Judas

 THE TRUTH OF JUDAS

Introduction

From the beginning God has been thwarting the plans of His enemies.  God, foreseeing the evil deeds, turned each incident in His favor; and with Judas, there was no difference.  

Some believe that without Judas’ actions the salvation of man would not have been possible.  In fact, they see his actions as absolutely necessary, and believe that Christ even inspired Judas’ actions in order to bring about His deliverance and salvation of man. 

Foreknowledge is no different than after knowledge.  That God knew beforehand of Judas’ treachery did not change the fact that Judas did the deed.  More evil is committed by the treachery of supposed Christians, or supposed friends or family, than the outright attacks of Satan himself.  More harm has been done to the Kingdom of God by the so called, “religious believers,” than all of the obvious oppositions combined.

Judas betrayed the Lord, His close friend, with a kiss.  However, it was the religious and political establishment that killed the Lord; and those same establishments exercises dominion on earth over His heritage now. 

I.                 Foreknowledge:

Foreknowledge for God is no different than after knowledge for us.  God’s foreknowledge may lead Him to persuade someone to do what is right, or to complete a task needed for His plans, like our after knowledge may persuade someone to stop something offending us. 

God’s foreknowledge may lead Him to eliminate someone that could do great harm in opposition to His plans ahead of time, similar to how we might execute a criminal after knowledge of his crimes.  God never trespasses on a person’s free will.  If you will not be persuaded, you will be destroyed by your faults, here or there. 

You have probably seen some movie or TV show where people are always trying to change some event in the present, which they believe is going to be cataclysmic in the future.  God is the only being to succeed at this attempt.  God always has a ram in the bush, and He never lets sin prosper to the point of evil stopping His benevolent plans.

God turned the fall of man into man’s eventual salvation, i.e., He defeated what defeated man for him.  God destroyed the Nephilim offspring of fallen angels with the flood.  Satan the accuser, having believed he had victory, has been frustrated by and with many biblical personages, and ultimately, Christ.

That God knew beforehand of Judas’ treachery did not change the fact that Judas did the deed.  God does not change every event in our world to avoid the evil outcome; look around, and see this as a truth. 

God’s foreknowledge knows that all the evil of our world cannot compare to the perpetual joy the redeemed will experience in eternity.  God’s foreknowledge is employed in bringing about the best end state for His Kingdom possible.

God’s true end and purpose is not to use His powers for punishment or revenge for sin, evil, treachery, or betrayal, but the ultimate recovery of the lost sinner; you, me, those of the world who repent.  God, having foreseen the deeds of the wicked, of Satan, of Judas, employed the best means possible to spoil, or as Colossians 2:15 states, “And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.”

God cannot be defeated, and if you think for one moment that somehow you will be able to keep your sinful selfish lifestyle and exist in the benevolent Kingdom of God, let me tell you this – He will ground pound you now, if there is hope of persuading you otherwise (I know this to be a fact), and if not, then, like Judas, your sin will be upon your own head.

The Truth of Judas is this; we all see Christ as we want to see Christ, as applied to our own selfish needs, not as He is to be seen collectively in the body of the church.  Judas sought a worldly kingdom. 

Disillusioned, driven by the sin of avarice, and the pride of his Pharisee father whom Jesus rebuked along with Judas in his own home just before the Passover, and/or perhaps the thought that Christ would usher in the Kingdom of God presently, and deliver the Jews from the hand of the Romans, could have played into Judas’ treachery.   We shall see that Satan used Judas’ own desires, appetites, and pride just like he does with us. 

II.               Gospel of Judas

There are those who say that without Judas' actions there is no salvation, that Judas’ deeds are absolutely necessary.  Some say Judas’ activities were even inspired by Christ according to the Bible.

There is a “Gospel of Judas,” which surfaced in the 1970s, that appears to be from the late 2nd century, which relates the story of Jesus' death from the viewpoint of Judas.  A synopsis of what is in the Gospel of Judas according to our favorite worldly truth site, Wikipedia is below.

Mat 26:21  And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.

Mat 26:22  And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I?

Mat 26:23  And he answered and said, He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me.

Mat 26:24  The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born.

Mat 26:25  Then Judas, which betrayed him, answered and said, Master, is it I? He said unto him, Thou hast said.

The Gospel of Judas states that Judas did what he did, “in obedience to instructions given to him by Christ.”  Yet, in the passage above Judas says, “Master, is it I?” revealing that he had no instructions from the Lord to this effect.

