THE EASTER STORY: Part one
Every Easter, I present to my
readers the story of Jesus with respect to his trial, his death and his
resurrection. I also describe the people in his life and the places where this
all occurred.
My wife and I spent three weeks in
the old city of Jerusalem. Nazareth, Bethlehem and at the Sea of galilee.
Amongst other occupations, I am also a historian. I have written three
books in which I described many historical events beginning in 1933 and ending
in 1951. In the first volume of the book, WHISTLING
IN THE FACE OF ROBBERS, it has 324 pages.
.
In that book, I described what it
was like to live in the Great Depression in the 1930’s in which millions of
people world-wide were homeless and hungry. I was born in that era. I also
described the beginning of World War Two when Hitler attacked Poland and the five
years that followed including the event when Japan attacked Hawaii and the
Philippines and when the Americans subsequently entered the war in Europe and
in the South Pacific I also described other events such as disasters and what
the cost of living was like during those years etc.
In Volume two of WHISTLING IN THE FACE OF ROBBERS. it comprises of 847 pages in which I continued to describe the events of the Second world
war when it extended to North Africa, most of the Far East and the Pacific. Near
the end of the book, I described the death of Hitler and the surrender of
Germany and Japan and the executions of the war criminals along with other
events not related to the war.
In my book THE COURIER, I described much of the war taking place in Europe and
the conspiracy to kill Hitler by the generals
of his army. The book has 316 pages. Much the book deals with Hitler and
his closest followers and the last years of their lives.
I am very careful when I write about
historical events.
Now I am going to tell you about
Judas Iscariot who was a close
follower of Jesus.
DID JUDAS REALLY BETRAY
JESUS?
I am going to answer that question right now. He did not betray Jesus at
all. I will explain later why he didn’t betray Jesus. But first, I will give
you some background information about this particular disciple of Jesus. I should point out however that
Judas Iscariot should not be confused with Judas Thomas (Saint Thomas the Apostle),
or with Judas Thaddaeus (Saint Jude Thaddaeus), who
were also members of the Twelve Apostles.
Judas Iscariot was one of Jesus’ twelve chosen disciples.
As the group's treasurer, he was in charge of the group’s money bag. When
necessities had to be purchased, it would be him who purchased the items.
Scripture tells us that Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of
silver, the standard price paid for buying a slave. But did he do it out of
greed, or to force the Jesus to overthrow the Romans, as some scholars suggest?
It was none of these reasons.
Judas’ legacy went from being one of Jesus' closest friends
to becoming a man whose first name has come to mean traitor. As an example, when goats are
being led to the slaughter house, another goat that has previously been in the
slaughter house and not slaughtered is placed at the head of the column of
goats who willingly follow that particular goat to their deaths. That is why
that goat is called the Judas goat. The same method can apply to other animals
being led into the slaughter house.
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke state that Jesus sent out
"the twelve" (including Judas) with power over unclean spirits and
with a ministry of preaching and healing. Judas clearly played that was an active part
in this apostolic ministry alongside the other eleven followers of Jesus.
In John's Gospel, Judas's outlook was differentiated from the others
and for this reason, many of Jesus' disciples abandoned Judas because of their
difficulty in accepting his form of teachings.
Jesus later asked the remaining
eleven if they would also leave him. Simon Peter (the senior of all the
disciples) spoke for the twelve: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the
words of eternal life." They all but two (Mark and Judas (one of the other disciples whose name was also
Judas) later abandoned Jesus and fled out of Judea because of their fears that
they too would be the next to be executed like Jesus was going to be executed.
Further, later when Peter was
asked if he was a follower of Jesus, three times he denied that he was. He made
that statement out of fear for his own life.
The Gospel of Matthew directly states that Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus for a bribe of
"thirty
pieces of silver by identifying him with a kiss to arresting soldiers of
the High Priest Caiaphas, who then turned Jesus over
to Pontius Pilate's soldiers.
According to the Gospel of John 13:27: When Jesus and his disciples were eating
their final meal in a room that they had rented for that purpose, Jesus told
his disciples that one of them was going to betray him. Soon after, Jesus took a piece of bread, dipped it
into the sop (soup) and gave it to Judas. While Judas was placing the
piece of the bread into his mouth, Jesus said to him, “What you (have to) do,
do quickly.”
What Jesus wanted Judas to do was his part of their plan that Jesus was
going to use to decide once and for all, the issue of him being or not being
the expected Messiah.
Incidentally, some people have actually read other peoples’ minds but
this is very rare. I am convinced that Jesus couldn’t read other peoples’ minds
because on one occasion, he asked one of his disciples if he thought that he
(Jesus) was the Messiah. If he could read minds, he wouldn’t have asked that
question.
As far as Jesus was concerned, Judas was a close friend and the one man
that Jesus could trust to play his part in the plan. Since Judas was more or
less alienated from the others because of his own form of teaching the good
word, it would be easier to convince the others that it was Judas who betrayed
him.
Jesus didn’t want the others to think less of him with him deliberately placing himself and possibly
them also in mortal danger.
Further, Judas kept pestering Jesus to prove that he was the expected
Messiah and when Jesus told him of his plan, Judas went along with it, even
though he wasn’t too happy that his friend, Jesus would suffer terribly before
the army of angels (if they came at all) would rescue him and prove to everyone
that he really was the Messiah everyone was hoping for. That is the reason why
Judas was a willing partner to the plot.
In
the Gospel of Mark 14:21 it says, .Jesus said it would have been "better
for this man" (Judas) had he "never been born.”
Mark
didn’t say that at the time of the crucifixion of Jesus. He said it many years
later. Mark was the only surviving disciple as the others were all martyred.
Mark and the other ten disciples had no
idea at all that Jesus had intended to bring about his death by his own volition and that
Jesus had asked Judas to make it possible for Jesus to determine once and for
all if he was really the expectant Messiah.
Many religious scholars have
considered it to be unlikely that the early Christian church would have
invented the story o the betrayal of one
of Jesus’ disciples since it would appear to reflect badly on Jesus.
However, in the Sixteenth Century, the committee of learned men set up
by King James to rewrite the Christian Bible decided that it was better to
blame someone else for Jesus crucifixion rather than place the blame on Jesus.
To them, there was no evidence that Jesus chose the route he undertook to
determine if he really was the expectant Messiah.
In his book The Passover
Plot (1965), British New
Testament scholar Hugh J. Schonfield suggested that the
crucifixion of Christ was a conscious re-enactment of Biblical prophecy and that Judas acted with
the full knowledge and consent of Jesus in betraying him to the authorities.
Admittedly, his book has been variously described as actually
groundless, based on little data and wild suppositions. However, I am not convinced that his
suppositions were wild at all. His suppositions and mine also are based purely
on logic.
In Matthew
27:3-10 it says; When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that
Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty pieces
of silver to the chief priests and the elders. "I have sinned," he
said, "for I have betrayed innocent blood." "What is that to
us?" they replied. "That's your responsibility." 5So
Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged
himself. The chief priests picked up the coins and said, "It is against
the law to put this into the treasury, since it is blood money." So they
decided to use the money to buy the potter's field as a burial place for
foreigners. That is why it has been called the Field of Blood to this day. Then what was
spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: "They took the thirty pieces
of silver, the price set on him by the people of Israel, 10and they
used them to buy the potter's field, as the Lord commanded me."
It is unfortunate
for Judas Iscariot that he was later described as the man who wrongfully
betrayed Jesus by kissing him on the cheek
so that the priest’s guards could arrest him.
Tomorrow, I will
tell you about the trials Jesus had attended.
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