Judas
We really don’t know too much about Judas. We know Peter and Andrew were brothers and fishermen, just as James and John were. We know quite a bit about the more prominent Apostles, but not too much about those of lesser stature than the ones mentioned above. But Judas was prominent and well known, so why is it we don’t know where he came from or anything about him? My answer to that is, if he was your brother or son, would you admit it? Or would you want that broadcast?
I think the Scriptures do give us a hint of exactly who Judas was, without coming out and directly stating it, for the sake of the innocent. You may think my thoughts all wet but in the long and short of it, it doesn’t matter.
We are told the Judas was the son of Simon. Simon was a very popular name back then so it could be any Simon and that tells us nothing. But contrary to that thinking I think it tells volumes. Matthew and Mark describe an incident in the house of Simon the Leper. We all are familiar with how Mary anointed the Lord with the oil from her alabaster box.
John however gives a different slant to his accounting of the event. He doesn’t go in to much detail except to fill in some missing facts. One is that it was Mary who did the anointing, and that it happened in the house of Lazarus, Mary and Martha.
So if the anointing takes place in the house of Simon the Leper and Mary and Martha and Lazarus, then they must all live together and Simon is most likely their father. John also makes another comment that he does bring up one other time. He says Simon is Judas’ father.
No this is where it gets tricky. If you are in the house of Simon the Leper and you say Simon is the father of Judas, would you be talking about Simon down the street?
No one wants to hear that Judas is the brother to Mary and Martha and Lazarus, and for that matter they would most likely not want anyone to hear that either, would you? We know that Jesus loved Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, and was frequently a guest in their house. We know that Jesus loved his Apostles, who he shared the “best part of his life” with, his last three and a half years. He loved Lazarus very much, but didn’t call him to be one of the twelve, that seems a bit odd. He loved the entire family, and they are the only family to my mind that he really associated with. Perhaps Lazarus was too young at the time. But he called Judas the son of Simon because he knew them and loved them all.
I think that is part of Jesus’ agony in the garden. “His own familiar friend,” “one whom he trusted,” stabbed him in the back. Judas was special; he sat at the head of the table next to Jesus. Using Jesus’ own words about the guest and how you sit in the back of the room and what a blessing it is when you are called up to a chief seat. Jesus would have selected the seating and perhaps this order was established earlier on at their first Passover together; I doubt very much that they just sat where they wanted. We know that John and Peter were on one side and Judas on the other and most likely James was next to Judas as they were the favored.
John is the one who gives us the clue. John is the only one that night who knew it was Judas and had a clear view of Judas’ face when Jesus handed him the sop.
What kind of man, would stab his best friend in the back? What kind of man wouldn’t gasp when Jesus said, ye are all clean, except one? And that one at the table would betray him. What kind of man could look Jesus square in the face and ask, “Is it I?” and not cringe or faint when Jesus said, “Yes, it’s you.” In the Matthew account it gives the appearance that Judas asked last. He probably didn’t want to be the only one who didn’t ask. What kind of man could do such things?
What kind of man would take Judas’ case? A man with a divine sense of justice and righteousness could never be his advocate.
We see in history how some of the Lord’s faithful were betrayed in similar manner. Tyndale was led down a path by a supposed friend right into the hands of his enemies. What kind of man could do that? The bones of Wycliffe were dug up and burned by a man who was supposed to be his friend, who shortly after Wycliffe died returned to the vomitus system which he left because he had no strength to stand on his own once the Pillar of the Lord was no longer there to hold the weight of the roof up off his head, so he conceded to heavy hand and also didn’t mind the lucrative new position he got for recanting his reformation views. What kind of man could do that?
I can only imagine the pain in ones heart to be on the receiving end of such treachery. One night I heard my husband cry out, “Why?, Why? Why?. It took me a little to waken him and he was breathing very heavy. He had a dream that I was trying to kill him and all he could ask was Why? Jesus knew why, because he could read Judas’ heart. His best friend sold him out for a few measly pieces of silver.
It was right after the account where Mary anointed Jesus when Judas decided to consort with the Chief Priests. Perhaps he didn’t like Jesus’ correction of his attitude about the ointment.
