I was reading Luke 22 for an email Bible study that I just started and as I was reading the verses about Satan entering into Judas before he betrayed Jesus, a rather frightening realization hit me. As much as I like to claim that I am a Christ follower and fully seeking to be Christlike in my life, attitude, service, relationships,etc..... I realized that I have a lot more parallels to Judas than Jesus. Judas is well vilified in Christian circles for his heinous act of betrayal in turning over Jesus to his accusers for money. The truth of the matter is though that Judas was one of Jesus’ core twelve for years. He presumably was not a slime bag traitor throughout his time traveling with Jesus. In fact, he was trusted to handle all the money for the group. When Jesus suggested that someone of the twelve was going to betray him, the group didn’t all look at Judas with accusation on their face and run him out of the room on a rail. They all looked at each other in confusion. It simply didn’t make any sense to them that anyone in that room might do something like that. This is pretty scary to me because truthfully, I wonder if I’m even close to half the Christ follower that Judas was. Judas traveled with and served along side Jesus faithfully every day throughout his ministry. I’m lucky if Jesus averages out to a few minutes a day. Judas was present and active in most if not all of the miracles that Jesus did and also in the mundane moments of walking from town to town talking and listening to Jesus, learning from the great teacher. He saw so many things that were impossible to explain and yet, somehow, he managed to turn on this man who had loved, mentored, chosen, and invested in him every day for years. If someone who was a close and loyal to Jesus as Judas could betray him, what kind of a cautionary tale is this for the rest of us? How many of us can claim the kind of closeness that Judas had to Jesus or even get in the neighborhood? What can be done to protect ourselves from betraying Christ? What can be done to protect Jesus from a horrible betrayal at the hands of a trusted friend.
The truth is that sadly, we all will betray Christ. The even greater truth though is that Christ doesn’t need our protection. He knew Judas would fail just as he knows we will. The greatest tragedy of all is not the story of betrayal. The greatest tragedy is that while Jesus forgave Judas before he ever betrayed him, Judas was so overcome by grief and shame, that he didn’t ever get to experience that forgiveness. I may not be half the Christ follower in life that Judas was, but I’m thankful that I know about and experience daily, the forgiveness that Jesus provided.
The truth is that sadly, we all will betray Christ. The even greater truth though is that Christ doesn’t need our protection. He knew Judas would fail just as he knows we will. The greatest tragedy of all is not the story of betrayal. The greatest tragedy is that while Jesus forgave Judas before he ever betrayed him, Judas was so overcome by grief and shame, that he didn’t ever get to experience that forgiveness. I may not be half the Christ follower in life that Judas was, but I’m thankful that I know about and experience daily, the forgiveness that Jesus provided.
