Today, as you can deduce from the title, we will be discussing Judas Iscariot, otherwise known as "Judas the Traitor" or the man who turned our Lord and Savior over to his enemies in exchange for thirty pieces of silver.
If Jesus Christ was meant to die all along, did Judas actually do him a favor, or was Judas still in the wrong?
If Judas was capable of showing such remorse for what he'd done before taking his own life, is he still "the bad guy"?
So, let's just pause a moment here, go over the facts we've got with a magnifying glass.
As we all know, Jesus Christ was foreordained as the Savior of the World. He offered to give up his perfect, sin-free life for us so that we could have a chance at forgiveness from sin, relief from sorrow, and eternal life after death. It was because of him that we could obtain mercy while still keeping the scales of justice in balance.
Further study of other scripture reveals that ancient Israel was the only country in all the world, if not all of history, who would have the gall to sacrifice their own Lord. Had the Savior been born in any other country, the people would have known who he really was from the start and revered him as such.
At the time of Jesus's earthly life, Israel was in an awful mess, to say the least. I won't bog you down with details, but Israel was under the thumb of the Roman Empire; the Romans were known to terrorize and kill anyone who dared question their authority (which, ironically, motivated some people all the more to rise against them), and even the Jews on their own were far from ideal.
Some "traitor Jews" were able to rub elbows with the Romans and thus enjoy a cushy status all their own. This is why publicans were held in such contempt; if the Roman Emperor was like Prince John of England, a publican was like the Sheriff of Nottingham, taking money and property from their fellow Jews in the name of their "superiors" while stealing extra for personal gain.
While all of this may have been "the norm," that didn't make it right.
And it most certainly did not sit well with the Savior himself.
While we know Jesus for his love, mercy, and wholehearted acceptance, there comes a time, even now, when even he must draw the line.
There's a reason why half of his talks condemn the Jews, especially the Pharisees, for their skewed priorities and blatant hypocrisy. There's a reason why he got angry enough to flip over loaded tables with his bare hands, scatter live animals, and drive the temple workers out of the building; those so-called holy men were turning a sacred place into a place of merchandise, or more accurately, "a den of thieves."
Even a few Romans had to acknowledge what kind of man Jesus was. When a Roman centurion pleaded for Jesus's help with a dying servant, going so far as to say the word alone from Jesus's lips would suffice, Jesus called this a greater act of faith than he had personally witnessed in all of Israel.
Imagine that: a man who was supposed to be your national enemy had more faith than your entire nation put together!
Allow me to reiterate: just because something is expected, even considered normal, that doesn't make it right.
After all, slavery was considered normal for many years, even in my own olden-golden US of A. But that didn't make such a practice any less reprehensible. President Abraham Lincoln was prudent enough not to just get rid of slavery all at once, but he still put forth noteworthy effort to keep slavery from expanding to other places. Like a cancer surgeon who may not be able to cure the cancer itself, but by golly he'll do all in his power to keep the cancer away from other parts of the body.
That's why I get so upset when people accuse Abraham Lincoln of not doing "more" for black people. Considering the times, people, what more could the man have done? What more do you want?
While Jesus Christ was more than willing to give his life for us, that doesn't (and shouldn't) diminish what Judas did to him, just how low a level to which the man stooped.
As powerful as the Pharisees were, they knew getting rid of Jesus for good was far easier said than done. Either Jesus's followers (which were a great many) would have their blood in a heartbeat, or the Romans would. The Romans might have been the enemy, but they were in charge nonetheless, and for all their wanton cruelty, they were very strict about who could receive (or administer) the death penalty.
The only way to get to Jesus was when he was alone. Which meant any one of Jesus's Twelve Apostles had perfect power to betray him.
Even before his betrayal, Judas proved his hypocritical and greedy nature when he criticized Mary (the sister of Lazarus) for her generous gift of spikenard, a very special oil for very important people that would have cost no less than a year's salary to purchase. While Jesus was all for giving generously, he was every bit as much for receiving graciously, but Judas complained that Mary should have given that kind of money to the poor. The Bible itself reads: "This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein." (John 12:6)
Precisely the kind of hypocrisy that Jesus so often spoke against.
We can't tell how informed Judas was about the Pharisees and what they were capable of. Even now, it's a constant back-and-forth debate over whether this disciple truly believed they would simply arrest his Master and later let him go, or his Master would find some way to free himself, or he knew from the start his Master was doomed but got cold feet on his part at the last minute.
One way or another, Judas had to be enlightened to some extent. There was no way the man could be that ignorant, gullible, or stupid.
Furthermore, there is a world of difference between people who do wrong in ignorance (though the consequences can be just as bad) and people who do wrong when they know it's wrong. On that account, which people deserve the most leniency?
While Judas's actions may have set the Savior's noble sacrifice in motion, the fact remains that a man knowingly delivered another man into enemy hands in exchange for money. Not just any man, but a long-standing disciple. And not just a long-standing disciple, either, but an actual friend...someone who knew his Master, heard his voice almost every day, and surely loved him for quite some time.
And all this for a mere bagful of cold, heartless pieces of metal. To quote Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, "Never in the history of this world has so little money purchased so much infamy."
True, Judas showed he was not utterly heartless when he changed his tune that same night and even tried to send the blood money back...but it was too late.
The damage was already done.
The enemies got what they wanted, so they had no further use for Judas, and Judas felt suicide was all he had left.
Was the man more worthy of heaven or of hell?
Well, of course, it's not our right to make such a final judgment; only God can do that.
However, it's worth noting that the Bible and other scriptures give a few not-so-subtle hints of where Judas ended up, of the man's unscrupulous nature as a whole. Shortly before the Crucifixion, Jesus himself stated, "The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born." (Matthew 26:24)
It also says in the Doctrine and Covenants: "Thus saith the Lord concerning all those who know my power, and have been made partakers thereof, and suffered themselves through the power of the devil to be overcome, and to deny the truth and defy my power—
"They are they who are the sons of perdition, of whom I say that it had been better for them never to have been born;
"For they are vessels of wrath, doomed to suffer the wrath of God, with the devil and his angels in eternity;
"Concerning whom I have said there is no forgiveness in this world nor in the world to come—
"Having denied the Holy Spirit after having received it, and having denied the Only Begotten Son of the Father, having crucified him unto themselves and put him to an open shame." (D&C 76:31-35)
Therefore, the answer is yes: Judas Iscariot was, indeed, a true traitor.
Which, in my opinion, makes the story a thousand times sadder.
The man had as much promise in the beginning as anyone else. He was numbered among the Twelve for good reason. He could have become something truly extraordinary...but he fell, rendering all that potential and all those years of the Savior's tutelage an utter, utterly tragic waste.
(Screencaps courtesy of Animation Screencaps)
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