It is also obvious from this passage that culpability rests on Judas’ part as the Lord indicates, “Thou hast said.”  Additionally, if Judas alone had the “true Gospel,” he kept it to himself “alone,” until his fellow siblings of perdition unearthed it 2,000 years later.

III.             Mary 1, 2, 3?

Joh 12:1  Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead.

Joh 12:2  There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him.

Joh 12:3  Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.

Joh 12:4  Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him,

Joh 12:5  Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?

Joh 12:6  This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein.

Joh 12:7  Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this.

Joh 12:8  For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always.

Joh 12:9  Much people of the Jews therefore knew that he was there: and they came not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead.

Joh 12:10  But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death;

The feast in Bethany occurred TWO DAYS before the Passover, verse one states that Jesus arrived SIX DAYS before the passover.  John time stamps His arrival in Bethany on the 10th of Nisan, the day the Passover Lamb was set aside, and Jesus was the perfect Passover Lamb.

Matthew 26, Mark 14, and John 12, all describe the same anointing by Mary of Bethany, who is also Mary Magdalene, and the woman in the city in Luke 7.  Although two accounts say Jesus’ head was anointed and two the feet were anointed, it is merely the details the Holy Ghost meant to be revealed, but both His head and feet were anointed in accordance with the instructions of the Passover lamb (Exo12:9).

Why I believe that these three women are all are the one and same Mary is because of Matthew 26:13.

“Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.”  Matthew 26:13.

How can the Lord speak so remarkably of a woman here in Mathew, and command that it be included in all the Gospels as a testimony, if it had already been done by “the woman in the city” in Luke 7, and supposedly four days earlier by Mary of Bethany in John 12?

I want to remind you that this occurrence in Matthew is two days before the Passover.  So, at best this woman is imitating two others but gets praised more.  That is highly unlikely.  Indeed, if the Lord has truly asked that this record be preserved in writ as found in Matthew, Mark, and John before the Passover, it absolutely must be also in the 7th of Luke – or Luke did not adhere to the Lord’s command.

While the differences of the four occasions are slight, the similarities are too profound to ignore as mere coincidence:

• Three accounts specifically say the location is in Bethany, while Luke gives no location.
• The host in three instances is a man named Simon, and his presence is alluded to in the fourth (John’s account), by the clause “Simon’s son.”
• In every instance, Jesus is sitting at a meal when He is anointed.
• In every instance a precious ointment is used.
• The two accounts that mention the Lord’s feet both have the woman using her hair to wipe with.
• Every time Mary of Bethany is mentioned she is at the feet of Jesus (Luk 10:39-42, Joh 11:32, Joh, 12:3), and every time Mary Magdalene is mentioned she is found at His feet also (Joh 19:25, Joh 20:17, Mat 28:9).  It is awfully strange to find only women named Mary at the Lord’s feet.  The woman in the city with no name is also at His feet in Luke 7.
• All of these women are either mentioned as being in tears, or it is implied.
• All the stories contain threads of rebukes, and disapprovals, and most for the same common reasons.  Luke 7 contains a parable rebuke that is targeted at Simon the father of Judas.

How does Simon know the woman is a sinner in Luke 7?  Because he knows her, and it seems unlikely that sinners just stray into people’s houses unless they of course live there already, as did Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, making Simon the Pharisee, and Simon the leper the same person who is also the father of Judas, making again a kinship between them all highly likely.

It is my belief that the fervency and devotion of a number of the family members at the house in Bethany led the Holy Ghost to so mask the writings surrounding them, that only a careful and detective student can uncover the truth as the Holy Ghost allows (I did not uncover this).

I truly believe that Judas was somehow kin in all this, and his sin was so great, and Mary, and Lazarus, and Martha’s love for the Lord so great that the Proverb prevailed , “He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.”  Proverbs 17:9.

IV.            Simon 5, 6, 7, 8?

Simon is the father of Judas.  John 6:71, states this:

“He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve.”  John 6:71.

Of the Simons mentioned in the Bible, I believe we can eliminate Simon the tanner (Acts 9:43), and Simon the sorcerer (Acts 8:9) as two of the Simons in the New Testament who could have been Judas’ father.  Simon Peter, Simon Zelotes (the Canaanite, another disciple), Simon the Lord's step-brother, and Simon the Cyrenian (who carried Jesus’ cross) are also poor candidates for Simon the father of Judas.

