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.