Spiritual maturity (Epilogue): Judas Iscariot

To God: "Mould me to be spiritually mature..."

What comes to mind when we regard this humble and earnest plea?

I don't know what exactly came to my mind when I first beheld the theme of our graduand preaching this year. "Mould me to be spiritually mature." It served me a cocktail of emotions - from the preacher's excitement to an amateur's anxiety. I was also overwhelmed by the immensity of the subject. (I would love to hear the person who produced this brilliant theme preach on it himself.) How on earth would you put spiritual maturity into a box? And if you've successfully done it, how would you then unpack it in stimulating, appetising morsels without sounding like you are trying too hard? 

And of course, I've got to factor in the Bible character whom I chose to box spiritual maturity up - Judas Iscariot. Yeah, what was I thinking, right?

"Judas Iscariot?? Are you kidding?" a friend fired jokingly (via text) when he heard about it. 

I pretended to cringe - also via text. An emoticon.

While I am a little regretful now for submitting my choice to MBTS' academic office, I've got to take comfort in the fact that I had thought long and hard prior to choosing Judas. Prayed about it even. Oh God, please speak through me... or I will die...yes, I will die... of embarrassment! Please do not let me be ashamed.

Why Judas?  

Judas, I am sure, is no stranger to us. Amongst Christian communities, his name still commands both fascination and contempt, as it has throughout Church history. Judas is the image of evil - someone you would never want to emulate or name your son after. Beyond the four walls of Church, his name is synonymous with betrayal, especially in Western culture, art and literature. And unsurprisingly so. He was the fallen disciple who betrayed Jesus Christ for thirty pieces of silver. With the infamous kiss. A dramatic show of false affection that marked the beginning of an end - both for Jesus and for himself. 

 

The Betrayal of Jesus. Pic Source

You see, the story of Judas doesn't stop there. The Bible tells us that Judas later re-approached the chief priests and elders of the Temple in remorse - and tried to return the silver, albeit unsuccessfully. Eventually, he went to hang himself. 

And that was the end of Judas Iscariot. 
 

Tragic. 

In order to rehabilitate Judas' image, some scholars have attempted to justify his actions in the past century - efforts popularised by De Quincey in England. The chief of these theories suggest that:

1. Judas could have betrayed Jesus out of his sincere patriotic love for Israel. He saw Jesus as a threat to Israel rather than the Messiah of Israel.

2. Judas was the impatient disciple who saw Jesus to be too slow in displaying his sovereign power. He didn't like it that Jesus seemed to be procrastinating the coming of His Kingdom (and indeed, Christ's disciples are often portrayed by the gospels to be frustratingly unaware of the true nature of Jesus’ kingship/Kingdom) - and so, he betrayed Christ in order to compel Him to "rise up" and step out as the King of Glory. 

3. Judas was testing Jesus to see whether He was the true Messiah or not.

More hair-raising a theory is that which followed an archaeological discovery, towards the end of the 1970s. As the story goes, some peasants were on a treasure hunt in Middle Egypt when they chanced upon an ancient book in a burial cave. The book contained Coptic (ancient Egyptian) writings and was dated to the 3rd or 4th century - but scholars believe that it translates Greek writings from approximately the 2nd century. The journey the book underwent from its unearthing to the hands of its restorers in 2001 was long and hard - and so, despite the best efforts to restore it, many passages still cannot be read. As for the readable parts... they are a perplexing mystery, especially a certain 26 pages, over which "The Gospel of Judas" spans. Was it written by Judas? NAH... However, it was a bizarre story about Judas, Christ's killer, who apparently was Jesus' favourite disciple - and best friend. Judas' betrayal of Jesus was portrayed to be his faithful response to Jesus' request for a favour - to release Him from the human form he had assumed in descending to our world.

The controversial nature of the Gospel of Judas is not surprising. After all, the ancient book it dwells in had been the work of the Gnostics - a religious group who pooh-poohed the Hebrew Bible and held that the key of salvation was neither faith nor good conduct, but secret knowledge which they owned exclusively. The Gospel of Judas was one of these secrets...

"Guess what? Christianity's enemy is actually Christ's best friend!" 
The Gnostics nodded to one another in glee. 
"Sssshh.....our best kept secret this must be! 
In it, our salvation lies!"

Who would have known... that someday, desperate peasants would go on a treasure hunt in that very cave where the secret book was found? Never say never.

 
Anyway, I am neither subscribing to the Gnostics' Gospel of Judas nor whitewashing Judas - by pairing him with my discourse on spiritual maturity. As far as I am concerned, Judas had betrayed Jesus out of the wrong intentions. He wasn't doing Jesus (or Israel) a favour and yes, he had coveted Jesus' arrest for reasons unknown, if not the money. Because the Bible tells me so.

