When we hear others say, "so-and-so is 'a
Judas'", we know that means 'a traitor', like Judas Iscariot, who betrayed
Christ. But why did he do that?
If you ask that question, a million to one the answer
is he was greedy for money. He loved money. And after all, he carried 'the
purse'' for Christ and the apostles, and that's proof he was greedy for money,
and that's that; end of discussion. But is there more to it?
Even though he is thought to be greedy for money,
Judas must have been good at managing it; and he must have been trustworthy, at
least at first, or he wouldn't have been chosen out of the twelve for that
position.
Some might say what he did was all in God's Plan,
since without it there would have been no death on the Cross and thus, no
Resurrection. And yet, even if he hadn't been in the picture, the Jewish
authorities were out to get rid of Christ, just the same. So Judas was not
God's robot; he used his free will.
Most of what we know about Judas is in the New
Testament. Other than that, background information on him is scant. But what we
have might be somewhat telling. He was born in Kerioth, a city of Judah,
unlike the other eleven apostles who were all Galileans. He was the odd one
in.
Perhaps he felt uncomfortable; felt out of place; and
because of that, maybe he decided to make a name for himself among the
apostles. Or maybe he was a vicious opportunist with no sympathy for others; or
maybe both; or maybe all of that and more. That would seem to be the case since
the Evangelists, especially the Apostle St. John, paint him blacker than
black.
According to the Gospels, Judas had an indignant
attitude and lacked appreciation for displays of gratitude, as depicted in
the account of the oil anointing of Christ by Mary of Bethany. St. John
quotes Judas as saying 'Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence,
and given to the poor?'
Some might opine that it was after the anointing that
Judas suddenly decided to come up with a plan; so maybe he only acted
indignant. Others might suppose that by then, he already had long negotiations
with the chief priests.
Either way or both, what he said about the oil was not
because he cared for the poor; not by a long shot. But rather, in my opinion,
it was because events weren't heading in the direction he wanted. So which
direction was that?
.
He wanted money and, of course, knew he'd be coming
into 30 pieces of silver, at least. But he really wanted large amounts. He
wanted a fortune; and we know, he knew Christ restored sight, healed incurable
diseases, and raised the dead.
So maybe he thought the masses could be made to pay
for services. He wanted fame and prestige, as well; and he wanted to rule a new
type of empire.
In my opinion, Judas saw Christ as 'the winning
lottery ticket'. He was greedy for money, yes; and he was greedy for power and
control. So in the garden, when Christ didn't use His power to strike down the
arresting mob, Judas finally got the idea, all too late. Just some thoughts.
May our readers have a blessed and glorious
Resurrection celebration.
Happy Easter! He is Risen.
Tina Irene Williams
From ©WilliamsScript, the author's private collection
of writings
Copyright © Tina Irene Williams 2014 All Rights
Reserved.
No part of this document may be reproduced without
Tina Irene Williams' written consent.
No comments:
Post a Comment