Eld Goh Kee Tai

Judas, ‘the son of perdition’ (Jn 17:12)

Judas Iscariot was one of the twelve apostles chosen by the Lord Jesus Christ (Mt 10:2-6; ) out of a multitude of His disciples after He had  spent all night in prayer to God in a mountain (Lk 6:12). This apostle is to be distinguished from another Judas, brother of James, the son of Alphaeus (Lk 6:15,16). There was no record on the background of Judas Iscariot before he was called into full-time ministry. We only know that he was the son of Simon (Jn 6:71). He was not a fisherman (Peter, Andrew, John, James, Thomas, Nathaniel) (Jn 21:2), a tax-collector (Matthew), or a member of a political party (Simon the Zelotes). As he was appointed treasurer of the apostolic band (Jn 13:29), he could have been employed in business and accounting. Unlike the other disciples who were from Galilee, it is believed that he came from Judaea.

In choosing the Twelve, Jesus who  ‘knew all men ... and what was in man’ (Jn 2:25) and ‘knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him’ (Jn 6:64). He knew the character and disposition of Judas Iscariot when He chose him.

In the Gospels, Judas Iscariot’s name always appeared last in the list of the 12 apostles. When his name was mentioned, it had the infamous stigma for betraying Jesus attached to it: ‘which betrayed him’ (Mt 10:4; 26:25;Mk 3:19; Jn 12:4;18: 2,5), or ‘the traitor’ (Lk 6:16). He was also called ‘one of the twelve’, the term associated with his treachery (Mk 14:10,20; Mt 26:14;Lk 22:3;Jn 6:71).

His ministry

Judas was among the Twelve (Act 1:17) ordained by the Lord to evangelise to ‘the lost sheep of the house of Israel’ (Mt 10:6) and given  ‘power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease’ (Mt 10:1). They were taught how to preach to the Jews the need for repentance for the remission of sins (Mk 6:12) and to proclaim the glad tidings of the kingdom of heaven which was at hand (Mt 10:7). The Lord sent them two by two (Mk 6:7) to cities and villages and instructed them to travel light without purse or provision and to rely on the traditional hospitality of the devout Jews who were receptive to the gospel and supported the ministry with their substance (Mt 10:9,10; Lk 8:3; Jn 19:38,39).

His motive for following Jesus

Though the Twelve had been called by Jesus to full-time ministry, and the Lord had repeatedly revealed to them that He must go to Jerusalem and be persecuted by the elders, chief priests and scribes and be killed and raised again on the third day ( Mt 16:21;17:22,23;20:18,19), they struggled to forsake their self-interest in securing their rewards in His kingdom: ‘Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore?’ (Mt 19:27). They had the misconception as taught by the scribes that the promised Messiah would come to overthrow the Roman colonial masters and re-establish the Davidic kingdom. The religious leaders did not interpret the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53 as the Messiah in His first coming. The apostles did not realise that their exceedingly rich reward would only come at His second coming to establish His millennial rule on earth (Rev 20:6).

They were ambitious, envious of one another, and argued among themselves who should be the greatest in His Messianic kingdom (Mk 9:33,34). Through the petition and influence of their  mother, John and James, the sons of Zebedee, even schemed to secure positions of eminence in His kingdom, one sitting of His right and the other on the left. The other ten apostles were moved with indignation against the two brethren when they heard it (Mt 20:20,21).

There is no doubt that Judas, with his covetous  disposition  was also looking forward to a position of authority in the Messianic kingdom.

His character

Judas was basically wretched and depraved. He was characterised by his inordinate love of money, which is ‘the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through withmanysorrows’ (1 Tim 6:10). He was described as ‘a thief’, as he pilfered money which was entrusted to him (Jn 12:6). As the  treasurer of the apostolic band (Jn 13:29), he had many opportunities to satisfy his greed to compensate for the loss of income in giving up his secular job to follow Jesus full time. It is unimaginable that he had such an avarice to make money out of the apostolic fund. This eventually led him to betray the Lord and asked for payment for the treason (Mt 26:15).

The evil aspect of his character was clearly demonstrated in an incident in which Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, anointed the Lord with a very expensive spikenard aromatic ointment from an alabaster box during supper in the home of Simon the leper in Bethany (Jn 12:1-5). Judas was indignant and instigated other apostles to murmur against her action (Mt 26:8; Mk 14:4,5) and raised his voice of criticism ‘Why was not this ointment sold for 300 pence, and given to the poor?’ (Jn 12:5). This was the amount which a rural worker would earn in a year. Judas made the plea not because he cared for the poor and looking for opportunities to relieve them. He was indifferent to Mary’s noble deed which was highly commended by the Lord (Mt 26:13), but only interested in increasing the apostolic fund from which he could take away a portion for his own personal gain. This incident also showed that in addition to his avarice, he also had the trait of hypocrisy and deceit in him.

