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Category Archives: Judas

John 12:1-8

30 Oct

12 Six days before the Passover celebration began, Jesus arrived in Bethany, the home of Lazarus—the man he had raised from the dead. 2 A dinner was prepared in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, and Lazarus was among those who ate with him. 3 Then Mary took a twelve-ounce jar of expensive perfume made from essence of nard, and she anointed Jesus’ feet with it, wiping his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance.

4 But Judas Iscariot, the disciple who would soon betray him, said, 5 “That perfume was worth a year’s wages. It should have been sold and the money given to the poor.” 6 Not that he cared for the poor—he was a thief, and since he was in charge of the disciples’ money, he often stole some for himself.

7 Jesus replied, “Leave her alone. She did this in preparation for my burial. 8 You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

John 12:1-8

Dear God, before I get into Judas’s part of this story, I think I’ve kind of missed something. Or at least I’d forgotten it. This was Mary, Lazarus’s sister, doing this. She’s the one who sat at Jesus’s feet while Martha did the work and then complained to Jesus that Mary wasn’t helping. She’s the one who was so distraught at Lazarus’s death that it was Martha who went out to greet him and then Jesus talked to Mary later and she said she believed in the resurrection. And now, she’s the one who “wasted” a year’s-wage worth of perfume and poured it on Jesus’s feet, emotionally wiping it with her hair. This woman really led with her feelings. She ws in the moment with very little inhibition on what decorum or the “right” thing to do would be. And I mean all of this in the most complimentary way. I could stand to be a lot more like her.

Then there’s Judas. John gives us Judas’s outside words: chastising Mary for what he describes as waste. But then he also editorializes for us and gives us some insider information. In John’s opinion, Judas didn’t really care for the poor. Then he seems to know that Judas stole from the group for himself. It’s ironic that we are in political season as I type this. There are so many people right now who are saying whatever they think people want to hear in order to get their votes. I’ve voted already. And I made my decisions. I’d like to think it was based on moral convictions and, but I know I’ve also been swayed by disingenuous words. I heard someone say recently of one politician that if you were to do an exit poll of his staff on election night you would find that most of them didn’t vote for him. I guess we are all in danger of being the person who says one thing when he/she really means another.

Jesus’s reply to Judas will actually poke him a little and cause him to cook a little more. Jesus has been talking about his death. He did so to the point where even Peter rebuked him over it (Mark 8). So now he tells Judas as they head into Passover week that this is in preparation for his burial. They won’t always have him with them. This had to have made Judas angry. And it’s almost like Jesus was doing it intentionally. Like Jesus was challenging Judas to reckon with the conflict going on inside of himself. Jesus could have gotten crucified without Judas’s help. And Jesus knew what Judas was thinking. And the next day they were about do to the Triumphant Entry. That would have been a heady time for Judas and all of the disciples. Was Jesus wrong about his impending death? Would this be the time they’ve been waiting for? So much emotion and selfish desire layered over this story. And Jesus is ultimately reminding him, at the end of the day it will be me who is gone and the poor who are still here.

Father, I have all these selfish desires. I know I have things you want to purge from my heart. Help me to see them and eliminate them from my life. Help me to lay them at the food of your cross and lay down the sword I want to carry around with me to wield power and simply submit to you and loving others (and the poor who, indeed, are still with us). Show me the journey you have for me and help me to be prepared to be the man you need me to be to fulfill it.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on October 30, 2026 in John, Judas

 

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John 6:22-71

29 Oct

22 The next day the crowd that had stayed on the far shore saw that the disciples had taken the only boat, and they realized Jesus had not gone with them. 23 Several boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the Lord had blessed the bread and the people had eaten. 24 So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went across to Capernaum to look for him. 25 They found him on the other side of the lake and asked, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

26 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs. 27 But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man[f] can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval.”

28 They replied, “We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?”

29 Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.”

30 They answered, “Show us a miraculous sign if you want us to believe in you. What can you do? 31 After all, our ancestors ate manna while they journeyed through the wilderness! The Scriptures say, ‘Moses gave them bread from heaven to eat.’[g]”

32 Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven. My Father did. And now he offers you the true bread from heaven. 33 The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

34 “Sir,” they said, “give us that bread every day.”

35 Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But you haven’t believed in me even though you have seen me. 37 However, those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them. 38 For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will. 39 And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day. 40 For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day.”

41 Then the people[h] began to murmur in disagreement because he had said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph? We know his father and mother. How can he say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”

43 But Jesus replied, “Stop complaining about what I said. 44 For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me, and at the last day I will raise them up. 45 As it is written in the Scriptures,[i] ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. 46 (Not that anyone has ever seen the Father; only I, who was sent from God, have seen him.)

47 “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes has eternal life. 48 Yes, I am the bread of life! 49 Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died. 50 Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh.”

52 Then the people began arguing with each other about what he meant. “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” they asked.

53 So Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. 54 But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57 I live because of the living Father who sent me; in the same way, anyone who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 I am the true bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will not die as your ancestors did (even though they ate the manna) but will live forever.”

59 He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

60 Many of his disciples said, “This is very hard to understand. How can anyone accept it?”

61 Jesus was aware that his disciples were complaining, so he said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what will you think if you see the Son of Man ascend to heaven again? 63 The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But some of you do not believe me.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning which ones didn’t believe, and he knew who would betray him.) 65 Then he said, “That is why I said that people can’t come to me unless the Father gives them to me.”

