Poor, Poor Judas

Poor, Poor Judas

“In the garden I was playing the tart
I kissed your lips and broke your heart
You, you were acting like it was the end of the world.”

- U2 “Until the End of the World”
( a song written from the point of view of Judas)



Poor, poor Judas. Christians often talk about how sad Jesus is at the state of the world. How he weeps because of the pain and suffering that makes up this physical realm. Let us ignore the fact (for the purpose of this blog) that this reveals more about how Christians view the world, than Jesus would view the world. And yet despite this great sadness, I can think of one who must be filled with greater sadness.

Poor, poor Judas.

Imagine being the one to betray the Messiah. The one who filled with guilt over his deed, did not even keep the thirty pieces of silver, committed suicide. And imagine that for all history your name would be cursed and hated. Imagine the weight of this guilt. Imagine the sadness heaped upon the shoulders of this one poor soul. Now consider this, if you were that man, this essential character in this Divine Tragedy, could you find forgiveness for your own self? Can you imagine anyone more sad than Judas Iscariot?

Has anyone, with the exception of perhaps Lucifer (see my last blog), in the history of mankind been judged so harshly? Is there anyone out there that feels any sympathy for this man? Why is it, that he sacrificed himself (and died hanging on a tree just like the man he betrayed) to be viewed by most people as most assuredly to be burning in hell?

What most people miss is the fact that without Judas, there would be no Saviour. Just like you cannot have heat without cold. I suppose that if it wasn’t Judas it would have been someone else, but the fact remains that it was Judas. Judas was instrumental in Jesus’ final message, a message that not only required his death, but his resurrection (again we will ignore the fact that I see the death and resurrection as a metaphor and not historical fact). Without Judas, there would have been no death or resurrection. No message at all. And one must wonder, what would have become of Jesus had he not died the way he did? His story would certainly not have become as important as it has become. He would have been another obscure prophet in a long line of wise men. Forgotten by history, by time.

It was the betrayal that brought the message into sharp focus, making the rest of the story possible. Quite the large responsibility, don’t you think? Would you have been capable of such a thing?


Prior to the infamous kiss of betrayal, Jesus is reported to have been praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. As the story goes, Jesus appears to have foreknowledge of the horrors that await him. Although willing to go through with it Jesus does ask that this task be taken away from him. This suggests that even Jesus felt fear. Perhaps doubt. And if the responsibility lay completely on his shoulders to complete this task, would he have been able to do it without Judas?

It is far too easy to yank on the rope that Judas put around his neck and keep him tied down and burning in the bowels of hell. One must consider some very interesting points in the entire arc of the story of Jesus. Jesus chose disciples and given his uncanny ability to know things beforehand, you must ask why he chose such a man? Was he chosen to fulfill the very role he ended up playing? It is suggested in the gospels that Judas had a weakness for money, and was also responsible for holding the disciples’ money bag. It also states in the Gospel of Luke that Satan entered Judas. Ah yes, the Adversary. And let us not forget that another name for Satan, is Lucifer, meaning “light-bringer”. Without darkness you cannot have light.

Jesus even calls Judas out during the Last Supper: "One of you will betray me". So why did Jesus trust this man, knowing he was the one to betray him? One interpretation of the events is that Jesus may have asked Judas to betray him. This idea is explored in Nikos Kazantzakis’ novel ‘The Last Temptation of Christ‘. Which I think is a more realistic approach to the story. That the man, Jesus, did not have the strength to follow through with his duty and chose someone who could force him to do it. Someone with more strength and courage than any man.

The Gospel of John tells a story of a woman who anoints Jesus with expensive perfume and washed his feet with her tears. Judas protests arguing that the money spent on the perfume could have been given to the poor. It would seem that Judas’ heart is in the right place. But Judas is rebuked and by stark contrast, he accepts thirty pieces of silver for turning over Jesus to the High Priests.

Judas is a story of weakness to be sure. The debate is over who truly was the weak one? He symbolizes every person, what people do when faced with temptation. He is a symbolic prostitute, accepting money for physical acts. Does he not center out Jesus with a kiss (an intimate act)? He shows us just how hard we are on our own selves. How quickly we move to judge and condemnation - not of others, but of ourselves.

Poor, poor Judas.

If you are to hate Judas, then you are to hate all dichotomies. To deny Judas, is to deny the message of the resurrection. To hate death, denies life.

There is an old Taoist proverb that describes perfectly this relationship of Judas and Jesus.

"It is the space between the bars that holds the tiger in.”

You see a cage is not made only of the physical aspects - the floor, the ceiling, the bars. It is also made of the spaces between those bars. If you had no spaces, they would not be bars, but walls. Without the spaces, the cage is transformed into something entirely different. It is no longer a cage.

Without Judas, Jesus is no longer a hero.

