Each year, newspapers have a report on the most popular baby names of the previous year. For Northern Ireland, the top girls’ names in 2017 were: Emily, Grace, Olivia, Isla and Anna. The top boys’ names were: James, Jack, Noah, Charlie and Jacob. One boy’s name that didn’t make the top ten, probably didn’t make the top hundred, and may not have been given to any babies was the name that we’re considering tonight. Judas.
Two of Jesus’ twelve disciples were called by that name, but Judas has entered the popular culture as a name for a traitor, a betrayer. So it’s no surprise that you don’t find many baby Judases around these days. All week, we’re focusing on the characters around the cross. And tonight we turn our attention to Judas - not the other Judas, but Judas Iscariot, the betrayer.
How did it all end up the way it did? Why is Judas so infamous? And what might we learn from him? That’s our focus tonight. We’ll mainly be in the sections that were read for us, so it would be good to have your Bible open at page 996.
And there we find Jesus and the disciples sharing in the Passover meal. It’s the night before Jesus is crucified; or, as the Communion service puts it, ‘on the night that he was betrayed...’ But up to this point, the disciples are unaware of the presence of a betrayer in their midst. Only John, in chapter 6, remembers that after the feeding of the 5000, and then some hard teaching, some of the wider crowd of disciples stopped following Jesus. Jesus says to the Twelve ‘You do not want to leave too, do you?’ And Peter says where would we go? You have the words of eternal life.
It’s at this point that Jesus says: ‘Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!’ John adds in a wee note as to who Jesus means. But none of the disciples suspected that Judas was a false brother. None of them imagined that he would betray Jesus.
You see, we already know about Judas. And every time you get a list of the Twelve in the gospels, Judas’ name always comes last, and is always followed by the comment ‘who betrayed him’ or ‘who became a traitor’. But the disciples don’t know this at this point. You can see how much of a bombshell the prospect of betrayal was in Matt 26:21.
‘While they were eating, he said, “I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me.” They were very sad and began to say to him one after the other, “Surely not I, Lord?” (21-22).
What did they not do? They didn’t all turn round and point at Judas and say, it must be him! No, they were all sad, they were all worried that it might be them. The other eleven were afraid that they might do it. But Judas knew that it was him. He had held back, not saying anything.
Jesus had said that one of his closest friends would betray him: ‘The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.’ (24)
Then Judas echoes the words of the other disciples, but do you see how they’re subtly different? ‘Surely not I, Rabbi?’ He refers to Jesus as Rabbi, teacher. The others spoke to Jesus as Lord. And Jesus confirms that it is indeed Judas.
In John’s eyewitness account, Judas leaves the Feast, he goes outside, and, as John remembers, ‘And it was night.’ The darkness of the night reflecting the darkness of Judas’ deed.
The next time we meet Judas is later in Matthew 26. Jesus had gone to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. It seems this was a regular place for him to go, and it’s there that Judas brings ‘a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people.’ (47)
You can imagine that, in the darkness, and with so many people around, and without any images or wanted posters or artists’ impressions of what Jesus looked like, the soldiers needed some way of knowing who they were meant to arrest. And so Judas had a signal for them. ‘The one I kiss is the man; arrest him.’ (48).
Judas’ betrayal is sealed with a kiss. That sign of love, becomes the signal of betrayal. Jesus is seized and arrested, and is taken to Caiaphas the high priest, and begins the last journey to the cross.
So far we’ve been tracking with the disciples, experiencing the events as they unfolded for them. But just before our reading, we’re told how Judas ended up leading the mob to arrest Jesus.
It’s there in verse 14. ‘Then one of the Twelve - the one called Judas Iscariot - went to the chief priests and asked, ‘What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?’ So they counted out thirty silver coins. From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over.’ (14-16)
The people who write commentaries on the Bible have lots of different theories as to why Judas did this. Some reckon that he was expecting Jesus to defeat the Romans. There were many zealots, who hoped to take back their country from the invading enemy. And so they reckon that hopes had been high when Jesus had ridden into Jerusalem on the donkey, and they waited for the uprising. But it never came. Was Judas trying to provoke Jesus into action? Getting him to start a fight? Or was he just disillusioned with Jesus?
Luke records that ‘Satan entered Judas’ (Luke 22:3). John says something similar - how ‘the devil had already prompted Judas’ to betray Jesus. Was Judas just the unfortunate pawn, the one the devil picked to do his bidding?
I think there’s more to it than that. Back at verse 14, it begins with the word ‘then’. What follows came after what had come before. And what comes before? It’s the incident we looked at last night - Mary’s extravagant outpouring of worship as she poured out her expensive perfume on the head and feet of Jesus. It was Judas who criticised her actions - seemingly because the perfume should have been sold and given to the poor - but John tells us that Judas was a thief and helped himself to the contents of the common money bag.
It’s ‘then’ after Mary’s devotion and Jesus’ rebuke of Judas that Judas turns to the chief priests, offering to betray Jesus; wanting to know what he could gain. Where Mary offered true devotion, Judas was out for himself. Could the selling of Jesus just be another symptom of his profiteering and selfishness?
By Matthew 27. Jesus has been sent on to Pilate, having been condemned by the Jewish leaders. Judas appears to relent - he is facing conviction; but does he repent? ‘When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders. “I have sinned,” he said, “for I have betrayed innocent blood.” (3-4).
He declares that he has sinned. He returns the coins. But is it remorse, or repentance? You see, Paul in 2 Corinthians compares godly sorrow with worldly sorrow. ‘Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.’ (2 Cor 7:10) Which is Judas experiencing?
Or to put it another way. Tomorrow evening we’ll focus on Peter, who denies that he knows Jesus. What’s the difference between Judas and Peter? Peter knows the joy of restoration, because he knows that Jesus died for him. Was that true of Judas? It seems not. Remember Jesus’ words in 26:24 ‘It would be better for him if he had not been born.’
[In passing, did you notice the hypocrisy of the chief priests? They couldn’t put those thirty silver coins into the treasury, because they were blood money - the same blood money they had no qualms about paying out of the treasury in the first place! Even in their hypocrisy, they were fulfilling the Old Testament prophecy of the price put on the head of Jesus, thirty pieces of silver.]
There may not be any hope for Judas in the Scriptures; but we may well learn from him. So what does he show us?
Not everyone who is numbered among the disciples is a disciple. Judas was among the Twelve, he had a position of responsibility, and yet he was a devil. Money was his god, and everything was to be sacrificed in pursuit of his god, even the Lord Jesus. Yet the other disciples didn’t even suspect that it might be Judas who would betray Jesus.
Oh how we need the grace of the Lord Jesus; that we would be true disciples; that we would not betray him for gain; that we would know godly sorrow for our sin and real repentance and the reality of restoration. Because the truth is that every day, we fail our Lord. Every day, we sin against him. But every day, we can find his forgiveness when we confess our sin to him.
This sermon was preached in St Matthew's Church, Richhill in the Characters Around the Cross Holy Week series on Wednesday 17th April 2019.
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