Making a case for Judas?
Consider the list of the 12 Apostles of Jesus Christ in the Bible Gospel of Matthew chapter 10 verses 2-4.
2These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; 3Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
“These are the....... apostles…… and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.” While reading the list of the Apostles of Christ, I could not help but feel sorry for Judas, and wondering how the chronicler of these events could have been so unfair to him. It appears that Judas Iscariot will always be remembered as “the one who betrayed Jesus”. Yet Peter denied Jesus and all of the disciples forsook Jesus when He was arrested by the Roman authorities. Why are their transgressions not appended to their names like Judas’ own was? Then I understood.
What Judas did was a result of pure evil at work, not just a human foible. And you do not appease evil. To try and rehabilitate Judas in any way would amount to attempting to whitewash evil and call his betrayal by a lesser name. Judas’ betrayal of Jesus was orchestrated from the heart of hell itself. In one account, it is written that in order for Judas to betray Jesus, “Satan entered him”. Judas became Satan, personified. In optics, the reason we see objects very distinctly and recognise familiar images without ambiguity is that the boundaries of each image reflect light in straight lines into our retina. The boundaries are clear, sharp and focused. If we try to make Judas out to be a misunderstood, weak and vulnerable poor saint rather than see him as the devil incarnate that he was, at least in that moment in time, we will be blurring the lines between good and evil. And that cannot bode well for our spiritual health, much like seeing the world in blurred images cannot be good for our physical health. Be blessed today. Amen.
2These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; 3Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
“These are the....... apostles…… and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.” While reading the list of the Apostles of Christ, I could not help but feel sorry for Judas, and wondering how the chronicler of these events could have been so unfair to him. It appears that Judas Iscariot will always be remembered as “the one who betrayed Jesus”. Yet Peter denied Jesus and all of the disciples forsook Jesus when He was arrested by the Roman authorities. Why are their transgressions not appended to their names like Judas’ own was? Then I understood.
What Judas did was a result of pure evil at work, not just a human foible. And you do not appease evil. To try and rehabilitate Judas in any way would amount to attempting to whitewash evil and call his betrayal by a lesser name. Judas’ betrayal of Jesus was orchestrated from the heart of hell itself. In one account, it is written that in order for Judas to betray Jesus, “Satan entered him”. Judas became Satan, personified. In optics, the reason we see objects very distinctly and recognise familiar images without ambiguity is that the boundaries of each image reflect light in straight lines into our retina. The boundaries are clear, sharp and focused. If we try to make Judas out to be a misunderstood, weak and vulnerable poor saint rather than see him as the devil incarnate that he was, at least in that moment in time, we will be blurring the lines between good and evil. And that cannot bode well for our spiritual health, much like seeing the world in blurred images cannot be good for our physical health. Be blessed today. Amen.
posted by Shegs at 12:27 AM
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