Lent sermon 3/8/05 Week 2 Judas Iscariot
Midweek service Lent 2
Date: 3/8/2006
Text: Matthew 26: 6-16 27: 3-10
Title: Judas Iscariot
Unbelief is always a mystery; the unbelief of Judas is a special mystery. He was called, and he followed Jesus. He was one of the Twelve and heard all the teachings of Jesus. He was an eyewitness to all that Jesus did and said, yet he betrayed Jesus. Afterwards he was so remorseful that he lost all hope for forgiveness, for how could he be forgiven of such an evil act, so he committed suicide.
I want to put forth to you today that his betrayal of Jesus was no worse than Peter’s denial of Jesus. Peter repented of what he had done, and later became a great Apostle. Judas, don’t forget also repented, but still killed himself.
In an effort to explain away Judas’s behavior there are those that say Judas had no choice, that he was condemned to die even before he was born, that it was his destiny, and in betraying Jesus he was only fulfilling that destiny. Why I was just reading the other day in a Christian news article that there is even a movement by some in the Roman Catholic Church to excuse Judas for his act. Their thinking is that after all if he had not done his dastardly deed, Jesus would not have died on that cross and we would not have been saved from the condemnation that we all deserve.
The problem with that theory is it takes away free will and makes human beings nothing but puppets being controlled by God. And we know by other scripture that that is not true, for God has given his human creation free will.
Free will is essential in our relationship with God. For a person to be able to love someone, that is truly love someone they must also have the freedom to not love that person. You cannot make someone love you.
One of the problems we have in understanding Judas is that we really know so little about him. The Scriptures call him “betrayer” (27:3). In John’s Gospel, we read that he did not care about the poor but that he used to help himself to what was put into the money bag that he carried for the disciples.
That is about all we know of him. We are not told in the scripture but I think that he probably belonged to a group of Jews called Zealots. They were revolutionaries who wanted to get rid of the Roman colonial rule by force. That could explain his behavior as he realized that Jesus was not the man who would lead the revolt against the Romans.
Remember that by the time Jesus came to be one of us the Jews thought that the Messiah was going to be the savior that God sent to reestablish the kingdom of David. The Messiah would be the perfect general-king who would bring with his reign not only true freedom from political oppression and, with that, economic prosperity, but also pure worship to the Jews and an end to the questionable religious practices that had afflicted God’s people in the past.
At first Jesus appeared to be the promised Messiah. Almost daily he was fulfilling the prophecies made by the Old Testament prophets. Everything pointed to him as being the Messiah, but no armies were being trained or even recruited. After three years, Judas must have realized that he was backing the wrong man and that he needed to take care of himself, so he betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, the price of a slave.
We don’t really know why Judas did what he did, and since we are not to judge the motives of others. All we can do is look at their actions and nothing more. The point is that Judas betrayed Jesus because Jesus was not the kind of Messiah Judas was waiting for.
That problem isn’t unique to Judas. When others had rejected Jesus for the same reason, Jesus compared them to spoiled children who playacted at weddings and funerals. They got mad because Jesus didn’t play their game (Mt 11:16–19). Jesus wasn’t their image of the Messiah. He was the wrong kind of Messiah for his people.
That type of mindset isn’t unique to just the people of Jesus’ day, for when Jesus doesn’t fulfill the expectations of people today, he’s rejected. When people suffer a severe loss, they want God to end their grief, and if Jesus doesn’t do it right away, he’s rejected as uncaring. When Jesus doesn’t remove the injustices of our lives, he’s rejected as weak. When Jesus doesn’t remove the consequences of sin after repentance and forgiveness, he’s rejected as useless.
Judas did reject and betray Jesus, but we can’t forget he did repent. We don’t know what it was that caused him to repent, but as we look at the Greek word that describes Judas’s repentance we see that it is not the word used when the repentance includes renewed faith. The word used for Judas’ repentance is having regret about what he had done.
Judas felt remorse, threw the money he had received for betraying Jesus into the temple, and hanged himself in despair. He fell into despair for as we all learned in Luther’s Small Catechism, “confession has two parts. First, that we confess our sins, and second, that we receive . . . forgiveness” (Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation, p. 24).
