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DIFFERENT
FROM THE START
Judas
was marked out as different from the start. He was the only one of the
apostles who did not come from Jesus' home territory, Galilee. Instead, he
was from Judah, a very different place indeed - much smaller and less
fertile than Galilee, but center of worship and administration in its
capital, Jerusalem. As far as the Jerusalemites were concerned, Jesus and
his band of disciples were a group of provincial dissidents. Judas did not
fit this picture.
So what was he doing with Jesus? He seems to
have had a gift for financial administration. He was the organizer of the
group, the fixer. He took care of the money and how it was spent, saw that
the group had lodgings and food - a tour manager, in fact.
JUDAS THE APOSTLE
He cannot have been as black a person as he
was later painted, when he joined Jesus. After all, he was a core member
of the group, accepted by the others even if he was not really one of
them. Some writers have even gone as far as suggesting he was the unnamed
'Beloved Disciple' of John's gospel, reclining next to Jesus at the Last
Supper.
Later, in hindsight, John accused him of
being mean with money, citing the incident when Judas asked why Mary of
Bethany poured expensive perfume over Jesus instead of giving the money to
the poor. This story is used to criticize Judas - but don't many people
ask the same thing today, when they suggest church money should not be
spent of paintings, music or new buildings, but rather given to the poor?
Jesus' response was to say that we can do both.
PASSOVER IN JERUSALEM
Judas' actions at that fateful Passover in
Jerusalem are well-known - but hard to explain. He went to the chief
priests and arranged the betrayal of Jesus. How did he know they would be
sending out a military detail to arrest Jesus? Jesus was certainly in
trouble after the fracas in the Temple, but he did not seem to be on the
run, not if he could sit down and share the meal now known as the Last
Supper. How did Judas even know who to go to, to arrange the betrayal?
John suggests that Judas oversaw the whole thing - picking the hour,
naming the place, leading the troop of soldiers and police, and standing
there beside them while they arrested Jesus and took him into custody.
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'As
far as the Jerusalemites were concerned, Jesus and his band of disciples
were a group of provincial dissidents. Judas did not fit this picture. So
what was he doing with Jesus?'
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WHY
DID HE DO IT?
Did
Judas act with Jesus' consent? The motive for his action remains a
mystery. Was he disappointed by Jesus, and the direction he was taking?
This is hardly a motive for betrayal. Was it out of greed? That is hard to
believe, in one who had been an intimate friend of the charismatic
Galilean. Was it to save himself? This could be more likely. He may have
believed that Jesus was to usher in a new Messianic age, and then seen his
hopes crash to the ground when Jesus fled from the Temple after attacking
the money-changers. He may have been aghast at Jesus' attack on the Temple
itself - as a Judean, he would have a more profound respect for the sacred
nature of the Temple precincts. Jesus had criticized the Temple
regulations before, but he had never actually done violence there before.
It may have been too much for Judas, who in this dangerous situation
decided to throw his lot in with the authorities instead, to save his own
skin. In the end, his betrayal may have been born of fear of the
authorities and what they could do to him, rather than rejection of
Jesus.
WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM?
Matthew says he
returned to the priests to give them back their money, but they refused to
listen to him, so Judas hanged himself in despair. The gospels don't
even agree on how Judas died - was it as Matthew says? Or in a horrible
accident that saw him crushed and disemboweled, as Peter describes in Acts?
Judas'
story raises more questions than it answers....
Judas, wood carving, Holy Blood Altar, Abendmahl
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INTERESTING
WEBSITES - stories, pictures, information
Archaeological evidence for the horrific
practice of crucifixion
BIBLE ARCHAEOLOGY: CRUCIFIXION
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ACTIVITIES
Standing
in another's shoes
Read the gospel chapters dealing with the last days of Jesus, prior to his
death on the cross. List the series of events in the lead-up to the
crucifixion. Now write a paragraph on each event, telling the story from
Judas' point of view.
Why
did he do it?
List all the different motives Judas might have had for doing what he did.
Rank them in their order of likelihood.
In
depth study of one person's story
Choose one of the people whose stories are told on this site and develop a
PowerPoint presentation about them.
The presentation must be at least 10 slides long and should include
* a supporting image/picture/painting of each person
* a map of Israel showing
the cities and areas where the story took place.
You may call up other websites to support your ideas.
In
your presentation (approximately 10 minutes), answer the following questions:
1.
What are the main events of the person's life?
Tell the story.
2.
What
were their main qualities? What made them stand out from the crowd?
3.
What obstacles did they face?
Did they overcome them, or go with the flow? Explain.
4.
How did they use their abilities to do God’s work?
5.
Which part of their story appeals to you most? Why?
You
must include three short quotations from the gospel texts to illustrate
the points you are making.
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