He was also characterised by self-deception. When Jesus revealed at the passover that one of His apostles would betray Him, Judas asked ‘ Master, is it I?’ (Mt 26:25). He was so secretive, deliberate and calm  in his evil design and its execution, that the other apostles were completely unaware until Jesus was arrested.

His betrayal

The religious leaders, the Sanhedrin, had been planning to take Jesus by craft and to put Him to death, and this became more urgent two days before the feast of passover. But they decided that this should not be done on the feast day, as they were afraid of opposition from His large number of followers (Mt 26:2-5).

Following the anointing incident at Bethany, Satan entered into Judas (Lk 22:3), and directed him to commune with the chief priests and captains how he might betray Jesus to them. When they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money (Mk 14:10,11). He asked: ‘What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver’ (Mt 26:15). From that time, he was determined to await a favourable opportunity when he might betray his Master secretly and deliver Him up alive to His enemies (Mk 14:11), and in the absence of the multitude of His followers (Lk 22:6).

The Lord had foreknowledge of Judas’s action.  When Jesus gathered the Twelve in the upper room for the passover, He was troubled in spirit and said that one of them would betray Him (Jn 13:21): ‘But, behold, the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table’ (Lk 22:21). When they heard that, they were exceeding sorrowful, looked at one another in bewilderment, and each of them began to ask privately ‘Lord, is it I’ (Mt 26:22). When Judas asked hypocritically in whispered undertones, the Lord  replied, not heard by the other apostles: ‘Thou hast said’ (Mt 26:25).

Peter secretly beckoned to John to find out from Jesus who would betray Him (Jn 13:23-25). Jesus answered and said ‘He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me’ (Mt 26:23).

As an expression of His love for the Twelve, the Lord dipped a morsel of bread in the dish and gave to each of them. After Jesus had given it to Judas, Satan entered into him. The Lord said to him privately: ‘That thou doest, do quickly’(Jn 13:27).

Judas must have been in a state of anxiety for he dreaded the  exposure of his treason before the other apostles. He went out  immediately as it was already dark in the night. However, none of the other apostles at the table knew for what intent  the Lord spoke to Judas. They thought that Jesus had instructed him to run an errand to purchase provisions for the feast of the passover or to give something to the poor. They did not know that he was the traitor (Jn 13:28-30).

The pre-arranged plan was to arrest Jesus in the same night in a garden at Gethsemane on the side of Mount of Olives where Jesus and His apostles often had their retreat and prayers. Judas was the guide who led a band of Roman soldiers and officers from the Sanhedrin with lanterns and torches and weapons to arrest Jesus (Jn 18:1-3). He identified Jesus of Narareth to them with the traitor’s kiss (Mk 14:43-45).The Lord spoke to Judas to prick his conscience: ‘Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?’ (Lk 22:48).

This enormous wickedness committed by Judas was unimaginable.

His death

The next morning, when Judas witnessed the trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin which delivered Him bound to the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, to be condemned to death, he was overwhelmed with sorrow and agony and remorse of conscience. He brought the 30 pieces of silver as a reward of his iniquity, to the chief priests and scribes and confessed and repented: ‘I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood’ (Mt 27:4). But they were totally indifferent to his remorse. He cast the money down in the temple (Mt 27:5).

The chief priests took the silver pieces, but did not put them  into the treasury because it was blood money, impure and defiling to the temple. They took counsel and decided to use the money to buy the potter’s field to bury those who had no family tombs (Mt 27:6-8).

Judas was tormented with horror and despair. His guilty conscience was so intolerable that after departing from the temple, he committed suicide by hanging himself in the very field bought with the reward of his iniquity (Mt 27:5). He died miserably: he fell  headlong, his abdomen burst apart and  his bowels gushed out (Act 1:18). Judas by his ‘transgression fell, that he might go to his own place’ (Act 1:25), the awful destiny of eternal torment he chose for himself.

Work of Satan

Satan failed to kill Baby Jesus in Bethlehem through king Herod (Mt 2:12,13). He tempted the Lord in the wilderness to sin so as to thwart God’s plan for man’s redemption by  disqualifying Him as the Saviour of the world. The devil was utterly defeated (Lk 4:13). He then returned with his wicked plan to make use of Peter to deter Christ from fulfilling His mission on earth in His vicarious sacrificial death (Mt 16:21-23). Finally, he turned to Judas.  

