Tag Archives: Judas Iscariot

WAX OR CLAY?

Bible Study, ,

WAX OR CLAY?

“But one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray Him, objected, ‘Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.’  He 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 whatever was put into it.” John 12:4-6 NIV

Who was this Judas Iscariot? What kind of man was he? Why did Jesus choose him to be a disciple?

We have to glean bits and pieces about the character of Judas from the gospel story. We learn most about him from the events leading up to the crucifixion. It seems that there was no love lost between him and John, writer of the most “spiritual” gospel, according to the early church fathers. Even though John was an old man by the time he wrote, he could not resist having a dig at Judas as he remembered and recorded details about his part in the events of that terrible week.

Judas was the “treasurer” of the group. It fell to him to take care of the money bag, to buy the necessary provisions and to pay the taxes required by the Romans, and the temple tax, tithes and offerings as part of their covenant responsibility. Apart from that, John knew that he periodically helped himself from the money bag for his own private use but he did not divulge his source of information. Perhaps it was no more than a suspicion because he knew that Judas liked money.

Did Judas volunteer for the job or did Jesus appoint him to take care of the finances? If so, why? Didn’t Jesus know that he had sticky fingers? One can only see God’s grace offered to this man. Jesus gave him opportunity to change his behaviour by entrusting this responsibility to him. Judas could have risen to the occasion by choosing not to violate that trust instead of seeing it as an opportunity to enrich himself… but he didn’t. 

In spite of the years he spent with Jesus, following, listening and even doing the works Jesus did, Judas’ heart was still hardened and unchanged because of his love of money. He remained unmoved by the compassion, kindness and generosity displayed by His Master; he certainly could not understand how He could accept Mary’s lavish adoration on this occasion when she “wasted” her precious dowry on His feet!

On one occasion, Jesus had pointed out to His disciples that it was impossible for a man to serve two masters. The God of Israel and Mammon, the god of money were at opposite ends of the pole. God is the epitome of generosity; Mammon represents everything that is selfish and greedy – what the Hebrews called the yetzer harah, the evil eye, the “factory fault” with which every human being is born since Adam. The gap between God and Mammon is so vast that serving one is tantamount to hating the other. Therefore, if Judas served money, it was impossible for him to love God.

For Mary to lavish such expensive perfume on Jesus meant that she valued Him far more than she valued her most valuable possession — something that was absolutely foreign to Judas, so foreign in fact that he was willing to sacrifice Jesus for the sake of money. Judas betrayed his greed by his objection, and John read him aright. For Judas, it was not about the poor; it was about the money he could have had in the bag — another opportunity to remove his “salary” without authorization!

“Leave her alone,’ Jesus replied. ’It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.’ John 12:7 NIV.

Was John also hinting at one of the reasons for Judas’ betrayal of Jesus? Once again, in a public assembly, Jesus had exposed the heart of Judas, and Judas must have squirmed at the humiliation! However, Jesus never exposed hearts for the sake of revenge. As with the Pharisees, He wanted people to know themselves so that they would turn to Him for mercy. When Peter faced his exposure, he turned, but not Judas. He became harder and even more determined to get even with Jesus.

The same sun that melts wax, hardens clay!

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – HE APPOINTED TWELVE

Bible Study, ,

HE APPOINTED TWELVE

13 Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. 14 He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach 15 and to have authority to drive out demons. 16 These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter), 17 James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means “sons of thunder”), 18 Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot 19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. Mark 3:13-19

Although these few verses read as a casual occurrence in Jesus’ life, they constitute one of the most significant moments in His public ministry. According to Luke, He spent the night in prayer before He chose the men to whom He would entrust His friendship, His love and the entire future of His mission on earth. If there were any bad apples in this box, His mission would be in jeopardy.

What about Judas Iscariot? What about Peter, James and John whose characters He knew so well that He gave them nicknames? What hope did He have of molding this diverse mob into disciples – learners and imitators of Himself? How was He going to persuade them that His yoke – gentleness and humility, love compassion and mercy – was more powerful than the yoke of the other rabbis in Israel whom the Pharisees slavishly followed?

Mark mentions His strategy in a single sentence. “The plan was that they would be with Him, and He would send them out to proclaim the Word and give them authority to banish demons.”  Mark 3:14, 15 (The Message). Simple, yet effective! The key was “that they would be with Him”. They would accompany Him day and night. They would listen, watch, follow, copy until His thoughts became their thoughts and His ways became their ways – no easy task as their behaviour, words and questions revealed their ignorance.

Jesus often showed His frustration with them because of their faithlessness and their slowness to learn. But with great patience and infinite love, He gave them opportunity after opportunity to practise what they saw Him doing. He had faith in them even though, at that time, they didn’t seem to merit it. He knew that His Spirit in them would energize all they learned and practised so that they would become powerful imitators of their Rabbi. His call was a simple one. “Follow me,” but held in it a world of possibilities.

THE BOOK OF ACTS – MURDER MEADOW

Bible Study, ,

MURDER MEADOW

“During this time Peter stood up in the company — there were about one hundred and twenty in the room at that time — and said, “Friends, long ago the Holy Spirit spoke through David regarding Judas, who became the guide of those arresting Jesus. That Scripture had to be fulfilled and now has been. Judas was one of us and had his assigned place in this ministry. 

