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So Close, Yet So Far
Judas Iscariot And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And after the sop Satan entered into him.—John 13:26,27 In the gospel of Luke we are told that after spending an entire night in prayer, Jesus selected from among his disciples twelve whom he named apostles. One of these twelve was Judas Iscariot of whom enough was known when the gospel of Luke was written, that he could be called “the traitor” (Luke 6:12-16). Undoubtedly Judas was devout enough to raise no question as to why he had been selected to join the coterie of Jesus’ closest followers. We know he was sent out with the others two-by-two, and must have had the same ability to heal and cast out unclean spirits as they did. None of the others expressed any doubts about his loyalty. What happened to his heart that he should betray the son of God, especially when the thirty pieces of silver he received from the chief priests for his information was not that much? When Mary anointed the feet of Jesus with ointment of spikenard, Judas found reason to criticize by asking, “Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?” John went on to make a personal comment about Judas: “This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein” (John 12:5,6). The Bible does not record any specific theft by Judas, but John’s observation probably came from information he received later. During the last months of Jesus’ life, Judas heard Jesus condemn the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees. Among the litany of denunciation recorded in Matthew chapter 23, are these words: “On the outside you look righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (Matthew 23:28, Net Bible). Judas knew those words applied to him. In fact, if Judas had been standing near the chief priests, he could have imagined that Jesus was speaking those very words to him! Eventually his sense of guilt became so great he felt he had to do something. He should have changed his course of conduct immediately, but he decided to do something else. He would stop the criticism he heard nearly every day. Judas’ betrayal of Jesus may not have been for the money—he “had the bag” after all—but to stop the mental turmoil Jesus was causing him. Yet after the betrayal, Judas was struck with remorse: “Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he [Jesus] was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself. And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood. And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in. Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day.” (Matthew 27:3-8) Notice how the priests give great attention to trifles—the money was tainted with blood so it could not go into the treasury—while simultaneously overlooking the monstrous breach of the Law which said, Thou shalt not kill! (Exodus 20:13) It evidently did not occur to the priests that if Judas had sinned such that his money could not be accepted, they too were sinners because they paid the money to him to commit that sin! What did Judas do with the money? The first chapter of Acts gives a different story about what Judas did: “Now this man [Judas] purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem; insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, The field of blood” (Acts 1:18,19). Notice: w In Matthew, Judas gave the money back; in Acts, he kept it.
w
In Matthew, the priests bought a field;
w
In Matthew, it was a field of blood by
reason of the blood money; The Companion Bible suggests that Matthew and Acts describe two quite different fields purchased at different times: The priests agorazo (bought in the open market) an agros (a field). Judas ktaomai (acquired possession of) a chorion (a farm or small property). The “reward of iniquity” simply means money obtained unrighteously. It is likely Judas’ body fell after he was dead from hanging. Here is an alternate translation of this text: “With the price of his treachery this man came into possession of a field and afterwards, when he fell from a height, his belly burst open, so that he was disemboweled. All Jerusalem heard of it and the field came to be called in their language, Haceldma, that is, the Field of Blood.” (Acts 1:18,19, Knox translation) John told us Judas was a thief. How did he know that? Surely Judas never told John or anyone what he was doing. He had to be so careful to not get caught. He could not dress better, or eat better than the others. He could not hire a donkey while the others walked. What could he do with the money he took from the bag? Investing it for an early retirement probably had great appeal since real estate has long been considered an investment opportunity. This might not have been detected except that after Judas’ dead body fell on the field, questions likely were raised about who owned that field. To everyone’s surprise, Judas owned it. Where did he get the money to buy it? It could only have come from “the bag.” Thus John had the proof he needed to call him a thief. Judas Iscariot was the only one of the originally selected twelve who came from Judea, not Galilee.{FOOTNOTE: A footnote in the Net Bible offers this explanation about the word Iscariot in Matthew 10:4: “There is some debate about what the name Iscariot means. It probably alludes to a region in Judea and thus might make Judas the only non-Galilean in the group. Several explanations for the name Iscariot have been proposed, but it is probably transliterated Hebrew with the meaning “man of Kerioth” (there are at least two villages that had that name).”} He was probably more learned than the others, so it was natural that he became the group’s treasurer. Never did anyone doubt that he had the group’s best interests at heart. Yet Judeans were known to harbor a prejudice toward the less-educated people of Galilee and this could have been a contributing factor in his downfall. The replacement for Judas was Paul, a man who was also not from Galilee, a man with great education and stature. It is as though God demonstrated that the same raw material can turn out in two quite different ways: either to the ultimate disgrace of the individual (as with Judas Iscariot), or to the ultimate blessing of the body of Christ (as with Paul). At one point Jesus said, “Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness” (Luke 11:35). Jesus could have looked at Judas as he said this. The words indicate that one can be a close associate of the master and still be unfaithful. What God expected of those who knew him in the past he expects of those who serve him now. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” was the commandment (Exodus 20:3). Yet in spite of the goodness of the Lord, we all may be tempted to ignore the principles we know to be right. In the case of Judas, the temptation led to the actual betrayal of the son of God. On one occasion when he materialized after his resurrection Jesus said to Thomas, “Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:29). We are among those who “have not seen and yet have believed.” The blessings we have received from the Lord through the enlightenment of the holy spirit are great indeed, but they will continue only as long as we are faithful. Ignoring his inner conscience may have caused the fall of Judas Iscariot. May we never ignore what our conscience tells us, and instead learn from the chastenings of the Lord (see Hebrews 12:1-15). |