Should we have compassion for Judas or can we
tell bad from good?
By Odell Sneeden Hathaway, III.
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Should we have compassion
for Judas or can we tell bad from good? Copywrite ©2008 by Odell Sneeden Hathaway, III When I speak about Judas, I am not talking about Judas who begat Pares and Zara, nor am I talking about Judas of Galilee, but Judas Iscariot the son of Simon who betrayed Jesus Christ. It is he who I feel is the most misunderstood person in the Bible. Even the writers of the Bible seem to miss the point of Christ's life when they speak of Judas! It is understandable, they loved Jesus not as you and I do, not as a mystical savior who died 2000 years ago, but as a friend who they lived with every day and who's absence hurt them. They needed to put the blame for this hurt on someone, why not Judas. After all Judas could not defend himself--one because he did cause Jesus to be killed and two because Judas was dead! To begin, let us try to look at the life of Judas from the only source on it that I have found, the New Testament of the Bible. Judas was the son of Simon, out of all the people living at that time Jesus chose him to be one of his 12 disciples. Jesus told his disciples that Matt 26:2 "you know that after two days is the Passover, and the son of man will be delivered up to be crucified" After hearing this and being moved by the devil Judas went to the chief priests and made an agreement to deliver Jesus to them for this he was paid. At the Passover feast Jesus told his disciples what would happen to Judas "woe unto that man by who the son of man is betrayed! It had been good for that man if he had not been born." Then Judas, answered and said, Rabbi, is it I? Jesus said to him, 'you have said it.' [Mat 26:24-25]). Judas brought people to take Jesus and to show them who to take Judas kissed Jesus. Judas then waited till Jesus was condemned, then he returned the 30 pieces of silver to the priests (which fulfilled prophecy) and then he hung himself. Most people, when they think of Judas, think of the man who sold Jesus, a man without a heart, a man interested only in himself, a man taken over by the devil. Let us take a look at these points one at a time. Judas sold Jesus. Yes it is clear
that Judas did take money. Did he ask
for blood money, did he put out a sign that read “for sale 1 Savior in good
condition, needs shoes??” Well maybe,
but in the gospel of Mark Judas was a man without a heart! On my home page you will find a copy of an early work of mine on this subject. For now, let us look at the facts from the Bible. Judas showed the guards who were to arrest Jesus who to arrest by kissing him, not by pointing and not by walking up to him and saying this is the man you want. Kissing him? Why, because he did not want the disciples to know who betrayed Jesus? Judas had admitted betraying Jesus. At the last supper so there was nothing to hide. Could it be that he kissed him the way one might kiss someone who they love before they go off to war or embrace them before they go anywhere that they will be in danger? The Bible tells us that Judas gave back the money and killed himself because of what he had caused to happen to Jesus. Is this the act of a man without a heart or the act of a man who did not love Jesus? It could be the act of a man who loved Jesus and understood Jesus more than anyone at that time or someone who wanted to do the will of God. Someone who had to kill the thing he loved most in this world to honor that which he loved most in any world. I believe it was da Vinci who painted Judas betraying Jesus. In it we see that Judas had to look in to Jesus' eyes to find the strength he needed to do what had to be done. Is this any less possible than Judas getting off on killing Jesus the way Richard Ramirez might. Judas was a man only interested in himself. In the play Jesus Christ Super Star (again) we see Judas as a man more interested in serving his people than saving Jesus. A man who could see that Jesus' message of love was being lost ignored by people who made Jesus out to be a God in their own image, instead of what Jesus was telling them he was (in fact I would say that about 99% of all Christians including myself do this [I only give the 1% in the hope that there are some who do not]). Judas saw that things were going bad and that if he was not careful when the hammer fell on Jesus, it might hit him too. So he sold Jesus. I think that this idea does not match the facts. Judas could have walked away if he wanted to be safe off in to the desert or back to fishing. Instead he went right out and hung himself! Judas was taken over by the devil Can we tell the difference between the Devil and God? Do you know when something is good or bad? Is it bad when someone dies? What about the cancer patient? As one who on many occasions has been accused of being possessed or working for the Devil and who on many occasions has been afraid that this charge might be right. I can tell you that I do not think that we can tell the difference (if there is one) for God works in mysterious ways and we can only try to love God. The story of Judas is a great example of this. There are 2 points of view to be taken here: 1 The Devil wanted Jesus killed. 