Have Some Sympathy

Have Some Sympathy

“Pleased to meet you Hope you guessed my name,
But what’s confusing you
Is just the nature of my game
Just as every cop is a criminal
And all the sinners saints
As heads is tails
Just call me Lucifer
Cause I'm in need of some restraint
So if you meet me
Have some courtesy
Have some sympathy,
and some taste
Use all your well-learned politesse
Or I'll lay your soul to waste…”

- Rolling Stones, “Sympathy for the Devil”

When thinking of the Fall of Satan most people immediately quote the story that is actually from Milton’s Paradise Lost. And the story of his fall doesn’t even occur in the bible. Most people don’t know this. Revelation makes inference to it, as do other books of the bible, but there is not one book that recounts this story. They do know that Satan was an archangel full of pride who would not do what God commanded (which was to bow down to man). But this story is actually from the Qur’an and in fact Iblis (as he is called) is not an angel, but a Jinn. A creature made with free will, like man. According to legend, angels do not have free will. Sounds to me like God has surrounded himself with yes men like some insecure egomaniac and anyone who doesn’t agree with him (yes sir!) is thrown into some lake of fire (or worse, Earth).

I admit, I do laugh when Christians recite this story, not realizing it isn’t even in their book, but what they are telling is a hybrid between a work of literary fiction and part of one of their most hated enemies’ sacred text.


But enough religion bashing. There is a point to all of this.



I find it interesting that Lucifer means “light-bearer” or “light-bringer”. Strange name for evil is it not? And yet the name Satan means “The Accuser” or “The Adversary”. It seems to me that any adversary plays an essential role in anyone’s life. Is not growth a painful experience? Do we not refer to it as growing pains? Especially Spiritual Growth. You cannot fully appreciate Spring without Winter. Do not seeds fight against the cold to grow again? Is not the hibernation period just as important as the period of bloom?

If everything was painted the same colour, let’s say green, nothing would have any meaning. If your clothes were all green, and your skin all the same shade of green on a backdrop of green, where then is the contrast?

If you’ve read my earlier blogs, Original Sin and More Original Sin, you will understand that the name Lucifer fits right in with the idea of the Serpent in Genesis as the hero of the story. This “light-bringer” is the one who introduced us to knowledge. To growth. To dichotomies. God made it all, but it was the serpent who pointed it out.

As for the story of Satan’s fall, God made Adam the first human. God then commanded all of the angels to bow down before man. And Iblis, full of “hubris and jealousy” refused to obey God’s command seeing Adam as being inferior in creation as he was made from clay and Iblis was made of fire. (Fire is always an interesting symbol - it gives off warmth and pushes back the shadow). And the punishment for disobeying? That his punishment will be delayed until the Day of Judgement. And in the meantime, Iblis has made it his personal vendetta to divert as many of Adam’s descendants away from God.

Sounds like a jilted lover to me. ("Hell hath no fury....")

But the real question here is: who is the jilted lover?

Forget Satan’s so-called pride and hubris, let us look at the real reason Satan would not bow down before man. Is not one of the ten commandments, “Do not have any other gods before me”? And somehow, Lucifer is condemned to Hell for obeying this law? For not idolizing man before God? Oh sure, as man we think we ARE superior, so of course we’ve made Lucifer the bad guy. Our ego’s simply can not handle anything else.

But think for a moment, how strong was Satan’s love for God? To not only disobey, but to risk eternal damnation. To be without his one true love? To be punished so severely, as he would never be with God again. Tell me, would you risk hellfire, for your love of something?

Does this mean I’m a Satanist? That I’m all for the ritual sacrifice of babies? Pentagrams and burning candles (there’s that fire and light again!)? The Macphisto in me says yes I am. Did God not ritually sacrifice his own son? Do we not light candles during mass? I’ve heard a lot of Christians talk about evil and to be ever on guard and so on. I remember asking one of these people, is God capable of forgiving Satan? They answered yes, but Satan has to be willing to be forgiven. I replied: “Really? And what about Grace? Undeserved kindness?” Answer: Silence.

Perhaps it is God who should apologize. “What? God apologize? Are you crazy?” Perhaps. But I am not talking about God per se, but people’s perception of Him. Here is the definition of hubris: overweening pride, haughtiness, or arrogance. In ancient Greece, hubris referred to actions which, intentionally or not, shamed and humiliated the victim. Who is the victim in this story? God? I don’t think so, God cannot be anyone’s victim. According to the story and this definition, it is Satan who is the victim. And was he not shamed and humiliated through his being forced out of heaven? Who could be so arrogant as to condemn someone forever? This is pride and the definition of pride is: "the love of one's own excellence." Who loves his own excellence more than God? Is this not the opposite of humility?

So let’s not be so hard on poor old Lucifer, the jilted lover. Instead of letting our fears chain him down to the underworld, let’s show him some grace.

After all, that which we condemn in others, we condemn in ourselves.