by Herbert Henry Ehrenstein
E v e r y y e a r , during the Lenten season, one rather sinis ter person receives a great deal of attention. His name is Judas Iscariot, the traitor in the band of Jesus’ follow ers. He is excoriated and condemned for his vicious act of betrayal. All manner of maledictions are heaped on his head bv fervent preachers as the man who “ sold out the Lord.” Now, to be sure, this is true! But have we ever taken the time to evaluate the life of Judas? The Scriptures tell us that the devil entered into Judas (John 13:27) and thus he performed his heinous crime. But what were the human factors which led up to this act of betrayal? We propose to consider some of them in this article. First, a word about Judas’ background. Very little is actually known about the man. From his name, we gather that he was bom in Kerioth, cited in the book of Joshua as one of the villages of southern Judah (Joshua 15:24). Iscariot is apparently a transliteration of the Hebrew ish, “man” and Kerioth—man of Kerioth. He was the son of Simon Ish-Kerioth (John 13:2; 6:71; 13:26). Jesus selected Judas as one of the apostles as recorded by the synoptic gospels and all three state that this man was to betray Christ (Matthew 10:4; Mark 3:19; Luke 6:16). We often wonder just why Jesus called Judas to this high office. Surely, He must have known that Judas would betray Him. No one really knows the reason although all sorts of guesses have been offered. Undoubtedly, our Lord had a definite reason for incorporating this traitor into His band of disciples. Perhaps it was only that the Scriptures might be fulfilled; perhaps there were other reasons. We do not know. As we stand off and watch Judas at work, we discover that he was a very greedy individual. Indeed, his avarice had driven him to a love for money and this, in turn, had made him a thief. When Mary of Bethany poured the cost ly ointment over the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair, Judas was greatly agitated. “Why was this oint ment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” His question was not prompted by any concern for the poor. Rather, as John comments, Judas was the treas urer of the disciples (another paradox-—that Jesus would let a thief be elected to this office!) and put the little money the group had into the money container which he kept. He knew that, if the ointment had been sold, his money-box would have received greater funds which he might filch. “ For,” John minces no words; [Judas] “ was a thief,” and made a practice of embezzling the funds (John 12:6, RSV). Naturally, therefore, he would always be on the alert for ways of replenishing the stolen money. We know that Jesus was not ignorant of Judas’ activi ties. Throughout His association with the disciples, He made reference to the black sheep in the group. He spoke of him as a devil (John 6:70), not clean (John 13:10), a traitor (John 13:18), a betrayer (Matthew 26:21), and the
son of perdition (John 17:12). But always, these designa tions were given in veiled language so that positive identi fication could not be made by the rest of the disciples. To the very end, Judas had an opportunity to escape detection and be drawn into the intimate fellowship of true dis- cipleship. Let us take a glance at the events and episodes which contributed psychologically to Judas’ final downfall. Again, we do not say that his defection can be explained purely from a psychological standpoint. There was a very real case of demon possession here. But, as circumstances frequently lead us, as Christians, to a closer walk with Christ, so certain factors in life can be responsible for a person’s downward trek into sin. This was clearly true of Judas. He joined the band of disciples feeling that Jesus was the Messiah. Conditioned from boyhood by the Jewish hope of a coming military deliverer to overthrow Israel’s enemies, Judah watched closely as Jesus made His debut, performed His miracles and began His public ministry. In Judas’ mind were pictures of power, prestige, authority and the thought of being associated with a conqueror appealed to his ego. Thus, he accepted the responsibility of treasurer since he envisioned a great future. In the kingdom, soon to be set up, he would be collector of in ternal revenue— a very lucrative position. We may assume that he was impressed by Jesus’ pow er, His miracles. He probably watched as Jesus healed the centurion’s son at a distance (Matthew 8:5 ff). He observed the raising of the son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7:11 ff). The stilling of the storm (Mark 4:35 ff), the feeding of the 5000 (John 6) and the raising of Jairus’ daughter (Matthew 9:18 ff), all added to his growing conviction that this must indeed be the promised deliverer. Probably the raising of Lazarus, dead four days, clinched the matter for Judas (John 11). His own subsequent ability to per form miracles as he was sent forth with the other dis ciples, must have created all sorts of illusions of grandeur and power within Judas (Matthew 10:1 ff). Perhaps the first sharp blow to this mounting enthusi asm was the beheading of John the Baptist. Judas, indig nant at this despicable act, expected quick retaliation from Jesus. Surely, the Messiah would speak a word and Herod would be stricken down in his tracks. Yet, time went on and Jesus did nothing, simply retired to a secret place and seemed dejected. Judas was puzzled. Was his Lord afraid of Herod? Didn’t He understand that if He let these politi cal big-wigs get away with such murder that they would eventually walk all over Him and His coming kingdom? The second blow came after the feeding of the five thousand people. The grateful populace wanted to make Jesus king to keep their stomachs filled (John 6:14, 15). Here was the opportunity of a life-time, Judas thought. Surely, Jesus would take advantage of it. But no! He got
THE KING'S BUSINESS
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