Though Judas’s repentance did not lead him to believe that he was forgiven, the word for repentance does show us that Judas did change his mind about Jesus. Seeing Jesus condemned, Judas said, “I have sinned . . . for I have betrayed innocent blood” (27:4).
There it is, a statement of belief, but not of faith, for in those words Judas without knowing it had given the unspoken confession that “Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is the Messiah.” He knew that everything Jesus did and said were true, for what Jesus said, what Jesus did, and definitely who Jesus was and is can be taken as real, believed as fact, and counted on when everything else seems to be crumbling to the ground.
Even then, Judas could have received absolution, that is, forgiveness from Jesus as God in the flesh, and lived. But cut off from Jesus, Judas despaired and died, forever. The mystery of how he could have known Jesus of Nazareth, but not known Jesus, the Christ, died with him, but his witness still endures.
He left for us the truth of his words, “Jesus is the Son of God, but he is not my Messiah.” We are warned not to reject Jesus even in our discouraging times. All of us have our weak times, those times when we are tempted to give up on Jesus. There is one thing that I am reminded of every day and that is that I am a sinner. Satan loves to remind me of my sin, especially my past sins. He loves to do that as he tries to convince me that I am unworthy to be a child of God.
And he can do that if I were to listen to him, for if he can keep me focused on my sinfulness, especially my past sins, I can begin to believe that not even Jesus the Christ, can forgive me. We all have experienced that. You try the same thing I try. I try to hide those sins from others. I even try to hide them from Jesus and it just doesn’t work. How foolish is that?
You see, Jesus knew what was in Judas’s heart. He knows what’s in my heart and yours. We can hold on to our guilt until it turns into despair, just like Judas did. Judas could have confessed anytime until his death, “I have sinned.” But he didn’t for he had sunk so low that he didn’t believe he could be forgiven by Jesus. Judas’s death warns us not to be cut off from Jesus. Jesus takes our guilt and shame and forgives us. Jesus takes our weakness. He strengthens and restores us. We have the testimony of Judas’ blood crying out from the Potters field, “Believe in Jesus. Live through Jesus. Believe he is the Son of the living God, even when you are disappointed in him, for he is your Messiah. Amen
Date: 3/8/2006
Text: Matthew 26: 6-16 27: 3-10
Title: Judas Iscariot
Unbelief is always a mystery; the unbelief of Judas is a special mystery. He was called, and he followed Jesus. He was one of the Twelve and heard all the teachings of Jesus. He was an eyewitness to all that Jesus did and said, yet he betrayed Jesus. Afterwards he was so remorseful that he lost all hope for forgiveness, for how could he be forgiven of such an evil act, so he committed suicide.
I want to put forth to you today that his betrayal of Jesus was no worse than Peter’s denial of Jesus. Peter repented of what he had done, and later became a great Apostle. Judas, don’t forget also repented, but still killed himself.
In an effort to explain away Judas’s behavior there are those that say Judas had no choice, that he was condemned to die even before he was born, that it was his destiny, and in betraying Jesus he was only fulfilling that destiny. Why I was just reading the other day in a Christian news article that there is even a movement by some in the Roman Catholic Church to excuse Judas for his act. Their thinking is that after all if he had not done his dastardly deed, Jesus would not have died on that cross and we would not have been saved from the condemnation that we all deserve.
The problem with that theory is it takes away free will and makes human beings nothing but puppets being controlled by God. And we know by other scripture that that is not true, for God has given his human creation free will.
Free will is essential in our relationship with God. For a person to be able to love someone, that is truly love someone they must also have the freedom to not love that person. You cannot make someone love you.
One of the problems we have in understanding Judas is that we really know so little about him. The Scriptures call him “betrayer” (27:3). In John’s Gospel, we read that he did not care about the poor but that he used to help himself to what was put into the money bag that he carried for the disciples.
That is about all we know of him. We are not told in the scripture but I think that he probably belonged to a group of Jews called Zealots. They were revolutionaries who wanted to get rid of the Roman colonial rule by force. That could explain his behavior as he realized that Jesus was not the man who would lead the revolt against the Romans.
