What Did Judas Miss?

Matthew 27:1-27:10
4/4/2010

The other day I was looking up the top 10 most despised people. There was Adolf Hitler at number 1 but what really surprised me was Judas Iscariot was not even in the top 20. I mean think about it, this was the man who betrayed Jesus Christ, the son of God, King of Kings, Lord of Lord, Prince of Peace. His name is synonymous with betrayal.

But who was he? Who was this Judas Iscariot? Well we don’t really know all that much about him, we do know that his father was Simon and that his surname Iscariot was probably a combination of the Hebrew words Ish and Kariot, which would then be translated, Man of Kariot. From the scriptures we discover that he was appointed treasurer of the twelve and that he became a thief, stealing from that very same treasury.

Judas Iscariot; friend, confident, disciple, treasurer, traitor. How it must have broken Jesus’ heart when Judas stepped out of the crowd of those who came to arrest him and betrayed him with a kiss on the cheek.

The name Judas will go down in history being synonymous with betrayal. But the question we need to ask ourselves on this Easter Sunday  is this, When Judas hung himself on that day what did he miss?
          Judas hung himself even before Christ was sentenced. Before Pilate finished questioning Jesus, Judas was dead. Before Barabbas was released, Judas was dead. Before Jesus was scourged with the whip, Judas was dead. Before the crown of thorns was pushed onto Jesus’ head, Judas was dead. Before they nailed Jesus to the cross, Judas was dead.

But here is the real tragedy, when Jesus looked down from the cross, at those who had mocked him, and spat on him, at those who had slapped him. When Jesus saw those who had jammed that viscous crown of thorns deep into his forehead and nailed him to the cross. When Jesus looked at the mob and cried out “Father, forgive these people, because they don’t know what they are doing.” Judas was already dead.
         And so the first and the most important thing that Judas missed was the Forgiveness of Jesus Christ. Now you may be one of those who believe that what Judas did was so horrible, that Judas could never have been forgiven. But my bible still has 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow about his promise as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
         Did you catch that? The Lord is not wanting anyone to perish. Anyone, not even Judas. Christ’s forgiveness is not dependent on our behavior, and for that matter it doesn’t even matter whether or not we deserve it.
         The forgiveness that each one of us needs is dependent on one thing and one thing only and that is the Grace of God. Grace has been defined as the unmerited or undeserved or unearned love of God.

You know the saddest part of the story is that Judas came so close to forgiveness. If we were to list the three things that are required from us in order to experience the forgiveness of God, they would be

1) Acknowledgment of our sin

2) A sense of remorse for our sin.

3) Acceptance of the forgiveness offered us, by faith.
         So how close did Judas come? Well, he declared “I have sinned for I have betrayed an innocent man.” There was the acknowledgment of his sin. Judas didn’t try to justify himself, and offer up excuses for what he had done. And he didn’t try to rationalize his guilt. Instead he said “I have sinned, for I have betrayed an innocent man.” The scriptures also says “he was filled with remorse.”
          Now most of us have felt remorseful over some particular wrong in our life at one time or another, but usually only after we’ve been caught. For the most part we are like King David who cried out “I have sinned against the Lord” but only after Nathan had confronted him with his adultery and murder.

And yet even with Judas’ acknowledgement of his sin, and his remorsefulness, he still couldn’t bring himself to ask for forgiveness. And while two out of three ain’t bad in some cases, it just don’t cut it when it comes to eternity.
         There are people in churches all over maybe right here today who know the truth of Romans 3:23 “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” They know that, and they are remorseful, they feel really bad about their sin. But for some reason they just can’t bring themselves to seek forgiveness from Christ.
          I don’t know what it is holding them back, whether it’s pride or stubbornness but I do know that it’s a dangerous game to play.
         Three days after Jesus and Judas died, Jesus rose again, but Judas was still dead. And as Christ appeared to the disciples after his resurrection he made a statement that would never apply to Judas. That evening, on the first day of the week, the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said.
          And so the second thing that Judas missed was Peace. Peace, oh how that quality eluded Judas. He seemed to have lived without it and now it would appear that he died without it. That peace that Christ promised his disciples in John 14:27 “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give isn’t like the peace the world gives. So don’t be troubled or afraid.”

The world can never give you that peace. We look happy, and everyone may think we have the world by the tail, but we know deep down that we don’t.
          You know it’s easy to externalize a peace, to put on a mask. Felix Powell was the composer of “Pack up your troubles in your old kitbag and smile, smile, smile.” It was once called the most optimistic song ever written, and yet Powell died by his own hand. Every year over 2000 men, women and children take their own lives, why? Because often they are missing a critical ingredient and that is peace.
         You see when most people talk about peace they think about what’s going on in the Middle East. But the peace that the Bible talks about isn’t just an absence of war. The Greek word for peace is I-ray-nay which literally means “To set at one again” And it deals primarily with broken relationships. When we are granted forgiveness through the grace of God then our relationship with God is restored. We are brought to the place where we belong. Judas missed that restoration.

It is very doubtful that Judas was able to say at his point of death the same words that Christ used, “Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!”

Judas didn’t damn himself at the point of betraying Christ. But he most certainly did when he refused to set the relationship straight. I am convinced that had Judas sought the forgiveness that only Christ can give, then he would have experienced the peace that only Christ can provide.

On thing that most commentators will agree on it is that Judas was a passionate nationalist. He was looking for an end to the Roman Tyranny and Jewish enslavement and he thought the answer lay in Jesus. The third thing that Judas missed was Power. I’m sure that if you asked Judas what was the one thing that he craved; his answer would have been power. Power to make a difference, power to affect change, power to get done the things that needed doing.

When Judas came to the end of his relatively short life, he felt so powerless to cope with the events which engulfed him, most of which were his own doing that he took what seemed to be the only way out. Judas was so caught up in his own problems, that he missed the one thing that he craved the most. Because forty days after Judas died, Jesus made this promise to the remaining eleven disciples in Acts 1:8 “But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Within ten days of that promise a power of unparalleled magnitude swept into the world. And Judas missed the one thing that had driven his life, power. The power that Christ gave to the disciples was a world changing power, a power that could only be described using the Greek word dunamos, the same root word from which we get words like dynamic, dynamo and dynamite.

The same power that Judas so desired but missed is available to every one of us. The church in general today doesn’t lend itself to images of power, we’ve been relegated to the back burner of society. We’re no longer a force to be reckoned with. But let’s be truthful, is that because the power of the Holy Spirit is any less available or any less powerful today? Or is it because we fail to claim and exercise that power?

Judas missed a lot, he missed the forgiveness of Christ, the peace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, but I’m here to tell you that you don’t have to. The peace of God still surpasses understanding in 2010 and the power of the Holy Spirit can still change our world as effectively as it changed the world of Peter and Paul.

But just as Judas had to make the choice for himself, you will have to make the choice for yourself.