchised and embittered with faith, the church, and spiritual matters. Instead of working this out in a public setting of discussion, debate, and dialogue, Judas hid it from everyone - except God. In the end the day and door of salvation closed for Judas.
Surprising Comments
1. A person who lacks self-assessment is prone to make decisions that bring internal and external turmoil by treading on wrong beliefs and values.
2. The contrast is staggering. Jesus is anointed with overwhelming love by Mary while he is being rebuked with overwhelming hypocrisy by Judas, all at the same time.3
End Notes
(1) Laurie Beth Jones. WaterBrook Press, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 2002, pg. 115.
(2) Daniel Golemen. Harvard Business Review: What Makes A Leader. Boston, MA, 1998-2001, pg. 1-3.
(3) John MacArthur. Twelve Ordinary Men, W Publishing Group, Thomas Nelson, Nashville, Tennessee, 2002, pg. 190.
