Jottings

by J. Miller | Category: Jottings | Mar 1961

Judas Iscariot is one of the strangest characters in the Holy Scriptures. The name Judas is the same as Judah or Jude. Leah, the wife of Jacob, called her fourth son Judah or Jehudah, which means" praised " or" celebrated." Jacob addressed his son Judah, when he was dying, and said, "Judah, thee shall thy brethren praise "(Genesis 49.8). Leah longed for the love of her husband, and when Reuben, Simeon and Levi were born she made reference to her loveless state and to her husband. But when she bare Judah, she made no mention of her husband. She rose supreme above her trials, and said, "This time will I praise the LORD" (Genesis 29.85), and she put the name " praise "upon her new-born infant. Little did she know that God would take her son's descendants and place them at the forefront of His people. What an encouragement this is to us to be a praising people, instead of being a murmuring folk overwhelmed with the adversities of life! Little also did she know that through this infant son would come the longed-for Messiah, awaited by all the godly, who hailed with joy the promise made to Abraham and his seed.

But what a descent of a name, from Judah the celebrated, to Judas the execrated! Many names of great and honourable men have been given to others who were unworthy to bear them, but did ever a name of such eminence fall to such a depth as did that of Judas, given to the son of Simon Iscariot? Though Judas bore the name of "praise," he hastened in his covetous way until the day when he betrayed the Lord, and then with his own hand opened the portals of eternity to go to his own place, a place where praise is unknown!

In Luke 6.12-16 we find the Lord in a mountain' where He continued all night in prayer to God (or, literally "in the prayer of God"). "When it was day," we are told, that "He called His disciples: and He chose from them twelve, whom He also named apostles." We are told the names of the twelve, and the last of the number is " Judas Iscariot, which was the traitor." He is placed last in the list. Why Judas chose to be amongst those who followed the Lord, perhaps we shall never know, but we are in no doubt why the Lord chose him. It was that the Scripture might be fulfilled (John 17. 12). Judas was spoken of in the prophecies in the book of the Psalms. The Lord was in no doubt as to the men He chose. Eleven were good men and true, but of Judas He said, "Did not I choose you the twelve, and one of you is a devil? Now He spake of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot for he it was that should betray Hun being one of the twelve (John 6 70 71) Judas showed his character as a devil in the act of betrayal when he led the great multitude with swords and staves it is said "Now he that betrayed Him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss that is He take Him. And straightway he came to Jesus, and said Hail Rabbi and kissed Him. And Jesus said unto him, Friend, do that for which thou art come. Then they came and laid hands on Jesus, and took Him" (Matthew 26.47-50). The word "friend" that the Lord used was not Philos which is derived from Phileo "to love" but Hetairos which means a " companion" Judas had no love for the Lord His act in betraying the Lord with a kiss was sheer hypocrisy He had flouted every act of love the Lord had shown him; he had followed the Lord for what he could get eating His bread and stealing His money and now at the last he had lifted up his heel against Him.

His going to the chief priests to sell the Lord in which act Luke tells us that Satan entered into him (Luke 22 3 6), follows, in Matthew 26 6 16, immediately after the Lord's anointing in the house of Simon the leper in Bethany This seems to be the same anointing by Mary of Bethany as ii recorded in John 12 1 8 The cause of the disciples calling the Lord's anointing with the precious ointment as "waste" was what Judas said. When Judas was refused by the Lord to realize on the ointment, and thereby have more money to steal, he apparently thought of another way of getting money, and that was by selling the Lord into the hands of His enemies, for which transaction they weighed to him thirty pieces of silver. Such was the bargain that meant so much to Judas, and so much to the Jewish people of sorrows untold.

In this present contribution we wish to ask ourselves the question, was Judas Iscariot present when the Lord instituted His Remembrance in the breaking of the bread? Did he partake of the bread and wine? There is no doubt that Judas was present and partook of the Passover supper. In Matthew, Mark and Luke we have no reference to when Judas left the upper room to go to get the armed band to arrest the Lord. In Matthew 26, we have no reference to Judas between verses 25 and 47.In verse 25, "Judas, which betrayed Him, answered and said, Is it I, Rabbi? He saith unto him, Thou hast said." And in verse 47 we read, "And while He yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves."

In Mark the Lord announced that one of the twelve would betray Him, and He said little more, but indicated who it was by saying, "He that dippeth with Me in the dish" (Mark 14. 18-20). We hear nothing more in Mark about Judas, until verse 43, when he came with the multitude with swords and staves to arrest the Lord.

In Luke 22.19, 20 we have the account of the institution of the Remembrance, and in verse 21, we read, "But behold, the hand of him that betrayeth Me is with Me on the table," Then we read nothing more of Judas until verse 47, when Judas came with a multitude and drew near to kiss the Lord, which was the arranged mark of identification of the Lord's Person.

John is the only Gospel writer who tells us when Judas left the upper room to go on his dark mission of betrayal (John 13. 30); but John does not tell us of the institution of the Remembrance. We would at once conclude, and I judge properly so, from John's Gospel, that Judas had gone before the Lord instituted the Remembrance were it not for the words in Luke 22.21, "But behold, the hand of him that betrayeth Me is with Me on the table." In the face of John's account of that night's proceedings, were we to take Luke's words as indicating that Judas was still sitting at the table when the Lord instituted the Remembrance, there would seem to be a collision between Luke's and John's accounts. But we ask, Do the words of Luke imply that Judas was seated at the table at the time of the institution of the Remembrance ? or, Did the Lord mean that the place of the scheming betrayer was at the table, though he himself had gone out? I am inclined to think that the latter is the case, that Judas had gone, and his place at the table was vacant.

We have in the days of David words similar in character to those which the Lord used, when the wise woman of Tekoa came to David to act for Joab relative to the bringing back of Absalom to Jerusalem. David detected in her words the scheming of Joab and said, " Is the hand of Joab with thee in all this? And the woman answered and said ... thy servant Joab, he bade me, and he put all these words in the mouth of thine handmaid" (2 Samuel 14. 19). Joab's hand is seen with the woman of Tekoa, though Joab was not present at the interview she had with the king. It seems to me that there is a parallel here between this incident and the Lord's words in Luke. Judas, I judge, was not present in the upper room when the Lord alluded to his hand being with Him on the table, for he that ate His bread and dipped his hand in the Lord's dish at the Passover had, in dark satanic scheming, lifted up his heel against the Lord.

It seems clear in John 13 that the feast of the Passover was in progress when Judas left the upper room. The facts as John relates them are briefly these. (1) During the supper the Lord rose from the supper, girded Himself with a towel and began to wash the disciples' feet. (2) He washed the feet of Judas with those of the rest. (3) He said, "Ye are clean, but not all," referring to Judas the betrayer. (4) He took His garments and sat down again. (5) He explained the meaning of the washing of their feet. (6) He referred to Judas as lifting up his heel against Him. (7) Peter asked John to ask the Lord who it was who should betray Him. (8) The Lord answered that it was he to whom He would give the sop, which shows that they were still engaged in the Passover supper. (9) When Judas received the sop Satan entered into him (for the second time) and he rose and went straightway out into the night. (10) The disciples thought that he was going to buy something for the feast. Judas, I judge, was not at the institution of the Remembrance.

J. Miller | Mar 1961
Jottings