In thinking of Jesus’ last night; It was the most important night to him, he knew it was his last and with desire he desired to be there with his disciples and share the Passover with them and to institute a new thing. To explain to them in a way that they would never forget that he was the Passover Lamb. Jesus heart heavy with all things he wanted to tell them and show them. His depth of love for those who he had shared the past three and a half years with, but there was that fly in the ointment, that constant pain that kept jabbing in the heart. He could read Judas’ thoughts and knew that there was no harmony in the room. Everything he did must have met with some kind of internal contempt by Judas. Jesus said at one point during the night he was all alone. That was true physically when they all fled, but he was alone even when the 12 were there. He gave them several hints that something was going on, but they were clueless. By the end of the night only John knew the character of Judas, but we don’t know if he had a chance to tell Peter who asked him. Perhaps Peter did know and that’s why he said he would not deny him. Even though Jesus could read Peter’s heart and knew that Peter meant every word he said, he could also read Peter’s character and know he was not yet strong enough to pass the test that night.
We know that Judas killed himself. It says he “repented” but the word is not the same as guilty sorrow, it means to “care afterwards, or regret,” its kind of a shallow meaning. Perhaps the holy Spirit brought to his mind some of the saying of Jesus and David. “Woe to that man… it had been better that a millstone was tied around his neck and he was cast into the sea.” “offences must come, but Woe unto that man by whom they come…it had been better that he had never been born.” “Son of Perdition (damnation).” “When he is judged let him be condemned and let his prayer become sin…” We are told that when one commits the “sin unto death,” it is impossible to renew them to repentance. What’s worse than killing the Son of God? And as already shown Judas’ repentance wasn’t repentance, it was more like: Look what I have done, my bad. Jesus was still alive at this point and he could have gone to him, he could have cried like Peter for his fearfulness, but he didn’t.
I was thinking about the Passover. This might be a stretch but here goes. The Lamb is taken into the house on the 10th day and during that time the family gets to know it. In Exodus 12 it starts out from “a” lamb, then “the” lamb, and finally to “your” lamb. A comment was made during a study that it shows the attachment. Its just a lamb, then it’s the lamb, and finally yours, just like Jesus to some is “a” savior, to some his is “the” savoir, and to the household he is “our” Savior. He is with the family three and a half days as he is killed on the 14th day. It is interesting to note it is also the Priests who kill the lamb in the type. Perhaps the one who brings the lamb to them is also a picture of Judas, and perhaps I making too much out of it. By the time the 4th day rolls around and you have this cute little lamb in the house he becomes part of the family and then Pop takes him and has him killed.
I think the Scriptures do give us a hint of exactly who Judas was, without coming out and directly stating it, for the sake of the innocent. You may think my thoughts all wet but in the long and short of it, it doesn’t matter.
We are told the Judas was the son of Simon. Simon was a very popular name back then so it could be any Simon and that tells us nothing. But contrary to that thinking I think it tells volumes. Matthew and Mark describe an incident in the house of Simon the Leper. We all are familiar with how Mary anointed the Lord with the oil from her alabaster box.
John however gives a different slant to his accounting of the event. He doesn’t go in to much detail except to fill in some missing facts. One is that it was Mary who did the anointing, and that it happened in the house of Lazarus, Mary and Martha.
So if the anointing takes place in the house of Simon the Leper and Mary and Martha and Lazarus, then they must all live together and Simon is most likely their father. John also makes another comment that he does bring up one other time. He says Simon is Judas’ father.
No this is where it gets tricky. If you are in the house of Simon the Leper and you say Simon is the father of Judas, would you be talking about Simon down the street?
No one wants to hear that Judas is the brother to Mary and Martha and Lazarus, and for that matter they would most likely not want anyone to hear that either, would you? We know that Jesus loved Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, and was frequently a guest in their house. We know that Jesus loved his Apostles, who he shared the “best part of his life” with, his last three and a half years. He loved Lazarus very much, but didn’t call him to be one of the twelve, that seems a bit odd. He loved the entire family, and they are the only family to my mind that he really associated with. Perhaps Lazarus was too young at the time. But he called Judas the son of Simon because he knew them and loved them all.
I think that is part of Jesus’ agony in the garden. “His own familiar friend,” “one whom he trusted,” stabbed him in the back. Judas was special; he sat at the head of the table next to Jesus. Using Jesus’ own words about the guest and how you sit in the back of the room and what a blessing it is when you are called up to a chief seat. Jesus would have selected the seating and perhaps this order was established earlier on at their first Passover together; I doubt very much that they just sat where they wanted. We know that John and Peter were on one side and Judas on the other and most likely James was next to Judas as they were the favored.
