A Radically Different Judas

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, Mi. These posts are reflections on Sunday’s message, which can be heard here each week: http://encounterchurch.org/#/messages-media]

I walked away from church on Sunday with a profoundly different understanding of Judas Iscariot. He’s been criminalized and villianized over the centuries since his death, and maybe for good reason, but he’s also been largely misrepresented.  Judas was not an unbeliever who pretended to love and serve Jesus so he could wait for the perfect time to attack. Judas was not a schemer who planned for years to betray Jesus. Judas probably did not even plot the death of Jesus. In fact, Judas probably could not have known that his betrayal would lead to the death of his Lord.

We do know this: Judas tragically underestimated the corruption of those around him.  

When Judas agreed to hand Jesus over to the religious leaders, he did so knowing that the chief priests and teachers of the law had no actual authority or power within Rome to do any real harm to Jesus. They couldn’t orchestrate a legal trial, they couldn’t order imprisonment, and they certainly couldn’t mandate a death by crucifixion. But Rome could do all of those things, and the religious leaders who wanted Jesus dead knew that if they were going to stop the ministry of Jesus, they would need to do it through the Roman government. So when Jesus was arrested and brought before Pilate, a Roman governor, Judas realized immediately but too late that he had been used in a much larger plot to murder Jesus.

It is the chief priests and the teachers of the law who actually orchestrate the death of the Messiah. It is they who bribe Judas to bring Jesus to them at night, in secret, to be arrested, and it is they who bring him before the Roman officials and accuse him of treason. Pilate can find no fault with Jesus, so he sends Jesus before Herod who also finds no fault with Jesus, and so Jesus is sent back before Pilate. Pilate says several times that he intends only to punish Jesus and then release him, but the crowd demands the release of a murderer, and the death of Jesus in the murderer’s place. It is the crowd who actually orchestrates the death of the Messiah.

How all of this gets pinned so singularly on Judas is outrageous, really. And Judas is often further criticized for taking his own life; in fact, Judas appears to be one of very few people who realized in the midst of the chaos what was actually happening. They are murdering the very Son of God.

Judas loved Jesus. But he was unable to divorce his own agenda from the reality of Jesus’ ministry. Judas wanted Jesus to be the militant savior that the people had been expecting for so many generations. Judas wanted Jesus to overthrow the Romans, to establish the dominance of the nation of Israel, and perhaps he even wanted those Romans to pay for what they had done. But one can hardly blame Judas; that’s the way nations had warred, conquered one another, and maintained control over one another for as long as Judas or any Israelite could remember. They could remember the Assyrians. The Babylonians. The Romans. And now it was to be the time of the Israelites. Many, many believers held this view of Jesus; only Judas had the foolish courage to act on his own ambition rather than to wait at the feet of Jesus.

In retrospect, it’s so obvious that Jesus made it clear that his kingdom was not one of war and hatred and flesh, but one of peace and love and eternity. But Judas would not listen and it cost him and his savior their lives. So many Christians today continue to demand a militant Christ—one who will condone Christians for their systematic and militant hatred of those who hold different values and beliefs. But the ministry of Jesus was one of peace and love and eternity.

Is Judas a sympathetic figure? Not exactly. Not any more than a militant Christian today is a sympathetic figure. Judas’ volunteerism for the religious leaders made possible the eventual crucifixion of Jesus Christ. And we continue to destroy the words of Christ with our own hateful actions every day.

But of course, what makes all the difference is this: what the religious leaders and teachers of the law intended for evil, God used to redeem all of creation.

What it comes down to is this: God works through us and God works in spite of us. We don’t always follow Jesus well, but still the work of God continues all around us. And when we do finally put our own agendas aside and align our wills with God’s, then we have the opportunity to participate in the renewing of this world all around us. This, of course, is nothing short of incredible. God will not be deterred, but he will let us join in his kingdom work.

[Kristin vanEyk lives in Kentwood, Mi where she attends Encounter Church with her husband Dirk, and her two kids, Lily and Colin. Kristin teaches high school English and is slowly learning what it means to follow Jesus.]