That leaves only two candidates, Simon the Pharisee, and Simon the Leper.  What if Simon the Pharisee and Simon the leper are the same person?

“And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head.”  Mark 14:3.

Obviously healed of leprosy, Mary, who clearly can come and go in the house of Simon the leper, is anointing the Lord.  Here we have Mary, Martha, their brother Lazarus, all in the house of Simon the leper, where John indicates that Judas is Simon’s son. 

How is it Mary can be found so easily in the home of Simon?  It is because she is somehow kin to all these people.

Joh 12:1  Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead.

Joh 12:2  There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him.

Joh 12:3  Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.

Joh 12:4  Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him,

Luk 7:36  And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee's house, and sat down to meat.

Luk 7:37  And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment,

Luk 7:38  And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.

Luk 7:39  Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner.

Luk 7:40  And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on.

Luk 7:41  There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty.

Luk 7:42  And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most?

Luk 7:43  Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged.

Luk 7:44  And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.

Luk 7:45  Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet.

Luk 7:46  My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.

Luk 7:47  Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.

Simon the leper, is just called a Pharisee in Luke, not Simon the Pharisee.  That is an appellation we attached, whereas the biblical writers only attached “the leper” to his name.

“And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee's house, and sat down to meat.”  Luke 7:36.

Perhaps his rude behavior in not affording Jesus the customary courtesies, like a kiss and water to wash with, is due to the fact that his desiring of Jesus to eat at his home is influenced more by the rest of the people who live there (Mary, Martha, Lazarus).  This is also why Mary could come and go, why Judas was quick to criticize her for the waste of the ointment, and why Judas knew where to find the Pharisees the night of the last supper.

What if Jesus’ parable was a personal rebuke to Simon, and this not only offended him, but his son Judas?  It could be that Simon was one of the ten lepers that was healed, nine of which (including Simon), did not return to give God glory.

Maybe Simon really did feel that the cleansing of his leprosy was not as great as Mary’s sins which he eschewed, justifying the parable.  Additionally, Mary was aware of the courtesies Simon withheld from the Lord because she witnessed it, because as already stated, sinners do not just wander in and out of people’s houses willy-nilly.

It also explains how Simon knew Mary was a sinner in the first place.  Even though Simon had been healed of leprosy, he had no heart change, reverting back to associating with the same Pharisees that would not associate with him before the Lord cured him.

“For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.”  2 Peter 2:20 -22.

V.              Additional Particulars

The Bible is the simplest complexity ever written.  The meekest uneducated person (even the scholar and hardened sinner), can grasp enough and more to understand what God commands.  Additionally, the most intelligent and wise can never understand enough of it to totally figure it out.

The four Gospels are not just separate accounts, but the author of the Bible (the Holy Ghost), has so constructed all of Scripture to amaze and confound at the same time.  Amaze the pure in heart, and confound the wresting reprobate.  Do not think the minimalist’s answer to hermeneutics is the right one.

“There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him.  Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.”  John 12:2-3.

“While the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.”  Song of Solomon 1:12.

I do not believe there was anyone in Jerusalem with the awareness of what is taking place in the Lord’s life other than Mary, and for that, we enjoy the fragrance she provided, forever.  Truly, Mary had not only been delivered from a life of sin, but her brother had been returned to her from the dead; and even today, as then, more ponder what her sins are, or might have been (just like Simon did, and with Judas’ complaint he did the same), whereas her oblations to Jesus are rightly “unadulterated.”

Character contradictions between Judas and Mary, begin with Judas’ complaint, “Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence,” just knowing the cost exposes his heart.

Mary gave to the Lord and prepared Him to the saving of her soul (and ours through faith), a thing valued by the wicked at 300 pence, from her past dead existence of sin, magnificently destroying the thing in the process (equally should we destroy our old life vessel), as she “broke free” forever from covetous sins.

Judas coveted the 30 pieces of silver destroying magnificently his existence through sin by taking from the Lord and losing that which cannot be valued, his soul.  Indeed, Judas seized his box of money for gain and lost both his natural and spiritual existence, while Mary smashed her box of ointment and gained eternity for us all through faith.

“She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying.”   Mark 14:8.  Mark’s Gospel alludes to more than just the head of Jesus being anointed, proclaiming Mary’s faith in the Anointed One (Messiah), High Priest, King; but by anointing His feet as well, she confirmed Him as the true Lamb of God that took her sins, and the sin of the world away.

