Long, long ago, or so I've been told,
Two saints, they met on the streets paved with gold.
"By the stars in your crown," said the one to the other,
"I see that on earth you, too, were a mother.
And by the blue tinted halo, I see that you wear,
You, too, have known sorrow and deepest despair."
"Ah, yes," came the answer, "I once had a son.
A sweet little lad, full of laughter and fun."
"But, tell of your child!" "Oh, I knew I was blest,
The first moment I held Him, close to my breast;
And my heart almost burst with the joy of that day."
"Ah, yes," sighed the other, "I felt the same way."
The former continued, "The first steps he took--
So eager and breathless--the sweet startled look
Which came over his face--he trusted me so."
"Ah, yes," sighed the other, "how well do I know."
"But soon he had grown to a bright handsome boy,
So stalwart and kind, and it gave me such joy
To have him just walk down the street by my side."
"Ah, yes," sighed the other,
"I felt the same pride."
"How often I shielded and spared him from pain,
And when He for others was so cruelly slain,
When they crucified Him and spat in His face,
I would have gladly taken His place!"
A moment of silence, "Oh, then you are she?
The Mother of Christ!" and she fell on one knee.
But the blessed one raised her and drew her so near
And kissed from the face of the woman, a tear.
"Please tell me the name of the son you loved so,
That I may share, your grief and your woe!"
She lifted her eyes, looking straight at the other,
"He was Judas Iscariot, and I am his Mother." (1)
Judas. Judas Iscariot. Is there a name more stained with infamy than his? In the Divine Comedy, Dante places Judas in the deepest chasm of hell, where Satan munches on him as a steady diet.
Each Good Friday in Mexico, the people ignite firecrackers that sizzle and pop until the burning fuse reaches a hideous, powder-stuffed doll--a Judas doll--that finally blows up. On the beautiful Greek island of Corfu devout Greeks pitch great quantities of crockery down a steep hill in an imaginary stoning of Judas while simultaneously cursing his name. (2)
Judas. Judas Iscariot.
A strange news story came across the wires of the Associated Press sometime back. It was datelined Athens, Greece. An actor portraying Judas in the musical "Jesus Christ Superstar" hanged himself, dying on stage before an audience of more than 500 people. Investigators failed to determine why the man didn't attach a safety harness which would have prevented this tragedy from occurring. The historical Judas did, of course, hang himself, but the actor playing him was supposed to use a safety harness. The actor, Anthony Wheeler, 26, of Liverpool, was not depressed and appeared normal before the show. Probably it was a careless accident. Or maybe the psychological burden of playing history's greatest villain took its toll. We will never know. It took more than five minutes for the other actors to realize that Wheeler had not reappeared after his scene. When the lights went on, the actors and audience saw Wheeler's hanging body.
An eerie coincidence, perhaps. Certainly a tragedy.
Judas. Judas Iscariot. THERE ARE THOSE WHO SAY THAT JUDAS HAD NO CHOICE.
It was predetermined, predestined that he would betray Christ. And certainly there is some truth to that. Who can deny that, to a large extent, we are the product of our heredity and our environment. We realize that no two people ever start out with exactly the same kind of opportunities. Some people begin the race of life with weights tied around their ankles--the weights of poverty or parental disinterest or intellectual inferiority or a host of other handicapping conditions. None of us makes the decisions that we do in a vacuum. But the one thing no one can take from us is the ability to choose how we respond to our circumstances.
We are products of our past experiences, but we are also products of the choices we make. One student chooses to stay in school, another does not. A young woman chooses her husband on the basis of character; her friend marries strictly on the basis of chemistry. One person raises his children in church. Another is too busy with sports on the Lord's day. We reap what we sow. We are the products of our past, but we are also products of our choices.
Did you hear of the man who used to think he was indecisive, but now is not so sure? R. Maurice Boyd tells about a friend of writer Robert Frost who was like that. He seemed incapable of making up his mind about anything, to the great amusement of the small group of poets to which they both belonged.
Just for the fun of it, Frost wrote a poem about the man's waffling. When he read it to the company of poets, he was astonished to discover that they found it no laughing matter. They were not amused, but deeply moved, by the poignancy of his words. He tried his joke again, on a gathering of university students this time, and received the same response. They, too, missed his humor but were touched by his tenderness. "The Road Not Taken" thus became the joke nobody caught, and one of Frost's best-loved poems.
Written in old England, the poem is set in New England, in New Hampshire's yellow woods where two roads branch off in different directions, forcing a traveler to choose between them. It ends by telling us that the poet . . . took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. (3)
My own faith is that God would not leave Judas without a choice. He reached the place where two roads branch off--the road of following Christ or betraying Christ, and he took the latter. But there are some who say Judas had no choice.
OTHERS SAY JUDAS WANTED TO HURRY CHRIST ALONG.
Judas grew impatient. He wanted to force Christ's hand--to get him to establish his kingdom then and there. Who hasn't wanted to hurry God along? Particularly if you are waiting beside the bed of a loved one. Or you are in an intolerable situation.