2 The Devil knew what would happen if Jesus was killed and did not want it to happen at all. The Devil, seeing that Christ was converting people to his view of love as might be seen on Palm Sunday, did not want this message to fill the earth he wanted to stop it. The only way he could think of to stop it was to take Jesus' own suggestion (matt 26:2 "ye know that after two days is the Passover, and the son of man is betrayed to be crucified.") So he had Judas crucify him and there by caused Easter and his own and final fall. On the other hand the Devil may not have wanted Jesus to be crucified after all Pilates wife had a dream and so she tried to stop her husband from killing Christ (mat 27:19 "while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, 'have nothing to do with that just man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of him.'" If Christ had not died the prophets would not have been fulfilled and there would be no Easter. Could God have sent the dream trying to stop the crucifixion and God failed (neither you nor I can tell but I don't like to bet against God.) As you can see Judas may have been working for the Devil but it is just as likely that Judas was working for God. The Vulcan's (see TV's Star Trek) have a saying if you want to judge someone look not only at what they do but also at the results of their work. In Judas' case the result was our salvation and I think that might be good and most of all who are we to judge any way. So far we have limited ourselves to the life of Judas as seen through the Bible, I have tried to show you not so much the facts but how limited our knowledge is of what happened and how foolish we are trying to judge Judas as so many have. But it is said that the Devil can quote scripture to suit his own purposes and some have pointed out that I may be possessed by the devil. I know that there is little if any support for my ideas on Judas but is their any support for the idea that we cannot judge Judas? In fact there is and I did not have to go any further than the communion service itself to find it. If you look at the communion prayers, we see that Jesus was "betrayed" in one, "handed over to suffering and death" in another and " glorified " in a third. Why did they choose the word glorified it sounds like something good happened (why do you think they call it good Friday) so maybe the church cannot decide if what happened was bad (Jesus was killed) or good (Jesus came back) and why not use glorified that is what happened Easter and let us not forget that in the Nicene Creed "Jesus was crucified for our sake" (Judas did it for you and for Jesus but most of all for God who for Judas might have been different) the act of salvation came from the crucifixion and that example required Judas to make it happen in fact he is almost as important if not more so than Jesus himself in that act. Well, if there are any fundamentalists reading this, they are now going out to burn me in effigy. But I do think it is possible that where the crucifixion is concerned Judas was the key player not Jesus. Jesus is God incarnate part of the Trinity and as a priest I know pointed out about the last "Temptation of Christ" it is ridiculous to think that any thing here could tempt Christ he is above that, like a parent is above stealing pennies from their children. Jesus was above being hurt by a few little nails in the same way that you are above being hurt by the billions of parasites eating you constantly. Then why the crucifixion? Just a show? And if a show, to show what? That the dead could be raised? Jesus had already shown us that in Lazarus. To show us sacrifice? Well yes but I think that the sacrifice was not that of Jesus on the cross but Judas who loved Jesus more than anyone alive today can understand, letting him be what he was and be crucified how many parents to day have the guts to let their child be what they were meant to be even if that was a punk or gay or Judas. Judas made it possible for Jesus to be our savior his sacrifice was our saving and maybe God's as well. If you really want to see how stupid we are, all you have to do is ask why we are here. The question cannot be answered some would say that we are nothing more than entertainment for God a sort of toy for the lord with no purpose but to help God be a couch potato. Many others say that god is alone and made us to stop him from being alone. I think that this is very close to the truth but why make man. It's as if you or I were alone and made a moss to stop you from being lonely. Why not make something closer to his own level and most of all (watch out) why have us evolve to what we are from lower life? Could it be that we are still evolving and that we are evolving to become a god to help fill the loneliness of our god and if this is the case then what happened in the garden of Eden and at the last supper. Could Eve have been told that if you eat the fruit of knowledge you will die but please eat it for your God's sake and could Judas have been asked to turn away from palm Sunday in order to help God as Meister Ekhart has said "God needs us a million times more than we need him" could it be that what was missing from Christ was a human to say yes we will and is that what Judas said, did Jesus save us and Judas save god and his hopes for us. As I have said I am not trying to give you the final and perfect answer here because I am trying to show you that man kind is not smart or evolved enough to know what perfect or good or bad means. All we can do is try to search out god and follow his will for us, to look in to our own self find the divine spark there and let it consume our self so that we can serve god |
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Even on the NET I can't spell Tree, updated
06/29/08.