Simon, and his son, denied the Lord the courtesy of anointing.  The healing of leprosy allowed Simon to regain his religious reputation with its sin of hypocrisy.  How many of us today brag of our past sins?  The people with the really gross and shameful sins, they are the ones that are putting the tears on the Lord’s feet because they cannot brag about their sins like some men do, because like Mary’s sins, they would just be used against them by the hypocrites.

Undeniably, the rudeness of Simon’s hospitality in the supper at his house is matched by Judas’ own offensive manner at the last supper, like father like son, “to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.”  So, the Lord delivered you from drunkenness, from smoking, such little sins, but what about gluttony?  The sin of gluttony is just as damaging to your body; but gluttony gets a free pass (because we do not possess the discipline to discipline that appetite). 

In much the same way we now give adulterers a free pass and smash the fornicator and homosexual who need deliverance, but they see the church’s hypocrisy when it comes to those in adultery and they are right to assume they are just as justified in the world’s eyes.  “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?”  (Mat 7:3).

The hypocrite is blind and convinced he is right.  No doubt, Judas discussed his plans with his father Simon who encouraged him to take the money as this benefited Simon in his renewed religious affiliations.  Afterwards, the weight and judgement “hung” on Judas’ head like a millstone, especially from the rest of the household (Mary, Martha, and Lazarus), helping to drive Judas to the mad point of suicide.  Hell’s flame will be a cooling sensation compared to the torment of the hypocrite’s conscience, because he willingly blinds himself to his own sins for selfish gain.

VI.            Conclusion

“Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh, which is called the Passover.  And the chief priests and scribes sought how they might kill him; for they feared the people.  Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve.  And he went his way, and communed with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray him unto them.  And they were glad, and covenanted to give him money.  And he promised, and sought opportunity to betray him unto them in the absence of the multitude.”  Luke 22:1-6.

This study started based on the first six verses in Luke 22, and the trepidation felt at reading how a religion based on the Ten Commandments and over 600 more commands and laws, grounded in love for God and neighbor, could become so distorted as to seek to kill someone to protect its control over others and its own selfish worldly treasures.  It is the same today; the religious establishments still exercises dominion on earth over God’s heritage now, and will kill by any means (real or defamatory), to protect that control.

Established religion is confederate with the devil.  Its nature is frequently exposed, making it little more than a club of adherents to each sect’s rules and regulations.  The Presbyterian have their rules, the Baptist have their regulations, the Pentecostals retain theirs as well, and so on to the parent categories, Protestant, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, to type, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, you get the point.

There are so many advantages, power, benefits, and possessions involved in organized religions that those in leadership positions will do whatever it takes to maintain their control.  And as the passage in Luke indicates, they will even kill for it, but in a way that it is justified by the world and their loyal following, whose sins and hypocrisies they exist for to protect.

Dogma is arranged by each sect to protect the following they draw.  There are Christian churches that accept homosexuals, others that accept the intemperate and worldly, and most admit the adulterers and fornicators, and protect their willful and sinful right to perform their wicked deeds without the least bit of effort to convict them but accept them without change of heart or life.

“For they feared the people,” from Luke 22, has two edges; the one being, they feared the multitude that was following the Lord (they were losing their adherents), and two they feared people and not God as revealed by their motive “kill him.”  Then the answer to their problem is presented by religion’s true god of this world, Satan, who bends those closes to us in ways that break our hearts over and over and over again. 

“For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him: But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance.  We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company. Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell: for wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them.”  Psalm 55:12 -15. 

“And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.”  Matthew 10:36.

And to that, we can add the example of Judas, that is, there is nothing in this world worthy of selling out our faith too; neither your job, neither your family, neither your wife, neither your husband, neither your pride, neither your own life, and definitely neither your savior.  For, if you hold anything above the Kingdom of God, above Christ, you are but a lost hypocrite, abiding time amongst the world, amongst religion, the lost and the redeemed hoping that your lustful, corpulent existence will be approved of by God, who cannot but withstand your selfish existence for the benefits of His own benevolence for others. 

For, it is the betrayal of pretended friends, family, spouses, brethren, the hypocrites to Christ, that have caused more harm to the Kingdom of God than the outright attacks of even Satan himself.  Truthfully, Satan needs your cooperation to steal, kill, and destroy.

That is the Truth of Judas.