John is the one who gives us the clue. John is the only one that night who knew it was Judas and had a clear view of Judas’ face when Jesus handed him the sop.
What kind of man, would stab his best friend in the back? What kind of man wouldn’t gasp when Jesus said, ye are all clean, except one? And that one at the table would betray him. What kind of man could look Jesus square in the face and ask, “Is it I?” and not cringe or faint when Jesus said, “Yes, it’s you.” In the Matthew account it gives the appearance that Judas asked last. He probably didn’t want to be the only one who didn’t ask. What kind of man could do such things?
What kind of man would take Judas’ case? A man with a divine sense of justice and righteousness could never be his advocate.
We see in history how some of the Lord’s faithful were betrayed in similar manner. Tyndale was led down a path by a supposed friend right into the hands of his enemies. What kind of man could do that? The bones of Wycliffe were dug up and burned by a man who was supposed to be his friend, who shortly after Wycliffe died returned to the vomitus system which he left because he had no strength to stand on his own once the Pillar of the Lord was no longer there to hold the weight of the roof up off his head, so he conceded to heavy hand and also didn’t mind the lucrative new position he got for recanting his reformation views. What kind of man could do that?
I can only imagine the pain in ones heart to be on the receiving end of such treachery. One night I heard my husband cry out, “Why?, Why? Why?. It took me a little to waken him and he was breathing very heavy. He had a dream that I was trying to kill him and all he could ask was Why? Jesus knew why, because he could read Judas’ heart. His best friend sold him out for a few measly pieces of silver.
It was right after the account where Mary anointed Jesus when Judas decided to consort with the Chief Priests. Perhaps he didn’t like Jesus’ correction of his attitude about the ointment.
In thinking of Jesus’ last night; It was the most important night to him, he knew it was his last and with desire he desired to be there with his disciples and share the Passover with them and to institute a new thing. To explain to them in a way that they would never forget that he was the Passover Lamb. Jesus heart heavy with all things he wanted to tell them and show them. His depth of love for those who he had shared the past three and a half years with, but there was that fly in the ointment, that constant pain that kept jabbing in the heart. He could read Judas’ thoughts and knew that there was no harmony in the room. Everything he did must have met with some kind of internal contempt by Judas. Jesus said at one point during the night he was all alone. That was true physically when they all fled, but he was alone even when the 12 were there. He gave them several hints that something was going on, but they were clueless. By the end of the night only John knew the character of Judas, but we don’t know if he had a chance to tell Peter who asked him. Perhaps Peter did know and that’s why he said he would not deny him. Even though Jesus could read Peter’s heart and knew that Peter meant every word he said, he could also read Peter’s character and know he was not yet strong enough to pass the test that night.
We know that Judas killed himself. It says he “repented” but the word is not the same as guilty sorrow, it means to “care afterwards, or regret,” its kind of a shallow meaning. Perhaps the holy Spirit brought to his mind some of the saying of Jesus and David. “Woe to that man… it had been better that a millstone was tied around his neck and he was cast into the sea.” “offences must come, but Woe unto that man by whom they come…it had been better that he had never been born.” “Son of Perdition (damnation).” “When he is judged let him be condemned and let his prayer become sin…” We are told that when one commits the “sin unto death,” it is impossible to renew them to repentance. What’s worse than killing the Son of God? And as already shown Judas’ repentance wasn’t repentance, it was more like: Look what I have done, my bad. Jesus was still alive at this point and he could have gone to him, he could have cried like Peter for his fearfulness, but he didn’t.
I was thinking about the Passover. This might be a stretch but here goes. The Lamb is taken into the house on the 10th day and during that time the family gets to know it. In Exodus 12 it starts out from “a” lamb, then “the” lamb, and finally to “your” lamb. A comment was made during a study that it shows the attachment. Its just a lamb, then it’s the lamb, and finally yours, just like Jesus to some is “a” savior, to some his is “the” savoir, and to the household he is “our” Savior. He is with the family three and a half days as he is killed on the 14th day. It is interesting to note it is also the Priests who kill the lamb in the type. Perhaps the one who brings the lamb to them is also a picture of Judas, and perhaps I making too much out of it. By the time the 4th day rolls around and you have this cute little lamb in the house he becomes part of the family and then Pop takes him and has him killed.
