The Betrayer
Did Judas set out to have Jesus killed or was he trying to save him?
It was two days before the Passover and the festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him; for they said, "Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people." While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head. But some were there who said to one another in anger, "Why was the ointment wasted in this way? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor." And they scolded her. But Jesus said, "Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her." Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. When they heard it, they were greatly pleased, and promised to give him money. So he began to look for an opportunity to betray him. - Mark 14:1-11
There is a theory, based on the writings believed to be the Gospel of Judas, that claims Judas was trying to have Jesus arrested to keep him from being killed.
Another interpretation claims that Judas was just doing what Jesus wantyed him to do. In other words, Jesus was picking the time and place for his arrest, giving Judas the job of making it happen.
What is interesting about these theories is that they go against the image we have of Judas as a betrayer.
What if Judas was just following instructions, believing it was the right thing to do?
That would change everything, wouldn't it? We might actually feel sorry for the guy, since he wound up killing himself.
He couldn't live with what he did, and now for all eternity, he is known as a betrayer of Jesus.
We are conditioned to see Judas a certain way, beccause the Gospel writers told us to. Decades after Jesus was crucified, thye stories that had been told were writeh down and became the truth we know.
But what if they got it wrong?
What if Judas was not the greedy evil betrayer we think he was?
What this points out to me is that we could be misled. Many voices can sway our opinion. Many generations of belief can become truth.
That's not to say there may have been a reason his friends believed he was capable of betraying Jesus. They saw him do it!
Perhaps they were shocked, even more so than Jesus, who may have known what Judas was doing.
This is a case of judgment. We determine guilt by what we see and hear, and once we make a decision to judge, we have a hard time imagining that we could be wrong.
Maybe the lesson for us is to keep an open mind. Regardless of how things seem, we have to presume innocence.
If we don't, our entire system becomes corrupt.
More to come...