Remember that by the time Jesus came to be one of us the Jews thought that the Messiah was going to be the savior that God sent to reestablish the kingdom of David. The Messiah would be the perfect general-king who would bring with his reign not only true freedom from political oppression and, with that, economic prosperity, but also pure worship to the Jews and an end to the questionable religious practices that had afflicted God’s people in the past.
At first Jesus appeared to be the promised Messiah. Almost daily he was fulfilling the prophecies made by the Old Testament prophets. Everything pointed to him as being the Messiah, but no armies were being trained or even recruited. After three years, Judas must have realized that he was backing the wrong man and that he needed to take care of himself, so he betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, the price of a slave.
We don’t really know why Judas did what he did, and since we are not to judge the motives of others. All we can do is look at their actions and nothing more. The point is that Judas betrayed Jesus because Jesus was not the kind of Messiah Judas was waiting for.
That problem isn’t unique to Judas. When others had rejected Jesus for the same reason, Jesus compared them to spoiled children who playacted at weddings and funerals. They got mad because Jesus didn’t play their game (Mt 11:16–19). Jesus wasn’t their image of the Messiah. He was the wrong kind of Messiah for his people.
That type of mindset isn’t unique to just the people of Jesus’ day, for when Jesus doesn’t fulfill the expectations of people today, he’s rejected. When people suffer a severe loss, they want God to end their grief, and if Jesus doesn’t do it right away, he’s rejected as uncaring. When Jesus doesn’t remove the injustices of our lives, he’s rejected as weak. When Jesus doesn’t remove the consequences of sin after repentance and forgiveness, he’s rejected as useless.
Judas did reject and betray Jesus, but we can’t forget he did repent. We don’t know what it was that caused him to repent, but as we look at the Greek word that describes Judas’s repentance we see that it is not the word used when the repentance includes renewed faith. The word used for Judas’ repentance is having regret about what he had done.
Judas felt remorse, threw the money he had received for betraying Jesus into the temple, and hanged himself in despair. He fell into despair for as we all learned in Luther’s Small Catechism, “confession has two parts. First, that we confess our sins, and second, that we receive . . . forgiveness” (Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation, p. 24).
Though Judas’s repentance did not lead him to believe that he was forgiven, the word for repentance does show us that Judas did change his mind about Jesus. Seeing Jesus condemned, Judas said, “I have sinned . . . for I have betrayed innocent blood” (27:4).
There it is, a statement of belief, but not of faith, for in those words Judas without knowing it had given the unspoken confession that “Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is the Messiah.” He knew that everything Jesus did and said were true, for what Jesus said, what Jesus did, and definitely who Jesus was and is can be taken as real, believed as fact, and counted on when everything else seems to be crumbling to the ground.
Even then, Judas could have received absolution, that is, forgiveness from Jesus as God in the flesh, and lived. But cut off from Jesus, Judas despaired and died, forever. The mystery of how he could have known Jesus of Nazareth, but not known Jesus, the Christ, died with him, but his witness still endures.
He left for us the truth of his words, “Jesus is the Son of God, but he is not my Messiah.” We are warned not to reject Jesus even in our discouraging times. All of us have our weak times, those times when we are tempted to give up on Jesus. There is one thing that I am reminded of every day and that is that I am a sinner. Satan loves to remind me of my sin, especially my past sins. He loves to do that as he tries to convince me that I am unworthy to be a child of God.
And he can do that if I were to listen to him, for if he can keep me focused on my sinfulness, especially my past sins, I can begin to believe that not even Jesus the Christ, can forgive me. We all have experienced that. You try the same thing I try. I try to hide those sins from others. I even try to hide them from Jesus and it just doesn’t work. How foolish is that?
You see, Jesus knew what was in Judas’s heart. He knows what’s in my heart and yours. We can hold on to our guilt until it turns into despair, just like Judas did. Judas could have confessed anytime until his death, “I have sinned.” But he didn’t for he had sunk so low that he didn’t believe he could be forgiven by Jesus. Judas’s death warns us not to be cut off from Jesus. Jesus takes our guilt and shame and forgives us. Jesus takes our weakness. He strengthens and restores us. We have the testimony of Judas’ blood crying out from the Potters field, “Believe in Jesus. Live through Jesus. Believe he is the Son of the living God, even when you are disappointed in him, for he is your Messiah. Amen
posted by Pastor Rhoads | 6:41 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home