Why Judas?

“Then one of the Twelve – the one called Judas Iscariot – went to the chief priests and asked, ‘What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?’ So they counted out for him thirty silver coins.” Matthew 26:14-15

Just mention the name Judas and people remember the one who betrayed Jesus. The other disciples may have denied Him or abandoned Him but they came back for forgiveness and were redeemed. Judas did not come back for forgiveness and he is always remembered as the betrayer.

Judas was not like the other disciples. He was more educated and the others saw him as a natural leader. They trusted him so he became the one who kept the money. The money became a temptation until he was not only guilty of stealing but also of deceit.

He wasn’t always the scoundrel we portray him to be. When he joined the disciples of Jesus he had high ideals. The other disciples wanted to learn from Jesus but he saw beyond that to the day when Jesus would establish His kingdom and drive out the Romans. He probably kept himself distant from the other disciples because they were just lowly fishermen or tax collectors but he was educated. They were from Galilee but he was from Judea.

Maybe he was proud of his position with the disciples, after all he was the treasurer and he was educated. Maybe he looked with contempt upon the less educated ones from the province.

Maybe he was jealous of Peter, James and John who were always included in the inner circle. Jesus seemed to confide in them more than the other disciples.

Some people think that Judas betrayed Jesus to force His hand so that He would reveal Himself as the Messiah. They think that maybe Judas became frustrated with Jesus because He did not announce to the common people that He was the Messiah. However, I don’t think that this was the situation at all. Judas had been taking money from the treasury for a long time and this was just another opportunity for him to make a little more money. The temptation of money can cause people to lie, steal, cheat and even betray their friends.

I don’t think Judas knew the sin in his own heart until it was too late. In his remorse for his sin he could not believe that God would forgive him so he felt that he had no other option but to kill himself.

We all need to examine our hearts because Jeremiah tells us that our hearts are full of evil. In our pride we think that we would never be like Judas but we find out to late that our hearts are as sinful as Judas’ heart was.