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twisted the facts that he saw Jesus as
the one who was the extravagant
thief, the one who was abusive and
abrasive, the one with whom almos t
no one could get a long, the one
whom no one could please.
Judas so misinte rpre ted Jesus'
mo tives tha t he carne to believe he
would be doing the world a favor if
he could have Jesus imprisoned. All
Israel would surely pay him homage
for ridding the country of this ego–
maniac who was a bout to cause
great slaughter by inciting the Ro–
man occupation army to counter th e
threats of insurrection.
Blind Ambitlon
Of course, Judas had developed a
whole scena r io : He des pera tely
wanted to take over the leadership
of the twelve disciples for himself,
and with Jesus out of the way there
was nothing to stop him. He had the
money, the pe rsonality and soon
would have the public recognition
and the support of the religious
leadership as well. Pe rvertcd and fe–
rociously misguided ambition had
blinded Judas to reality.
How many countless hours had
J ud as da ydrea med d u rin g th e
course of the las t year and a ha lf
about how ma rvclous it would be to
see the crowd surrounding him!
How many clever things he would
say ! Judas would immedia tely set
up two or three of his closest con–
fidants as the leading apos tles, and
most certain ly, thcy would not be
Peter, James or John! They were too
attached to Jesus personally to be of
any use in
th~
fu ture.
Judas would demote Pe ter, James
and John to lesser positions in the
group-probably, on second thought,
he would have to get rid of them
a ltogether and appoint sorne new
d isciples from a few friends he had
bribed here and there a long the
way. Thus Judas probably planned
to set up a new organi zation which
would solve a ll of the ir present diffi–
culties, be they religious. socia l, po–
litical or fin ancia!. Judas could
virtua lly see himself, in his mind's
eye, plunging a long the road towa rd
grea t success and greate r glory! Per–
haps he would be able to set up the
Kingdom right he re a nd now!
Surely the people were ready. But
he would have to do it th rough wíly
The
PLAIN TRUTH March 1978
Judas wanted Jesus
constrained. He
wanted Him contained,
rebuked, punished .
Perhaps he entertained
the thought that all
their effor ts to
advance the Kingdom of
God would be
futile as long as Jesus
remained in charge.
cooperation wi th the present pow–
ers. and wait unt il he had ga thered a
small army of many hundreds of the
key people in the main víllages and
towns before he could begin an un–
derground recruiting program.
Judas thought he could amass
thousands. He was certa in he could
do it! Jesus had fed the four thou–
sand and then the five thousand ,
and, on the strength of tha t, Judas'
shrewd rnind began calcula ting the
possible forces he could gather. He
rnay have reasoned he could have at
least fifly or sixty thousand troops
ready in no t much more than one
year. There was only one " if'- if he
could get rid of Jesus, and be given
full leadership without any con–
straints.
The popular imp ress io n tha t
Jud as s imply wanted the t hirty
pieces of silver rnay well be rath er
simplerninded. Judas was playing
for much higher stakes.
It
is quite
conceivable, however, that Judas
did
not
want Jesus to be crucified or
executed, for ít was the actua l con–
demnation of. Jes us (Ma tt. 27:3-4)
that rudely awoke Judas out of his
drea rn, shook hirn back to reality
and triggered his suicide. Judas per–
haps wanted only to get Jesus out of
the way so tha t he could take over
the leadership of the di sciples and to
humiliate Hirn a little, " to give Him
a taste of His own medicine," a nd
" to teach Him a lesson."
Judas' Repentance
But Judas' game had gotten fa r out
of hand. Once Judas had betrayed
Jesus and turned Hirn over to the
religious leaders, his role was fin–
ished- he could no longer control
the situation.
His combina tion of vanity, ego,
guilt and deep personal sharne over
his deceiving ways, his vituperative
resentment of any who would dare
question his "mora l integrity," and
his rnegalomaniacal vision of his
own importance led Judas straight
down the road into to tal satanic pos–
session and quick, self-imposed de–
struction.
When Judas fina lly carne to his
scnses, when the devil had accom–
plished his task and left him , he
becarne fi lled with a sickeningly in–
tense self- revulsion. And in a mind–
less sta te of ever increasing self–
ha te, Judas first tried to give the
money back. Fail ing this, he simply
cas t it down in the Temple where he
thought he could pa rtially return
the money to its rightful owners. He
then went out and hung himself.
The ignominy ofJudas' death was
compou nd ed when his swing ing
body. bloated and decaying. " burst
asunder and a ll his bowels gushed
out" in the very fie ld bought by the
re ligious leaders with Judas' thirty
pieces of silver.
What does the future hold for
Judas? Did he commit the unpa r–
donable sin? ls he headed for the
lake of tire? ls he los t for all ete r–
ni ty?
Ma tthew reports that Judas
" re–
pented himself'
(Ma t t. 27:3) right a f–
ter Jesus was condemned and right
be fore Judas commítted suicide.
Wha t does "repented himseir '
mean? Was it only the carnal re–
morsefulness of self-pity following
public fai lure and hurniliation?
lt
is impossible for any one man
to read and know any o ther man's
heart and mind.
lt
is fruitl ess for
any human be ing to try to fully a p–
precia te the interna! a ttitude and
approach behind the external ac–
tions and deeds of any o ther huma n
being. (It's hard enough to know
one's own heart and mind !)
Only the God that created the
heavens and the earth and a ll rna n–
kind will judge Judas Iscariot-and
tha t's Jesus Christ Hirnself- the
same fa ir and faithful and forgiving
God that will ultirnately judge us
a ll.
o
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