However, I believe that there is something we can all learn about spiritual maturity from this particular disciple of Jesus Christ. It has been said that the 12 disciples were the chosen representatives of the personalities of those who would later come to follow the risen Christ - and all but one were examples of how God can use us for His glory regardless of our natural weaknesses, if only we would yield to Him. As for the one who failed to yield to Him, God can still use his story to teach us important lessons. And so, what important lessons on spiritual maturity is God teaching us through Judas' story?

Judas was not the only one who betrayed Jesus, by the way. The other disciple, Peter, also betrayed Jesus.

Peter's Betrayal by Carl Heinrich Bloch. Pic source

But Peter turned out to be a mighty man in God's mission to the world. 

He even has a famous basilica named after him!

Giovanni Paolo Panini's painting of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Pic source

Why such drastically different outcomes for the two men, whose sins were almost equal in greatness? 

Both were equally guilty, brokenhearted and imperfect. However, one truly repented of his sin and received grace. The other one decided for himself that there was no reason to go on living - after the terrible crime. He thought that he would never be forgiven for betraying Jesus. In fact, he couldn't forgive himself - and thus, committed suicide. 

It was far from a good death. 

It was a horrible death in fact. He hanged himself, fell, burst asunder, had his bowels gush out (Acts 1:18-19).... and he was past a point of no return! (Honestly, I wouldn't know how to preach at the funeral of a man like that.)

What does Judas' death say about the life he lived? Perhaps, Judas had initially responded to his call with gladness and devotion - but later, fell away. Or perhaps, he was never a true disciple of Jesus at heart. We don't know. But either way, he had failed the crucial test. He did not finish well in life. This is surprising, when we consider that Judas (like Peter) had followed the Lord as a disciple for 3 eventful years. Judas had ministered alongside the Lord in the power of the Spirit, eaten meals with Him, listened to His teachings, observed His life and witnessed miracle after miracle. Jesus must have ministered to him on various occasions too. Surely he could have fared better in the test? Well, we do not know how much faith Judas had in Jesus - but we know from the Bible that he put an awful lot of faith in money despite Jesus' warning of "serving mammon" (cf. Matt 6:24). He hid it well too, under a cloak of piety (John 12:6). Money betrayed him in the end. He was led to betray "innocent blood" (cf. Matt 27:3-4) - that of the One who had loved and chosen him. For what? Just thirty pieces of silver - the price of a slave as per the Old Testament. What was he thinking? Was he that desperate?

Pic source

But then again, is it really that surprising to us that Judas did what he did? Why should we be perplexed that someone who had known Jesus with intimacy could turn out the way Judas did? We all know how easy it is for us to betray the Lord ourselves - in our thoughts and actions - during unguarded moments of complacency and compromise. Judas is a warning for Christians today to take spiritual maturity more seriously - to grow up in Christ, so that we would be secure in our Christian identity and grounded in God's Word, especially when trials and Satan's temptations come our way. Yes, we all go to church on Sundays. We sit in the pews, join in the liturgy and participate in the Eucharist. But it is possible to do all these things and still not yield to the work of the Spirit in our lives on regular days. (For some, going to church is for show.) We fail to grow up as Christians. I am reminded of a quote by Billy Sunday that goes: "Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you an automobile..." How true. I would like to add that even serving in ministries, doing missions, attending Bible seminars and going to the seminary do not guarantee that we won't fall away and deny Christ during a crucial test. Spiritual maturity does. And spiritual maturity will see us towards finishing well in our earthly lives. Let us walk by the Spirit, grow up in Christ and hope for the glory of God. Let us live good lives and die good deaths.

And so, I leave with you a final thought: Why didn't Judas ask Jesus for forgiveness, instead of taking his own life? 

Could he not have flung himself at the foot of the cross and pleaded for mercy from his crucified Master? I believe that Jesus would have assured him as He had assured the believing thief on the cross: "Truly I say to you... today you will be with Me in Paradise." (Luke 23:43) I believe that Jesus would have graciously forgiven him as He later forgave Peter. After all, Jesus loved Judas. Judas, did you not know how much He loved you? Jesus had also preached about love. Judas, were you not listening? Jesus had evidenced the pardon of God for the penitent. (For instance, remember the adulterous woman in John 8:1-11?) Judas, did you not remember?

If Judas had received the forgiveness and grace of Jesus Christ, perhaps he could have even gone on to cry humbly, "Lord, mould me to be spiritually mature..." Just saying.

Today, Christ's love still invites us to come to Him and lay our shame at His feet. His love melts away our fear of rejection. We are liberated by His forgiveness... to move past our sins and forgive ourselves even... and live our new lives in Christ to the fullest.

Pic source

I guess, there is no way that we can grow up in Christ until we first know and believe that He loves us.  

Spiritual maturity is ultimately flourishing in the loving forgiveness of Christ. 

Romans 5:1-11 (ESV)

^"1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. ² Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. ³ Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴ and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵ and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
 
⁶ For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— ⁸ but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹ Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. ¹⁰ For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. ¹¹ More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation..."