One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alpheus, Simon who was called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
Traitor.
It’s a dirty word for most of us. It’s what we would least want to be called; and describes a person that we would least like to know.
A traitor is one who sells out his friends; who spies for the enemy. A traitor is one who betrays.
Luke tells us that before Jesus chose twelve men to be his closest followers, he spent a whole night in prayer. One can assume he spent a good bit of that time praying to God about the decision; about which men to call as his disciples. I think it’s also possible that Jesus spent most of that night agonizing over the choice of Judas Iscariot. Of course he also prayed about choosing Peter, who would deny him three times; he prayed about James and John, who would try to secure for themselves places of honor; he prayed about Thomas, who would doubt him; he prayed about Matthew, the tax-collector. But I think he may have prayed the most about Judas, the traitor.
While we cannot know with certainty the content of Jesus’ prayer that night, I think we can reasonably assume that Jesus asked his Father for the wisdom to choose the right men. And I think we can also assume that Jesus prayed for each of these men specifically, because he knew that what was going to be required of them would be more difficult than any of them could imagine.
This passage also tells me that Judas was not always a traitor. Rather, scripture says that he became a traitor. I imagine that when Judas heard Jesus say, “Follow me,” he was both surprised and thrilled. Like the others, he would have been surprised because he probably didn’t think of himself as “disciple material.” To be chosen by a Rabbi was a prestigious honor, and it is unlikely that Judas had ever been chosen in this way before. So I think we can safely assume that Judas was excited and honored to be chosen by Jesus himself to join his inner circle of followers. And the furthest thing from his mind would have been that he would ever betray the one who had chosen him!
So how did it happen then? How did Judas go from excited follower of Jesus to one who was willing to betray for a handful of silver coins?
To answer this terribly difficult question, I have to make it a little more personal. How and why do I choose to betray Jesus? How and why do I choose to do or say things that dishonor him or hurt others? Simply put, how and why do I choose to sin?
As hard as it is to admit, I make that choice the same way Judas made it. I sin when I become selfish. I sin when I become proud. I sin when I let my pain and anger control my words and behavior. I sin when I put my goals and my agenda ahead of his.
I think the story of Judas is in the Bible not just so we will know the actual historical events that led to Jesus’ crucifixion (although I do believe the Biblical record is historically accurate); but I believe the story is told so that we may see a little of ourselves in Judas, and a little of him in us.
It’s easy to kind of shake our heads and think, “How could he do it?” “What was he thinking?” But I think if we are honest with ourselves, we know all too well how he did it.
Lord Jesus, forgive us for the myriad ways, large and small, by which we have betrayed you with our words, our attitudes, our actions – or in our hearts. Amen.
Pastor Brian Coffey
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