Was Judas Really Such a Bad Guy? Yes!

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The following link was tweeted from DenyReligion:

Was Judas Really Such a Bad Guy?

The post quotes Joan Acocella of the New Yorker:

… If Jesus informs you that you will betray him, and tells you to hurry up and do it, are you really responsible for your act? Furthermore, if your act sets in motion the process — Christ’s Passion — whereby humankind is saved, shouldn’t somebody thank you? No, the Church says. If you betray your friend, you are a sinner, no matter how foreordained or collaterally beneficial your sin. And, if the friend should happen to be the Son of God, so much the worse for you.

The amazing thing is that my church just discussed this topic two weeks ago. It come up every once in while, especially around Easter. Someone looks at Judas' part in the passion and starts to wonder if the church has been too hard on Judas and have unfairly vilify him for 2000 years. Unfortunately a lot of blame can be placed on Christians for applying Judas Iscariot's guilt to all Jews for betraying Jesus. Some scholars even suggest that Judas was not a real person because Judas means Jew. No way that's true because "Judas" was a common name in the 1st Century. As a matter of fact one of Jesus' blood brothers and another of the 12 disciples were both named Judas!

To even muddy the waters is the recent publicizing of the Gospel of Judas. Popular rhetoric states that this gnostic text sheds new light on Jesus' and Judas' relationship and Judas' role in the larger context of redemptive theology. The problem is that it conflicts with the Gospels we do accept as canonical: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Judas does not meet any of the same standards as the canonical gospels. However it does seem to mitigate our negative views on Judas. It's not surprising that the Gnostics thought of Judas as heroic because they looked at Jesus being freed from His earthly body, despite the undeseved tortured and death, as a good thing. This is why the gnostic texts can't be scripture. They contradict the canonicla texts. I wrote a more substantial post on the Gospel of Judas called "Canonicity Part 6: Gospel of Judas". ABC even aired a movie based on the Gospel of Judas.

The bottom line is that Judas was responsible and accountable for his deeds. Let's look at what the Bible says about Judas. We know that Jesus knew the kind of man Judas was when Judas was chosen to be one of the twelve. Throughout His ministry, Jesus said that He knew one of the twelve was going to betray Him. John 6:64 says

Yet there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him.

Yet Jesus treated all of them the same. Look at John 13. Jesus washed all of their feet, even Judas' feet, knowing what Judas was going to do. When Jesus walked on water, Judas was on the boat too! He saw it! He saw the miracles. Heard the sermons. Worked with Jesus. He knew Jesus as well as the other 11. We get a good view of Judas' character in John's gospel. Judas didn't just woke up one day and said "I think I'll betray the best person I've ever met today for money." Judas used to steal from the offering plate.

Then Mary [Martha's and Lazarus' sister] took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, "Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages." He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. - John 12: 3-6

The other thing is we also have the words of Christ regarding His betrayer

Jesus replied, "The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born."Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said, "Surely not I, Rabbi?" Jesus answered, "Yes, it is you." - Matthew 27:23-25

While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. - John 17:12

The phrase "one doomed to destruction" is rendered "son of perdition" in the KJV and is a single word in the original Greek language, , which means "excluded from salvation". I think that says it all. How did his peers view Judas after the Resurrection?

In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) and said, "Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through the mouth of David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus— he was one of our number and shared in this ministry."

(With the reward he got for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.)

"For," said Peter, "it is written in the book of Psalms,
" 'May his place be deserted;
let there be no one to dwell in it,' and,
" 'May another take his place of leadership.' Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from John's baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection."

So they proposed two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias. Then they prayed, "Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs." Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles. - Acts 1:15-26

Yes, God used Judas' greed and evil to start the process that leads mankind to reconciliation back to God through Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. It's true that someone had to do it and Judas was predestined to do it. However, Judas is accountable because he chose to betray Jesus on his own because he wanted to do it and it was predicted centuries before in Psalm 41 (quoted by Jesus in John 13:8)

Why do people want to find an out for Judas - to mitigate or rationalize what he did? I think it's because we all instinctively desire to not be like Judas. We don't want to think that there are sins that we can't come back from. We think that if there is hope for Judas, there is hope for us. The problem is that apart from Jesus there is no remedy for our sins. Judas didn't seem to understand that. When it comes to what happened to Judas, as well as anyone, we have to just trust God and know that they end up "where he belongs".

So was Judas such a bad guy? Yes! Same thing is true about me, you, and everyone. We need Jesus to save us.