In our last study, we noted that Judas is
recorded as being remorseful but not repentant. We saw that remorse is a
negative emotion stuck on past failure (either ours or that of circumstance).
Repentance, on the other hand, is a positive grasp of the future because of a
negative past. It is a changing of the mind. It is more than emotion. It is a
gift from God.
The betrayer has now become a double
victim. Luke tells us: “Satan entered into Judas …and he went
his way, and communed with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray
him unto them.” [Lk. 22:3,4]. He stands as a monument in
history of the dangerous world in which we live. He is recorded as a reminder
of our need to stay on the alert. He did not begin to follow Jesus with
sinister motives. He was not a betrayer from the beginning. At a point in time,
he gave in to Satan, and he became the victim of Satan and evil men. As a pawn
on the dark side of history, he was used for infamy.
As the spotlight of revelation focuses on
him, he sees what he has done, but it is too late to undo it. Dangling from the
rope of his own failure, he cries out to the source of the cash in his pocket,
but it is too late. Judas stands as the personification of hell. The words, “too
late,” are now written over his desires. He has passed opportunity and fallen
into consequence. There is no mercy left. It is over! Final failure has arrived
as heavy iron that cannot be moved.
To his pleas for mercy and compassion
from the shadows of regret, he hears: “What is that to us? It is your problem.”
Their words confirm the validity of his perception. There is no attempt to
correct it. There is nothing but indifference from which Judas’ hollow words
echo back into his ears. They have greater concerns than the desperate cries of
human failure. Judas is left alone in the crowd.
Have you ever been there? Have you ever felt like you didn’t belong?
Have you ever had a burden too huge to fit into your heart and yet too small to
be noticed by others? Have you ever been lost in your need and unnoticed by
everyone? Have you ever been alone in a crowd?
The religious indifference of the men to
whom Judas appealed has been reproduced again and again down through the pages
of history. Churches large and small have created isolated agendas that can
snuff out the spirit of Christ. We can get too big to notice the smoke from a
smoldering flame that needs to be fanned back to life. We can become too busy
in our misplaced priorities to take the time to splint the thin twig of a weak
and wounded heart.
We have been saved and left here to be
the hands and feet of Jesus. May we never lose our way! May we never become
indifferent to the needs of those around us! May we never become too proud to
weep with the broken hearted!