Throughout time there has been a number of people that have been scorned and hated by just about everyone. We might think of cruel dictators over the last hundred years. Various mass-murderers come to mind. There is one person who seems to be universally condemned, denounced and hated, and that is Judas Iscariot, the man who betrayed Jesus the Savior to those who wanted to destroy Him. No parent ever chooses to name their son Judas, as his name has come to be synonymous with that of the worst of traitors. As our Scripture passage today mentions Judas Iscariot, the last time he is mentioned in the Bible, let us take a closer look at him and his character.
As our passage opens, the disciples have gathered together in Jerusalem after the Ascension of Jesus into heaven, there to await the coming of the Holy Spirit. Peter speaks, saying that they must pick another man to take the place of the one who betrayed Jesus, to bring the number back up to twelve. This brings to our memory that Judas Iscariot was one of the twelve men that Jesus had specifically chosen to be His special disciples and apostles. What happened in his heart to have him turn on Jesus, and in a way on the other eleven, to betray Him to the High Priest? Judas may have been chosen to be an apostle, but he was never truly saved. Like all of the twelve, Judas sat and heard the teachings of Jesus, but unlike the others, in Judas’ case God’s Word fell upon a heart that was hard and closed. His seeming religiosity was an illusion and sham. Though he had the same opportunity to accept Jesus as the Messiah and Savior, he never did, and opened the door for Satan to work in and through him. Jesus knew this and called His betrayer the “son of perdition” (John 17:12), one doomed to damnation and destruction.
Some have falsely believed and taught that Judas had no choice in what happened, but that is not the case. Judas chose to reject Jesus’ warnings as well as His offers of mercy. He chose his own fate of hell by rejecting Jesus, just as anyone else who rejects the Savior does. Judas hardened his heart and joined in the plot with Jesus’ enemies to put him to death. His reasons may not have been exactly the same as the Pharisees, the Sanhedrin and High Priest’s, as perhaps he wanted to spur Jesus on to be the “political Messiah” many of the Jews wanted, one who would kick the Romans out. And perhaps he was just greedy for the money they gave him, as the Apostle John recorded that he would help himself to money the twelve had (John 12:5-6).
Judas Iscariot remained unrepentant to the end. When he saw what his actions led to, he went out and hung himself (Matthew 27:5). Apparently the tree he chose to hang himself on overlooked a cliff, and the rope or the branch broke, or perhaps the knot slipped, and Judas’ bloated dead body crashed to the rocks below and burst (vs. 18). Afterwards the Jewish leaders used the money that they had given Judas, and which he had thrown back to them, to purchase that field, which later became known as the Field of Blood, and also the Potter’s Field as the soil had clay in it and was good for making pottery (vs. 19).
Peter wanted to choose another man to replace Judas in the twelve. He quoted two verses from the Book of Psalms as he felt led to do this, Psalm 69:25 and Psalm 109:8. When God gives prophecies, they come to pass. For the successor of the betrayer, Peter said there must be a couple of requirements that needed to be filled in order to be an apostle. The first requirement for the replacement was that the man had to have followed Jesus throughout His earthly ministry (vs. 21). The second requirement was that he had to have seen the resurrected Christ (vs. 22). Of two names that were put forth, Matthias was chosen.
Judas was numbered among the other apostles (vs. 16-17, 25). He was one of them, not a stranger who did what he did. That is the sad thing about Judas. He was so close to Jesus, but never accepted Him as his own personal Savior. Not everyone who regularly attends church, or even calls themselves a Christian, are really saved. To look at Judas, one would have thought he was just as much a true disciple as anyone else, yet he committed one of the worst acts of treachery in human history. When one is exposed to the Gospel, especially as much as Judas was, and yet refuses to believe, one leaves themselves open to Satan in the worst possible way.
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