“As you know, he took the evil bribe money and bought a small farm. There he came to a bad end…Everybody in Jerusalem knows this by now; they call the place Murder Meadow. It’s exactly what we find written in the Psalms:

“Let his farm become haunted so no one can ever live there…”

“And also what was written later:

“Let someone else take over his post…” Act 1:15-20 (The Message).

Peter was at it again! We must remember that this was before Pentecost. He was spot on in his application of prophecy to Judas but one has to question his so-called ‘leading’ to replace him. There is no mention here that the Holy Spirit had anything to do with what happened next.

Peter was a man of impulse and of action. They were no longer the Twelve but the Eleven and that didn’t sit well with him. He recognised that the psalm he quoted was talking about Judas and, as their natural leader, decided that Judas must be replaced. All very commendable but not in God’s scheme of things!

Jesus had told them to wait in Jerusalem — that’s all! No reference to doing anything else, including replacing Judas by drawing straws. That method was redundant. In a few days’ time they would have the very presence of Jesus within them as He had promised, and then there would be no need to make these kinds of decisions. God already had His replacement man waiting in the wings, but he didn’t know it and neither did Peter!

Why is this little interlude included in Luke’s story? There is no mention that Peter did the wrong thing — just the bare facts and yet, if one reads between the lines, the replacement they chose plays no part in the rest of the story. That says something! Is it a quiet little reminder that we also make decisions that make sense in the natural but are irrelevant to God’s purpose for us?

Before He left them, His very last words to them were about His replacement, the Holy Spirit, who would be in them what He was to them when He was with them. They had to learn to discern and follow His leading when He came, and in the mean time they were instructed to wait for Him.

It amazes me how eager we humans are to ‘help’ God! When things don’t happen quickly enough for us or in the way we anticipate, we add our bit, reasonable, logical, but not what God has planned. In this case it seems there was no harm done except that when God brought them His man, Paul, they had trouble accepting him because of his history.

This may seem like an irrelevant bit of information in Luke’s story but it can be a valuable lesson if we take heed. God is not out of options when we mess up. If we wait for Him, He will reveal His solution at the right time and with far greater impact than we can ever imagine. Compare Judas and Paul. Judas blew it! God replaced him with Paul, not Matthias. Now wasn’t that a good plan! 6

Jesus Grieves

Bible Study, , , ,

JESUS GRIEVES 

“After He had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, ‘Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.’ His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which one of them He meant. One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to Him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, ‘Ask Him which one he means.’ Leaning back against Jesus, he asked Him, ‘Lord, who is it?’

“Jesus answered, ‘It is the one to whom I give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.’ Then, dipping the piece of bread, He gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot…'” John 13:21-26 NIV.

Why was Jesus troubled in spirit? Was He thinking about all the suffering He was about to endure because of Judas’ treachery? I hardly think so because it did not fit with His disposition.

He was supremely un-preoccupied with Himself. It was either His Father and the kingdom of God or people in need that took His attention. Even on the occasion when He had taken His disciples to a deserted place so that He could spend time with them away from the people who were always clamouring for His attention, He was not annoyed when they arrived en mass to spoil their day. Instead, His heart went out to them in compassion because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

On His way to the cross, the women en route were wailing because of Him. In the midst of His weakness and pain He turned to them and said, “Don’t weep for me. Weep for yourselves and for your children.’ He was more concerned about the suffering that was coming upon them when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem than He was for Himself.

As formidable as the next few hours were going to be, Jesus was grieved because of what Judas was bringing upon himself by his choice to sell Him out for a few pieces of silver. Psalm 7:11 (KJV) says, “God judgeth the righteous and God is angry with the wicked every day.”

Why is God angry? There are several reasons why He is angry; the wicked have disregarded and trampled His glory under foot; they have ignored His laws and set up their own rules; they have worshipped themselves as gods; but most of all they have wasted their potential to become what God created them to be — sons of the Most High God.

God is love. His passionate love for everything He has created is the outflow of who He is. He created the universe to be the home of the creatures He had made in His own image and placed them on the earth, a tiny planet spinning in the vastness of space in a cosmos held together by His powerful word so that He could lavish His love on us. To live as we like without any regard for the God whose goodness towards us, is the worst possible insult we can throw at Him.

Judas could have enjoyed all the bounty of God’s love, revealed to Him in Jesus whom he had followed for three and half years, had he only submitted his heart to Him instead of choosing his own way. But Judas judged himself by choosing his way. His “reward” was pathetically miniscule and short-lived because he judged himself unworthy of God’s love and forgiveness. And Jesus grieved because He knew what could have been.

I think Jesus was disturbed because of Judas’ fall for the devil’s deception. Satan lured him with the reward of a few pieces of glittering silver or the hope of a place in an earthly government under Jesus, free from Roman oppression. But what was that compared with a conscience free from guilt and a place of authority in God’s eternal kingdom?

How He must grieve over us when we exchange the vast treasure of what He has promised us if we follow Him for the miserable trinkets of the world that are as transient as this life. Yes, we choose our own reward, be it a place in God’s eternal kingdom with Christ on His throne, or an eternity of loss and regret because we refused to believe the truth and fell for the devil’s deception because we thought we knew better.