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CHRISTIAN APOSTLE JUDAS ISCARIOT
I have sinned in betraying innocent blood
Perhaps the most significant thing that can be said of
Judas Iscariot, was, that, in feeling sorrow for his crime
of betrayal, he did not seek to atone for his sin to the One
(Jesus) whom he had wronged, but , rather, went to his
accomplices in crime (the priests) and there sought to set
himself aright.
Because those whom he had served in his selfishness failed
him at the end (the priests), he went out and hanged
himself.
Every story needs a villain and Judas Iscariot fills this
role in the gospels. He is the apostle who betrays Jesus and
helps the Jerusalem authorities arrest him. Judas may have
enjoyed a privileged position among Jesus' apostles -- John
describes him as the band's treasurer and he is often
present at important times. John also describes him as a
thief, but it seems implausible that a thief would have
joined such a group or that Jesus would have made a thief
their treasurer.
Some read Iscariot to mean "man of Kerioth," a city in
Judea. This would make Judas the only Judean in the group
and an outsider. Others argue that a copyist error
transposed two letters and that Judas was named "Sicariot,"
a member of the party of the Sicarii. This comes from the
Greek word for "assassins" and was a group of fanatical
nationalists who thought that the only good Roman was a dead
Roman. Judas Iscariot could have been, then, Judas the
Terrorist.
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Judas Iscariot is known as the companion of Jesus who betrayed
him -- but what and how did he betray? That isn't clear. He points
out Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. This is hardly an action
worthy of payment because Jesus wasn't exactly in hiding. In John,
he doesn't even do that much. Judas doesn't actually do anything
except fulfill the narrative and eschatological need for the Messiah
to be betrayed by someone.
Judas Iscariot filled a necessary literary and theological role in
the gospels by betraying Jesus. Someone had to do it and Judas was
picked. It's questionable whether Judas even acted of his own free
will. There was no option for Jesus not to be executed because
without his crucifixion, he could not rise again in three days and
thus save humanity. To be executed, though, he had to be betrayed to
the Jewish authorities -- if Judas hadn't done it, someone else
would have.
Since Judas Iscariot did something so critical and necessary for
Jesus' mission, why is he reviled? Why isn't he also a saint? If
Judas loved Jesus as much as the other apostles, wasn't his job much
harder than theirs? According to John, Jesus said "Greater love hath
no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends," but
didn't Judas do something very similar by sacrificing himself and
his reputation in order to help Jesus fulfill prophecy?
Judas wasn't the only apostle to betray Jesus. Peter did so too.
Soon after Jesus's arrest, he witnessed the rough treatment that
Jesus received at the hands of his accusers, and scared that he
would suffer the same fate if identified as one of Jesus's
followers, Peter denied knowing him. Just a few hours earlier he had
sworn he would die for his master.
Symbol - Rope
Judas, whose emblem is a length of rope fashioned
into a "J" or an "I", is rarely found in a list of the twelve
apostles.
For it was not an enemy that
reproached me;
then I could have born 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.
Psalm 55:12-14
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