I AM JUDAS

Judas has taken a bum rap, at least in my estimation. Somewhere years ago I read an observation made by Tim Rice, the lyricist for Jesus Christ, Superstar.  Rice said that after doing his research for the musical, he came to the conclusion that Judas was the most intelligent of all the followers of Jesus and that, in fact, Judas truly loved Jesus.

So what happened? Why did Judas betray Jesus? Well, I don’t think he betrayed Jesus leading to Jesus’ death so much as he wanted to save Jesus from himself. Judas and the rest of the followers of Jesus were doing so because they believed Jesus was the Messiah, the one who would lead Israel in a military triumph over the Romans and make Israel the ruling nation of the world.

As Jesus’ ministry was progressing, Judas was wise enough to realize that if Jesus persisted in antagonizing the authorities, both religious and civil, he was going to end up being killed before he could organize enough followers to proceed in the overthrow of the government. So he devised a plan to keep Jesus alive by “betraying” him to the authorities. His hope, I believe, was for Jesus to come to his senses while under arrest and simply back off on the rhetoric so that he would be released.

That did not happen. And when Jesus was condemned to death, Judas, in absolute grief over his mistake, took his own life. The sad part in all of this is that in trying to save the messenger, Judas missed the message. Peter, on the other hand, did not try to save the messenger but tried to save his own skin by denying three times that he knew Jesus. But he had heard the message about forgiveness. Judas, sadly did not. Imagine what great a saint we would be honoring in Judas if, after the resurrection, he came to Jesus and humbly asked for forgiveness which would have been lovingly granted!

If we want to insist that Judas betrayed Jesus, then I am right there with him. Every time I/we do what we know the message of Jesus forbids us to do, every time we are unloving, sinful, selfish, like Judas we betray Jesus. We deny, like Peter, that we ever knew the man. But, hopefully, unlike Judas and like Peter, we come to our senses, humbly admit our failings and ask for forgiveness which is lovingly granted.

Judas is a reminder that in so many ways we are all just like him. Sometimes we do the right thing for all the wrong reasons and we do the wrong thing for all the right reasons. Sometimes we are too smart for our own good at the expense of others. Would that we could always know the consequences of our words and actions before we said or did anything. It is only in hindsight that we do.

But when that hindsight kicks in, when we come to our senses and realize what we have done, hopefully we will be humble enough to admit our mistakes, learn from them, and ask for forgiveness. Would that Judas had done so. But, like him, we can relate.