Matthew 26:20-22, “Now when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve. And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I?”
The twelve men that sat with Jesus at the table were all common men. We all have pictures in our minds of what each must have looked like. The rough fishermen, the tax collector, the doctor all give us an image of what they looked like. What about Judas what did he look like. He was numbered among the twelve. He had walked with the Lord for three years so what picture do we see of him. The fact that he betrayed the Lord conjures up visions of a man with an evil eye, a man who stands off from all the rest; a loner with cold and conniving expressions. An evil looking beady-eyed little man with a pointed beard. He must have had a bad childhood his parents must have left him on the street. But could that really be what he looked like?
Jesus did select him and he was numbered among the twelve. It is doubtful he was a loner as he was trusted as the treasurer. At the last supper when Jesus said, “Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me” no one look straight at Judas. No one even considered him to be the traitor. Could we picture Judas as a man who was jovial, well liked by all and had been outgoing and well meaning. It is hard to say as the bible does not give us a picture of him.
So what do we know about Judas? I think Judas is like many today he knew about Jesus but had no real relationship with him. He had seen Jesus but he did not know who he was. He had heard Jesus speak yet he failed to understand anything he said. Judas was a man exactly what Satan needed to betray the Lord. He was looking for a man who had been seen with Jesus but did not see Jesus. Satan was looking for a man who had talked the talk but who did not walk the walk, a man who had little conviction and who could be easy swayed by the slightest wind. Satan also was looking for a man in the inner circle.
A great lesson is presented to us through Judas Iscariot. Satan’s best tool to destroy is found not outside the church but seated in the pew. It is not the drug dealers on the street that do the most damage to the Lord’s church it is those who sing Oh How I Love Jesus on Sunday morning and curse the driver in front of them on Monday. It is not the corrupt politician in Washington that will kill a church it is those with a selfish me and mine attitude that will close church doors. To quote Max Lucado, “The church will not die from without but from corrosion within—from those who bear the name of Jesus but have never met him and from those who have religion but no relationship with Jesus.”
Judas looked like one of the twelve, walked like one of the twelve, talked like one of the twelve, traveled with the Lord and wore the religious robes but he never knew the heart of Jesus. He had religion but had no relationship. How many today would fit into that picture?
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