66 At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him. 67 Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Are you also going to leave?”

68 Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. 69 We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.[j]”

70 Then Jesus said, “I chose the twelve of you, but one is a devil.” 71 He was speaking of Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, one of the Twelve, who would later betray him.

John 6:22-71

Dear God, I want to look at all of the passages that mention Judas Iscariot in the New Testament. I want to sit with him a little. One thing I found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke is that they only mention Judas by name when they are listing the disciples and then when he betrays Jesus. We don’t really get the back story. John, however, seems to be more impacted by and even angry with Judas because he tells us more.

In the case of this story, Jesus specfically states out loud that he knows Judas will betray him. It makes me wonder how Judas was feeling during this exchange between Jesus and the people. Was he on their side? Was he wondering what Jesus was talking about or why Jesus wasn’t doing more to take over and lead the revolution. Was a day like this the beginning of his disillusionment?

Of course, I don’t want to just sit here and judge Judas. What did this beginning of my own disillusionment look like? I mean, yes, I probably have some things that I still believe that are incorrect. My theology is still likely flawed in a few areas. But there have also been times when the Holy Spirit has used scripture, teachers, or friends to instruct me. Sometimes it’s just been a still, small voice. Sometimes it’s been despair. The difference, I hope, is that my response to these instances is to look at you and, like Peter, say, “Lord, to whom would [I] go? You have the words that give eternal life.” And I have to admit that I’m not as interested in eternal life. At least at this age, I don’t feel like I need to live forever. If the afterlife is everything it’s cracked up to be then I’m in, but I’m not making that a condition of my worship of you. I just want to love you and be part of your life. And for my life to be yours.

Father, I would love to have some insights into what Judas was thinking while Jesus went back and forth with the crowd here. Was he as offended as they were, but he just decided to stay in the off chance you might be ready to go and take on Rome? Maybe. Either way, there was no submission on his part. Apparently, there was just anger, greed, and desire to dominate and rule. When he could see that was no longer in the cards, he not only left. He betrayed and killed. That poor man. Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Holy Spirit, have mercy.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on October 29, 2026 in John, Judas

 

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Luke 6:12-16

28 Oct

12 One day soon afterward Jesus went up on a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night. 13 At daybreak he called together all of his disciples and chose twelve of them to be apostles. Here are their names:

14 Simon (whom he named Peter),
Andrew (Peter’s brother),
James,
John,
Philip,
Bartholomew,
15 Matthew,
Thomas,
James (son of Alphaeus),
Simon (who was called the zealot),
16 Judas (son of James),
Judas Iscariot (who later betrayed him).

Luke 6:12-16

Dear God, I want to focus on the second Judas here. “Iscariot (who later betrayed him).”

First, that’s an interesting spoiler alert there for Luke to give to Theophilus. I don’t know how much of everything Theophilus knew going into reading this letter from Luke. Did he already know about Jesus’s death and resurrection or was that a plot twist at the end? I just went and reach the beginning of the book again. This apparently was written for Theophilus to affirm everything he had already been taught. So maybe it wasn’t a spoiler after all.

In a men’s group I’m in, each of us was asked to research one of the twelve disciples last night and come back next week and teach about them to the others. I was originally given Simon the Zealot, but I switched with someone else to get Judas. Villains are always more fun.

The first thing I think of now is when I was going the Maccabees for the first time a few years ago with Fr. Mike Schmitz’s Bible in a Year podcast. When he did Maccabees, I noticed that one of the hero characters for the Jewish people was Judas Maccabeus. Were there so many people in the New Testament (six I think) names Judas as a namesake for him? It could have been a variant of Judah, going all the way back to the twelve tribes of Israel and one of Jacob’s sons, but could it also be that people were naming their children Judas like a lot of Americans named their child George for George Washington? Just a thought.

Either way, Judas had some real character flaws. I don’t have time to do all of the research now. I’ll do that later in the week. But off of the top of my head, he was said to have been stealing from the treasury. He was condemning when he saw the woman waste the perfume by pouring it on Jesus. He was disillusioned when he realized Jesus wasn’t going to be the revolutionary he had envisioned (perhaps that he’d grown up dreaming of being himself if I’m right about his name). And then he gave into a collection of his disillusionment, condemnation, and greed by getting angry with Jesus, judging him as being worthy of death, and then getting money to betray him.

Ultimately, he regretted it all, but by then it was too late. His last act was to take his own life. But as I think about him now, I think it’s that he allowed the cancer of greed, theft, and condemnation to give Satan a foothold in his heart. Where Peter had to be disillusioned about Jesus’s destiny of dying and resurrection, but he responded through sorrow and repentance, Judas fell back into the cancer that had been growing in his soul for years.

Father, help me to identify any cancers in my life that are setting me up for failure and great sin. Thankfully, I don’t have this issue in my life currently, but an example of something that could be like this is pornography. It can be that secret sin that grows like a cancer and displaces the areas of my heart reserved for my wife and you. There are all kinds of things I could list. So help me to know how to pursue you, keep my heart pure, and live the life of repentance and service that you call me to.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on October 28, 2026 in Judas, Luke

 

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