The history of Jesus Christ and his early followers is the greatest story ever told.
It is a powerful proclamation of
the working of God in the human experience. It reveals the life of God being
manifested in men who had been taken to the end of themselves for the needs
of others. It is the story of the relationship of love.
The history of the early followers, however, also contains the weakness and the shame
of man. It records the dismal destruction of Judas, one of the original
apostles. This grimmest story ever told reveals what happens when man
attempts to experience life apart from the divine influence. Losing sight of
the divine light of love, Judas was to experience the pain and the agony of
standing alone.
The saga of Judas, sadly, is a tale that is too often told in the Scripture.
It is the story of Lucifer (Ezekiel 28:11-19), Adam and Eve (Genesis
3:1-19), and the Children of Israel (Deuteronomy 1:19-46). Paul warned the
believers in Rome (Romans 1:18-32), in Corinth (1 Corinthians 10:1-10), and
in Ephesus (Ephesians 4:17-19) of the deadly destruction that can befall all
men as it did Judas. James, also, wrote of the certain death that comes when
one fails to live by the divine influence of the soul (James 1:13-16), when
one attempts to live in himself for himself.
Judas, as with all who have ever failed, did not understand the mystery of
experiencing life, being brought to the end of one’s self for the needs of
others. Failing to experience the life of dying, he experienced the death of
living, using others for the perceived needs of self. In attempting to
produce life in himself by using Jesus, Judas opened himself to death by his
own attempt to live.
Failing to understand the mystery of the relationship of love, he soon
experienced the reality of loneliness, the reality of hell. The destruction
of Judas, as Peter understood it, was predicted by David: "For it is
written in the book of Psalms [Psalms 69:25], Let his habitation be desolate
, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishoprick let another take"
(Acts 1:20).
Attempting to use others for his own enhancement, he soon had no place to
call home in which he might live, no friends in which he might share his
life, and no work in which he might experience his life. Once numbered among
those whom "the Lord Jesus went in and out" (Acts 1:20)
experiencing the life of love, Judas ended his life homeless, friendless,
and workless, the reality of hell.
Little did Judas realize that the land, which he bought with the price of
the betrayal, would become a memorial to his dismal deed. For it would be on
this land that Judas choked to death (Matthew 27:5), perhaps from grief and
horror, "falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his
bowels gushed out" (Acts 1:18). His land would become known as
"the field of blood" and no man would dwell therein (Acts
1:19,20).
The death of Judas became "known unto all the dwellers at
Jerusalem" (Acts 1:19). Once experiencing love personified in Jesus, he
ended his life alone in the isolation of himself. The life that could had
been numbered among the greatest was remembered as the vestige of betrayal.
The contrast of the life of Jesus and the life of Judas is both remarkable
and revealing. Jesus was seen "alive after his passion by many
infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things
pertaining to the kingdom of God" (Acts 1:3). Judas was found dead
after his "passion," being known by the people of Jerusalem, and
his death spoke of the things that pertain to the kingdom of man. The
kingdom of God or the kingdom of man, the life of love or the death of
loneliness awaits all men.
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