Judas' problem is that he doesn't have any excuse for the thing he does; he has reasons, but no excuses. Have you ever acted in a way you yourself couldn't understand? Dostoyevski noted: "All self-examination ends up as self-justification." But does it?

Concerning Judas' problem: Is he deceiving himself or is he deceiving God?

(Please read Matthew 26:14-25;Luke 22:3-6; John 6:57-71 and 10:14-18)

Judas

(Judas sits alone in a dark corner.)

This is a confession and I tell you that from the first Judas was an onion of a man. His personality revealed transparent layer-upon-layer, and peeled apart, there was nothing in his center. He had so many motives and excuses for doing what he did that you knew he was making up his life as he lived it.

But did he have to live a lie? Matthew remembers our …