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THE REAL JESUS
(Continued Jrom page 5)
to have a Jesus much closer to
the type imagined in tbe minds of
many professing Christians today !
When J es us neg lec ted t o h ea l
someone, no t even . bothering to
acknowledge them at first, but only
healed on thosc occasions when out–
standing examples of perseverance
or faith were shown, it annoyed
Judas!
He would do it diffe rently !
Judas knew he could be a bette r
Messiah than Jesus was. Judas rea–
soned in his mind tha t if only he
had studied the Scriptures as hard ;
if only he had tha t unique com–
bination of pe rsona l magnetism,
quick wit and incisive insight tha t
could deftly turn a social disaste r
into a grea t spir itua l and mora l les–
son ; if only he had tha t amazing
power to produce signs, wonde rs,
and miracu lous healing- then he
could have been the real Christ in–
stead of Jesus!
Probably Judas ca rne to the point
whe re he honestly felt tha t he had
influenced enough of the disciples
so that a majority would fo llow him
if he could overthrow Jesus. Ac–
tually Judas' attempts to overthrow
Jesus seem to have begun we ll over
a year prior to the c rucifixion. He
seized every oppor tunity to in–
flu ence as many disciples as possible
so tha t they would wa rm up to him,
listen to what he said , agree with his
contentions, and join with him in his
continua! abras ive a ttitudes towa rd
Jesus' life-s tyle, the decisions He
made and the conduct of their day–
to-day business.
Finally, when Judas knew tha t
Jesus had enraged the top lead–
ership in Jerusalem, the time sud –
denly seemed right. He had toyed
with the idea of betraying Jesus on
ma ny occas ions, but the p ieces
never fit togethe r. Then, a lmos t in–
stantaneously, the proper chemistry
generated the sudden reaction- the
time was ripe.
His constan! murmuring about
Jesus' persona l tastes and habits had
scored on a significan! number of
the disciples. He reasoned he could
easily neutra lize Peter's bombast.
However. James and John were qui -
36
ete r- especia lly John, whom severa!
of the otber disciples were jealous of
anyway because of his continua!
closeness to Jesus.
J udas' long campaign to di satfcct
as many of the disciples as he could
had come increasingly into the open
in recent months. Now a sufficient
number of the disciples seemed to
agree with Judas, and to disagree
witb Jesus' statement about the
poor.
Tool of the Devll
Judas' ha tred became so intense–
exactly proportionate to the amount
of his own deepest sense of guilt–
that his mind was opened up to
Satan the devil.
As soon as he found opportunity,
perhaps ea rly the next morning,
Judas, now litera lly possessed o f
Sa tan the devi l, sought out the lead–
ing Sadducecs of the Temple a nd
struck a deal with them. Judas ac–
ceded to their demands that he de–
liver Jesus at a time when no large
crowds were present , because the
Sadducees knew tha t most of the
people looked upo n Jes us as a
prophet. They told Judas of the
ma ny times they themselves had
tried to have Him arrested, only to
be thwarted because He always
seemed to be surrounded by la rge
groups ofbelieving people.
Judas cra ftily asked, " How much
a re you willing to pay me?" Perhaps
one of the pri es ts vaguely remem–
be red Zechariah's prophetic wo rds:
" If ye think good, give me my price;
and if not, forbear. So they weighed
for my price thirty pieces of silver"
(Zech. 11 : 12). Either as a la rk, or
perhaps be lieving sorne twisted ap–
plication of this scripture might in
fact apply in the "cutting asunder"
of a " foolish shepherd," the priest
suggested precisely that amount:
thirty pieces of silver. This was a
substantial sum, easily compa rable
to seve ra! thousa nd do lla rs in
today's economy. Jud as agreed
without haggling.
Rejoining the group in Be th any,
Judas was tingling with excitement.
constantly scheming and thinking
ahead, trying to determine the time
when Jesus would be most vulner–
able, away from crowds, and hope–
fully even isola ted from sorne of His
closest disciples, so he could inform
on Him with as little risk to himself
as possible.
Also, Judas fe rvently hoped tha t
his campaign of feigned !ove towa rd
Jesus had succeeded, so tha t even in
the events of the a rrest itself he
could pos ture to be shocked and
unaware of Jesus' a lleged "illega l
ways." He could preside over the
whole sordid scene with s upercilious
self-righteousness, shaking his head
sadly, grimacing as if in pa in, yet
glancing significantly at those few
disciples over whom he had a lmost
complete contro l. Th e n , Judas
planned , immedia tely upon Jesus'
disappearance, incarcera tion. pun–
ishment , and perhaps even death,
he could pick up the pieces of the
organization and carry on.
In Judas' twisted mind. he may
have even imagined that he was
doing this "for Jesus' own good."
He would show Him. ·
Wouldn' t it have been far easier
on their entire ministry if Jesus had
gone furth cr out of His way to give
to the poor? Couldn't they have won
far more friends, influenced fa r
mo re people, a nd avoided the per–
secution tha t continually carne upon
them and the constant rumors of
gluttony and drunkenness tha t fol–
lowed Jesus throughout His minis–
try, if He would have avoided the
appearance of profligacy?
Judas wanted Him constrained.
He wanted Him conta ined, rebuked,
punished. Perhaps, though maybe
he couldn' t even admit it to himself,
he entertained the thought tha t a ll
their efforts to advance the King–
dom of God would be futile as long
as Jesus remained in cha rge.
In his own mind, Judas fe lt Jesus'
a rrest by thc civil authorities would
be the greates t cvent of his las t three
and one-ha lf years, re leasing his
own full potential for leade rship. He
would then set about doing wha t
Jes us seemed a lways to be so re luc–
tant to accomplish: setting up the
Kingdom right then and there by
the secre t recruitment of an army
and the quick overthrow of the Ro–
roan forces occupying the country,
in complete cooperation with th e
puppet king, and most especia lly,
with a ll the re ligious and busi ness
leaders.
Judas felt to ta lly vind icated!
In his own mind, he had so
The
PLAIN TRUTH March 1978