Concerning Judas

Acts 1:15-17, 21-26

In those days Peter stood up among the believers (together the crowd numbered about one hundred twenty persons) and said, “Friends, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit through David foretold concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus– for he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry. So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us– one of these must become a witness with us to his resurrection.” So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias. Then they prayed and said, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was added to the eleven apostles.

In this passage we see Peter standing up and speaking to the crowd of believers. He states that scripture foretold his betrayal. Someone that was counted among the twelve, and was “allotted his share of ministry.” Because they have to replace Judas, they decided to elect the next leader in a way that I’m sure most vestry would not do. They cast lots to see who gets picked.

Matthias is elected to the office of disciple and apostle and is seldom heard about again in the scriptures. What happened to him remains a bit of an official mystery. There are reports of him being stoned to death and then beheaded in Judea, while other sources say he died of old age in Jerusalem. It is also believed that Matthias went and preached the Gospel to cannibals. Now this is a disciple I’d like to see a movie about. Just imagine being elevated to that level of leadership. It’d be terrifying! I mean, considering the shoes you have to fill from the person that left it vacant, maybe there was some relief. I mean, it’s not like you can lead Jesus to his death twice, right? But today, I don’t want to spend a lot of time writing about Matthias. There is a disciple mentioned in this story that rarely gets his day in the sun, outside of maybe one week a year. That disciple, as I am sure we’ve all guessed by now is Judas Iscariot.

Judas is someone I like to bring up because he isn’t someone we usually spend time thinking deeply about. We read about him betraying Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, typically zoom over his repentance, and then he surrenders himself to the same fate Jesus had. Death on a tree. Now, whenever we see someone who is killed and hanging on a tree, the writers may be trying to spark our memory.

Deuteronomy 21:22-23 ,

If someone is guilty of a capital offense is put to death and their body is exposed on a pole, you must not leave that body hanging overnight. Be sure to bury it that same day, because anyone who is hung on a pole is under God’s curse. You must not desecrate the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

In Matthew’s account of the betrayal of Jesus, Jesus say to Judas, “do what you came for friend.” We also see Judas toss the silver at the chief prints, repent, and then goes out to hang himself from a tree. Judas is guilty of a capital crime, betraying the innocent, and he takes the Torah into his own hands. Judas condemns himself to the same fate that befell Jesus, death on a pole. Cursed under the eyes of God according to Deuteronomy 21. But let’s think about this for a moment, the overriding guilt and repentance that Judas has for what he did to Jesus takes him to this awful act. However unlike Jesus who broke the curse of death, Judas was left on the tree.

If he had held out for three days, he would have known all would be well. It is no wonder that Judas is so easy to scapegoat because there is no reconciliation between him, Jesus, and the disciples. It’s easy to imagine ourselves in the roll of Peter who denied Jesus three times but then had the ability to reconcile with him. The denial didn’t matter anymore because of the grace Jesus had for Peter. This is something I think scares us if we spend time thinking about it. It is scary because I imagine that Jesus would have had the same warmth for Judas as he did Peter.

Judas couldn’t lay down his life for his friend because, he sent him to unknowingly be killed. At least, according to Matthew’s Gospel he did.

Asking people what they think about Judas is, I think the ultimate litmus test for how we respond to loving our enemy and praying for those that persecute us. Jesus, knowing what was going to happen still washed Judas’ feet and invited him into the new covenant of his body and blood. Judas accepted, then realized the depth of his betrayal. He then repents. I like to think that Judas is a model for showing us that there is no path we can walk down too far, that Jesus’ grace can’t reach us. 

May we remember that in our times of despair.