Judas Iscariot:
Why did this man Judas follow Jesus in the first place? Was his worldly view that of riches, honors, and other advantaged he may have expected Christ’s friends to enjoy? Or was it because he was disappointed when Jesus repeatedly refused the proffered royalty from the people in Galilee, this after the miracle of feeding the five thousand? Or did he become impatient because Jesus openly discouraged any personal ambitious views among his disciples? Or was treachery his intention from the beginning?
When fully under the influence of the passion of covetousness, a sin likened to a cancerous tumor, it grew until it eventually destroyed him. Judas’s remorse and suicide are both strange and of an extraordinary event; his passion was that of wealth. Was it possible that the astonishing miracles Judas had witnessed still left room for doubt as to Christ’s mission and ministry?
Jesus said that, “Men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” Before his betrayal, Jesus knew he was going to be betrayed,
Matthew 26:21, “Verily I say unto you, that one of you (the apostles) shall betray me.”
John 6:70, “Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?” Jesus also knew well the O.T. Scripture of,
Zachariah 11:12, “I said unto them, if ye think good, give me my price, and if not, forbear (refrain.) So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prized at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them in the potter in the house of the Lord.”
Did Judas devise this scheme of betrayal with the though of compelling Jesus to avow himself openly as the Messiah before the scribes, elders, and chief priest? Was he thinking if Jesus were to show them miracles, or some other sign which they often required, it would convince them to honor him with rewards to follow?
Satan may have deceived Judas in that it being close to Passover and with the great assembly of Jews from around the known world, there would be a powerful support for him with the Sanhedrim against the Romans. And even if arrested, He would be pardoned.
After Jesus broke bread with the 12 apostles, then dipped his piece of bread with Judas Iscariot, “Satan entered into him.” Jesus said to him, “That which you have to do, do it quickly.”
Judas had attended the trial of Jesus and now saw that it was not turning out the way he thought it would; that He was being accused of being a false prophet; a false Messiah; that He said nothing to defend himself; and showed his accusers no miracles.
Judas must have been taken up with remorse, for he offered to return his bribe of thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests. He said to them, “I have sinned delivering up innocent blood.” He may have expecting them to desist from any further persecution.
But they refused, and threw the whole load of guilt upon him refusing to take back the bribe. They said to him, “What is that to us? See thou to that;” They loved the treason, but hated the traitor, this after he had played servant to their wickedness.
Now, stung in his heart at their refusal to take back the money, and after condemning him, Judas went to the temple, cast down the whole sum in the treasury. After returning his wages of iniquity he went off by himself, a lonely and broken man and hung himself.
He had now crowned his deeds with suicide, plunging his whole body, soul, and spirit into everlasting destruction. We are also told in,
Acts 1:18, that he, “Falling headlong, burst asunder, and all his bowels gushed out!” Blinded by greed, there was no true faith or love to be found in him.
We can only suppose that Judas may have thought Jesus would deliver himself out of their hands. If so, we could consider Judas to be a double agent, first against Christ, and then against the chief priests and scribes who bribed him.
“The son of perdition,” had now gone “to his own place,” and it is said that “it had been good for him that he had not been born.”
Phillip LaSpino Taken from seekfirstwisdom.com