Walt Disney World in Florida knows that people don't like to wait. Sue Monk Kidd heard a Disney employee explain that the lines to the attractions were looped and snaked to give the feeling of movement. The worst thing, he pointed out, is to let the crowd stand still. "All lines must keep moving," he said. "That's rule number one." The secret is to divert people so that they don't realize how miserable they are standing there waiting. (4)
Don Drummond writing in Southern Wing tells about a miserable situation at the Miami International Airport. Miami controllers had planes stacked in holding patterns all the way to 15,000 feet. In the midst of the confusion was a tiny Cessna 150 who kept calling the controllers: "Hey. y'all, what about me, up here at 9,000? When's my turn?"
The Cessna pilot griped every three minutes, only to be told each time, "Wait your turn, Cessna 14G. We're working on it." When approach control finally called the Cessna with the good news, there was no response. Fifteen minutes later, the Cessna again radioed: "Now?" "Where have you been?" responded approach control. "Waiting our turn," answered the 150, "but we had to go down for a minute and get some gas." (5)
We can identify with that impatient pilot. Waiting can be miserable. Judas saw the injustice in the world. He saw how the people at the bottom of society were crushed by the people on top, and he wanted to do something. Now. Some say that is why he betrayed Jesus. He wanted to force the Master to act now--not some day far off.
SOME SAY JUDAS HAD A POLITICAL AGENDA.
After all, it had been Judas who complained when Mary the sister of Lazarus took precious ointment and anointed Jesus' feet. "Why was not this ointment sold . . . and given to the poor?" he asked indignantly. (John 12:3-5) Today, Judas might have been a social reformer. He wanted to help the poor. He looked at religious institutions getting fat, and he thought he knew a better way. And certainly we can appreciate that.
Zig Ziglar tells about a boy who grew up in a wealthy, privileged household. One day, he got in a street fight with a poor young boy in the neighborhood. The rich boy won the fight. As the poor boy walked away, he commented that if he'd had good food to eat, like the rich boy did, he would have been big and strong enough to win their fight. The rich boy couldn't get that idea out of his head. The seeds of conviction planted in his heart that day bloomed into a lifelong devotion to helping the poor and powerless. The rich boy became a missionary doctor. He spent years working in the poorest region in Africa. His name was Albert Schweitzer. (5)
You can't be a follower of Jesus and not care about the plight of the poor. But, friends, in God's way of doing things, the ends never justify the means. There were other ways Judas could have shown his compassion for the poor. Betraying a friend was not the right way to help anybody.
SOME SAY SIMPLY JUDAS BETRAYED JESUS FOR PERSONAL GAIN.
If so, it was a pitiable bargain. Thirty pieces of silver could not have purchased much. Still, Judas would not have been the first person to betray a friend for personal gain.
George Zerber, Isaac Singer's partner in the Singer Sewing Machine Company, found that out the hard way. After the company began to make it and while Zerber was ill with a fever, Singer convinced Zerber that the doctor had said he was dying. Singer got Zerber to sell his interest in the company to him for six thousand dollars. Zerber recovered his health, but not his fair piece of the action. He'd been duped--despite the fact that he had literally kept Singer from starving when he first came to New York. Meanwhile the transaction put Singer on the road to becoming a millionaire. (6) Judas would not have been the first person to betray a friend for personal gain.
But here is the important thing we need to see this day: WHATEVER THE REASON FOR JUDAS' BETRAYAL OF CHRIST, THERE WAS ROOM AT THE FOOT OF THE CROSS FOR HIS RETURN.
Judas did not need to take his own life. He did not even need to spend the rest of his life punishing himself. He could have made a new start. His sin could have been washed away by the grace of the man he delivered over into the hands of the authorities.
While Pastor Bob Russell's church was under construction, he decided to go up and inspect the partially finished roof. On the roof, he saw something that took his breath away. The company that was insulating the church was the Grace Ice and Watershield Company. Every sheet of insulation had the company name printed on it in huge letters. So as Pastor Russell looked across the unfinished roof of his church building, he saw the word "GRACE" stretching out before him. GRACE, GRACE, GRACE, GRACE the church building was literally covered in grace. (7) And that is the good news for the day. Not only our church, not only our individual lives, but also our entire world is covered by grace. There is no one so bad, no one so perverted, no one so disillusioned or desperate who cannot experience the amazing grace of Jesus Christ.
We don't know why Judas betrayed Christ. Maybe he was impatient, maybe he had a political agenda, maybe he did it for his own gain. What we do know is this: There was room at the cross if he had turned with a repentant heart toward home.
1. Sent by a friend from the Internet. Source and author unknown.
2. Paul L. Maier, First Easter (New York: Harper & Row, 1973), p. 29.
3. The Fine Art of Being Imperfect And Other Broadcast Talks (Nashville: Abingdon Press), 1998.
4. Sue Monk Kidd, When the Heart Waits (New York: Harper & Row, 1990), p. 33.
5. Something to Smile About (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1997), pp. 105-106.
6. Daryl G. Mitton & Betty Lilligren-Mitton, Clout (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1980), p. 165.
7. "Preaching and Applying Truth," by Bob Russell, Preaching, July-August 2000, p. 12.