“Don’t be a Judas!” That sounds like pretty good advice! Judas has gone down in history as the worst sort of betrayer. A back-stabber. A despicable kind of person. Nobody wants to be a Judas!
But there’s a problem. It’s too late. You already are. And so am I. You see, Judas is actually pretty ordinary. Really ordinary, in fact. His name is really “Judah”—which, if you were a Jew? Pretty popular. A Jew named Judah. Ordinary. And remember all those things he did as a disciple? No, actually you don’t. Because until just before his betrayal he didn’t do anything that stood out. He wasn’t too quick to speak, (*cough, cough* Peter ). He was… well, ordinary. He blended in. An ordinary Jew, an ordinary disciple.
Until he betrayed Jesus though, right? Actually, that was also pretty ordinary. Yes I know, the moment in the Garden of Gethsemane was unique—where Judas kissed Jesus on the cheek and betrayed Him to the Jewish religious leaders—but the heart behind it wasn’t unique at all. It was an ordinary heart. Judas gave Jesus a fake kiss. It was fake love. Fake affection. Why? Because he was born with a sinful heart. The same sinful heart that we are born with. That everyone is born with. Look at Judas and then ask yourself: How many times have I had fakeness? Fake prayers? Fake worship? Or how many times have I just not been moved by reading the Bible, or hearing the gospel?
“Don’t be a Judas!” Too late, I already am. We all are.
Thank God we don’t have to end up like Judas though. Judas left his sinful heart unchecked and soon a little sin, a little lie, grew into a big sin and a big lie. But because the Lord Jesus amazingly allowed Himself to be betrayed, He went to the cross, and there He paid for the sins of every betrayer and faker who takes his or her sinful, ordinary, heart to Him, and confesses that sinfulness. “Lord, I see Judas in me. Save me from my sin. Save me from myself.”
Judas never did that. So, as I said… don’t be a Judas!