Even at the beginning of his ministry, Judas committed himself to Satan. The Lord revealed to the Twelve: ‘Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?’ (Jn 6:70). Basically, Judas’ depraved  inclination made him a target for Satan. The traitor opened the door of his heart for the evil one to enter in and be used by him to plan and execute his wicked scheme (Lk 22:3). He became the tool of the devil, completely under his control and power. His treason was instigated by Satan who took advantage of his covetous disposition.

The events leading to the betrayal and arrest of the Lord showed how Satan had successfully made use of him. After being rebuked by Jesus for his criticism against Mary for anointing the Lord in the house of Simon the leper at Bethany, the devil instructed him to commune with the Sanhedrin how he might betray his Master (Mt 26:14). At the passover , he was energised by Satan to betray Jesus: ‘the devil having now  put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him’ (Jn 13: 2). After the Lord had dipped the morsel of bread in the dish and gave it to Judas, Satan entered into him again and instructed him to execute his wicked scheme without further delay (Jn 13:27).

Did he truly repent?

Jesus gave Judas many opportunities to repent by pitiful admonition to escape his doom, but he despised such gracious offer of salvation. All these only served to aggravate his guilt and remorse later on. During washing of the apostles’ feet, the Lord hinted to Judas and warned the traitor of his intended betrayal: ‘Ye are not all clean’ (Jn 13:11). In the passover conversation, Jesus was actually appealing to Judas and calling him to repent of his wicked plot. There was no feeling of repentance and God gave him over to a reprobate mind (Rm 1:28). His heart was hardened and emboldened and his conscience seared. He was completely under the dominion of Satan.

Judas was sorrowful for betraying Jesus and overwhelmed with deep remorse. He confessed his crime before the chief priests and made restitution for the wrongdoing by returning the 30 pieces of silver (Mt 27:4).

He regretted, but did not repent. There was no true godly sorrow and repentance, no genuine spiritual mourning for sin, but worldly sorrow that led to death (2 Cor 7:10). The sorrow did not lead him to Christ to seek forgiveness. If he were to turn to the Lord in confession and repentance, he would have found grace, mercy and forgiveness. There was no change in his heart for the better. The only change produced was  the horror of a guilty conscience. He confessed his sin, not to God, but to the partners of his crime.

Conclusion

It is the sovereign will and foreknowledge of God that one of the twelve apostles whom Jesus called should betray Him: ‘I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me’ (Jn 13:18). Judas was predetermined to fulfil the role of a traitor. God knew that Satan had already put into his heart to betray Jesus and that he had consented to it. From the beginning, the Lord had stamped on him the inexorable character as ‘the son of perdition’: ‘While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled’ (Jn 17:12).

The counsel and purpose of God and His absolute overruling power for Judas to betray Jesus and his moral accountability seems incompatible. But he himself was totally responsible for the enormity of the most atrocious wickedness. He repeatedly rejected the gracious offers of Christ who gently appealed to him and called him to repent to escape his doom.

The Lord permitted him to act freely, wilfully, maliciously and treacherously from the wickedness of his own heart. For his treason and covetousness, he was a doomed and damned man; he chose it and Jesus pronounced his terrible doom in the place of everlasting misery and torment: ‘The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born’ (Mt 26:24). He had no excuse. He died without hope and without pardon, not because his crime was so heinous that it could not be pardoned, but because he did not ask for forgiveness from the Lord.

Despite being called to such an honourable apostolic office and having such an intimate walk and fellowship with the Lord for more than three years, Judas had no reverence for God, nor a love and desire for righteousness. He was destitute of faith in Christ and never did believe in Him. He personally witnessed His life and works, and heard the word of eternal life and the way to salvation. Jesus had given him the greatest opportunity to help himself subdue whatever inherent sinful passions and desires. His heart was not with the ministry despite his constant companion with the Lord. He deliberately and wilfully rejected Christ’s love, grace and instructions. He loved money more than his Lord who showed such tender care, kindness and love throughout His ministry, and as act of condescension, He even washed the feet of such a wicked traitor (Jn 13:5).

All the events concerning the betrayal and death of Judas were in complete fulfilment of Old Testament prophecies. How he  led such a hypocritical life and tragically ended it serves as a stern warning to professing Christians who are not committed to the Lord and have not been born-again and therefore do not have the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit to overcome the evil schemes of the god of this world (1Jn 4:4). Amen.