Judas Iscariot must have been one of the most miserable people on the face of the earth.
Little is known about Judas: where he came from, his parents, family life.
Perhaps he never knew his parents as a mother and a father.
Perhaps he was an unwanted pregnancy, and, as a young child, perhaps he was passed from house to house.
Unloved and unwanted, a boy who learned to live on the streets, doing the best he could do to simply survive, even if it meant stealing food, stealing money, or taking the clothes and shoes off dead people, and maybe that was all he knew.
Perhaps he was a child of physical and sexual abuse, which alienated him deeper and deeper into himself, warping his innermost being, causing him to never trust people, and not caring if people liked him or loved him, and not caring to know the difference. And maybe survival was all he knew.
Along his road of life, he met Jesus of Nazareth, and Judas became one of the twelve disciples. Perhaps this environment was the first home and the first hint of family life that Judas had ever known.
Even then, little is written about Judas, and neither was much said to Judas as he traveled with Jesus and the disciples for more than three years: listening to the sermons that Jesus preached, and watching the miracles that Jesus performed; for neither did the resurrection of Lazarus from death impact the heart of Judas! There is so much silence of Judas it is as if Jesus had eleven disciples instead of twelve.
At the feet of Jesus, however, Judas Iscariot received the greatest education a person could ever receive, from the world's greatest teacher, yet he rejected everything the Savior said.
Judas Iscariot was a prisoner of his past, and he could not let go of the old man within him and embrace the Son of God, for he preferred to live his old ways and to survive by the only method he knew, which included no trust in Jesus.
In the life of Judas Iscariot, Jesus of Nazareth was the first person to ever love him, and the Lord would be the last.
Jesus never gave up on Judas, and even after he kissed the face of the Son of God on the day when Christ was crucified in Jerusalem, Jesus called him friend.
To be honest before the Lord, perhaps all of us can relate to the story of Judas Iscariot in some way; for I know that I, too, had years of misery, years of wandering in the wilderness, years of surviving and doing the best I could do to get by, and years of mistrust of people, and years of feeling unloved and unwanted. Kneeling before Christ was a decision I struggled to make, but when I did it, it was the best decision I have ever made in my life!
Perhaps Judas Iscariot struggled, too. But when he rejected the only friend he ever had, his past became his graveyard. He lived a miserable life, he died a miserable death, he never had a funeral, and no one was there to weep for Judas, nor to bury this dead man's bones.
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul. (Mark 8: 36-37)
But in conclusion, do you remember the parable Jesus gave us (in Luke, chapter 16) about the rich man who died and went to hell and the words he heard from Abraham?
If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead?
Judas Iscariot saw Lazarus, back from the dead, yet Judas refused to acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ.
Little is known about Judas: where he came from, his parents, family life.
Perhaps he never knew his parents as a mother and a father.
Perhaps he was an unwanted pregnancy, and, as a young child, perhaps he was passed from house to house.
Unloved and unwanted, a boy who learned to live on the streets, doing the best he could do to simply survive, even if it meant stealing food, stealing money, or taking the clothes and shoes off dead people, and maybe that was all he knew.
Perhaps he was a child of physical and sexual abuse, which alienated him deeper and deeper into himself, warping his innermost being, causing him to never trust people, and not caring if people liked him or loved him, and not caring to know the difference. And maybe survival was all he knew.
Along his road of life, he met Jesus of Nazareth, and Judas became one of the twelve disciples. Perhaps this environment was the first home and the first hint of family life that Judas had ever known.
Even then, little is written about Judas, and neither was much said to Judas as he traveled with Jesus and the disciples for more than three years: listening to the sermons that Jesus preached, and watching the miracles that Jesus performed; for neither did the resurrection of Lazarus from death impact the heart of Judas! There is so much silence of Judas it is as if Jesus had eleven disciples instead of twelve.
At the feet of Jesus, however, Judas Iscariot received the greatest education a person could ever receive, from the world's greatest teacher, yet he rejected everything the Savior said.
Judas Iscariot was a prisoner of his past, and he could not let go of the old man within him and embrace the Son of God, for he preferred to live his old ways and to survive by the only method he knew, which included no trust in Jesus.
In the life of Judas Iscariot, Jesus of Nazareth was the first person to ever love him, and the Lord would be the last.
Jesus never gave up on Judas, and even after he kissed the face of the Son of God on the day when Christ was crucified in Jerusalem, Jesus called him friend.
To be honest before the Lord, perhaps all of us can relate to the story of Judas Iscariot in some way; for I know that I, too, had years of misery, years of wandering in the wilderness, years of surviving and doing the best I could do to get by, and years of mistrust of people, and years of feeling unloved and unwanted. Kneeling before Christ was a decision I struggled to make, but when I did it, it was the best decision I have ever made in my life!
Perhaps Judas Iscariot struggled, too. But when he rejected the only friend he ever had, his past became his graveyard. He lived a miserable life, he died a miserable death, he never had a funeral, and no one was there to weep for Judas, nor to bury this dead man's bones.
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul. (Mark 8: 36-37)
But in conclusion, do you remember the parable Jesus gave us (in Luke, chapter 16) about the rich man who died and went to hell and the words he heard from Abraham?
If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead?
Judas Iscariot saw Lazarus, back from the dead, yet Judas refused to acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ.
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