Today we discussed Judas. Little is known about who he was but it is interesting to note that nowhere in the Gospels is there any mention of him being called by Jesus to follow him as there is with all the other disciples. He just seems to have been following along until in Matthew 10:1-4 when Jesus gave all twelve, including Judas, power over unclean spirits and essentially ordained them all. His father was Simon but there are so many Simons in the Bible that any specifics about his upbringing are speculation.
What we do know is that he was a thief, a person who took advantage of a situation. It is hard to believe that he would betray Jesus just for money. The obvious answer if given in John 13:27 “As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.” This can be backed up by the parable of the farmer, Mark 4:15 “… Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.”
Our debate; however, centered on what motivation Satan put into Judas’s heart: A realization that Jesus was about to die and wasn’t therefore the conquering warrior king that Judas, if, as some say, he was a zealot, would have hoped for or perhaps it was it envy. Envy is mentioned in Proverbs 27:4 “Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous, but who is able to stand before envy.” In Song of Solomon 8:6 “…Jealousy is cruel as the grave…” but I think envy and jealousy is what was driving the Priests, not necessarily Judas.
In summary it could be said that, disappointed with what Christ really was and that he was about to die, he thought to take advantage of the situation as he had done with the money bag, and gain for himself a special standing with the Priests before Christ’s following collapsed. He could not have understood or believed that Jesus would be resurrected. Whatever it was, once the deed was done, he realized what a terrible mistake he had made.
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