Because no one calls their kid Judas

In the Gospel of Judas - a Gospel so deeply hidden since its  discovery some 1700 years after his shameful disgrace, it isn’t a part of Christian history, but must be rationally  conceived of first then searched for explicitly - a different story is told. In this Gospel, author unknown, Jesus tells Judas "Step away from the others and I shall tell you the mysteries of the kingdom. It is possible for you to reach it, but you will grieve a great deal...you will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me.'"

Jesus explains he must be freed from his earthly life to bring life to his reason for being and give everlasting life to those who believed in him. Jesus told Judas he wished this separation from his earthly life be done by a friend, not an enemy. 

Consider this; Out of all the disciplines,he asked Judas, his friend, to commit the act so horrific that, from that day forward, it would weight heavily in history as a treacherous betrayal, and portray Judas as a traitor for eternity. 

“You will grieve a great deal”, Jesus told him.

And so, we believe, he did. With with one single kiss, we’re told Judas killed Jesus, then immediately regretted it, returning the silver and taking his own life. 

In this story, for a token amount Judas exchanged his place as an apostle, a beloved disciple, hand picked by Jesus to spread His word and perform miracles in His name, for an act of greed that destroyed his reputation and forever exiled from the purpose he’d found with Jesus.

Could he even have conceived the eternal repercussions of his act, that without compassion for Judas*, we would, for eternity be appalled by his act of treason. 

But perhaps it was that Judas’ love was so great for Jesus that he’d sacrifice his greatest friend and lose all others, to see God’s plan for Jesus fulfilled. 

Jesus knew this would happen, God needed it to. 

Perhaps Judas’ only sin was his death, having handed back the fruit of his actions and unable to live with his grief, took his own life - but perhaps this too was at Jesus’ behest and a part of God’s plan? To accept a token amount, commit the act, then join Jesus in heaven at the right hand of the Father. 

Judas would have accepted his heartbreaking mission only because his beloved asked it of him. He could not have conceived the wholeness of being his death provided Jesus’ believers, for eternity. 

Without him, Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice could have been tainted by hate, derision, greed, and fear. Instead, faith and love lead Jesus to his inevitable death, planned by God and known by Jesus to be the sole purpose of his earthly distance. 

For us, Judas’ story has long been a treacherous one. How could he ever have loved Jesus when he so easily gave him up, but maybe between Jesus and Judas it's a story of love and faith in the man he called Rabbi, and perhaps this act reveals Judas’ deeper understanding of the Son of Man, why God sent him, and how we were all to be saved.

Without Judas, would we still have God’s voice in our hearts and love in our lives, or would the purity of our relationship with Him have been tainted by a vicious death instead of the loving one we can now conceive. 

We’ve long considered Judas as the worst of us all, but maybe he the best of us, a hero for all time. Maybe he too, saved us all, and without his sacrifice, perhaps we’d all still be wandering in the dark. 

*Jesus told us “Love one another as I have loved you” so as christians, we must love Judas and, even if we can’t thank him for his act, at least have compassion for him for, if it were a betrayal and not an act of love at Jesus request, he was seduced by the devil - but only because he couldn’t feel the purity of Jesus’ love for him and that, my friends, would have already have been hell on earth. 

We who are blessed with God in our life and Jesus in our heart are asked to forgive and to love the sinner of not the sin.  

I’ve cried many tears for Judas recently, his eternal fate as a betrayer of our Lord and maligned name weighing heavily in my heart. The grief I feel for him I believe is God wanting o reveal another side to his story and to maybe help others find compassion for Judas in their hearts, and to forgive him. 

Perhaps too, some can even entertain the idea that his historically act of treason could instead have been a treasured, hallowed and heart rending secret between him, Jesus, and the Heavenly Father.