It seems odd that Jesus would choose a treacherous man for a disciple. And “right from the beginning” Jesus knew that Judas would be the death of him, John 6:64. He also knew that under Judas’ respectable veneer was “a devil” (70), deceitful to the core, a sneaky thief who not only stole out of the disciples’ working funds (12:6), he would trade Jesus’ life in for money too (Matthew 26:14-16).
And on top of that Judas was a virtue signalling hypocrite, who objected to money being spent on expensive perfume because it would be better spent “on care for the poor” (John 12:5-6). But what about the extra money he was secretly pocketing – did it go to the poor?
But amazingly, Jesus made Judas the “keeper of the money bag” (6), the Treasurer of the group. And for three years Jesus walked, talked and spent hours with Judas. In Luke 9:1, he even gave Judas “the power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases” – and to “preach the kingdom of God” too (2).
And when the time came for Judas to betray Jesus in John 13:18, it was Psalm 41:9 that Jesus quoted from, which says, “Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread has lifted up his heel against me.” It “troubled Jesus greatly” in verse 21 then, that Judas would turn on him. Because even though Scripture had to be fulfilled, Jesus felt the loss of his close friend Judas deeply.
Which tells us that Jesus chose Judas because he loved him, even knowing what Judas was like, and Scripture predicting what he would do. But that didn’t stop Jesus loving him, in the hope that Judas would respond to his love and his heart would soften. And only when it was obvious that Judas would finally go ahead and turn Jesus in, did Jesus accept he’d lost him, and that’s when “Satan entered into Judas” (27).
Up to the point that Satan entered him, Judas was still free to choose. Why on earth, then, did he choose to betray Jesus who obviously loved him? As Jesus said in Matthew 26:24, “Better for Judas if he’d never been born,” because without Jesus’ love getting through to him, Judas’ life ended up a shambles.
What a lesson, therefore, in our need for the Father to open our minds to Jesus’ love – that could love a man like Judas. In not opening his mind, then, “Was God being fair to Judas?”….(next blog)
Buck To Basics 