JESUS
CHOSE JUDAS
04-13-14
Sermon
The Twelve Apostles
12 One
of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night
praying to God. 13 When morning came, he called his disciples
to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: 14 Simon
(whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, 15 Matthew,
Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, 16 Judas
son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. Luke 6:12-16 [NIV]
When the story of Judas is told, adults usually ask one
question, and children ask a completely different question. You all know the story of Judas, the
years that Judas spent as a disciple, the crisis in Jerusalem, the betrayal of
Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. The
question that adults usually ask is Why
did Judas betray Jesus? And this is the question that theologians and
interpreters center on. Why DID
Judas betray Jesus? Many theories
have been devised to answer that question.
But children tend to go back to a more basic question and
ask Why did Jesus CHOOSE Judas? He did choose him, you know. It wasn’t eenie meenie minie moe. It wasn’t all you disciples line up and
we will count off by 12s. Jesus
didn’t hand out some apostle aptitude test and take the 12 that scored the
highest. In John’s gospel we read
that Jesus said that he only says what he hears his Father saying and he only
does what he sees his Father doing.
And, we read in our scripture of the morning that Jesus spent the entire
night praying to his Father about the choice of the 12 before he did the
choosing. So the Father wanted
Judas to be among the 12 apostles.
It may be that kids center in on this question of Why did Jesus choose Judas?—because they
are a little closer to that critical experience of choosing up sides for a game
than adults are. Many of us have a
few painful memories of standing on the playground waiting to be chosen, and
some have the more painful memory of always being chosen last, and then told to
go out on the field anywhere, it doesn’t make any difference. The kids know that Judas struck out in
his most important time at bat, and almost lost the game. So, children ask, Why did Jesus CHOOSE Judas?
The easiest answer, and the poorest one, is to say simply
that Judas was predestined to betray Jesus. From the story of Jesus to go according to script, a
designated betrayer was needed on the 12 man team of apostles, and Judas was
chosen by Jesus to play that role.
But to assign to Jesus a strategy like this with poor helpless Judas, is
to assign a strategy that we could condemn in anyone else. The scripture says that Jesus chose
Judas along with the other 11 and we, along with the kids would ask, why? What can we say about this?
Well, first of all, we see that Jesus did not limit his
calling to “safe” persons. He did
not limit his calling to people about whom there was no doubt, to people who
appeared to be flawless. Had he
done so, all of his disciples would have been Pharisees. They were the religious professionals
who were a sure of their answers as they were of their own righteousness. Instead, Jesus chose uncut stones, men
not yet polished, but with great potential.
Consider this fictitious story that helps us to see the
point. It is an imaginary letter
from the Jerusalem Management Consultants, in 30 AD, addressed to Jesus of
Nazareth:
Dear Sir: Thank you for submitting the resumes of
the 12 men you have picked for management positions in your new organization. All of them have now taken our battery
of tests. We have also arranged
personal interviews for each of them with our psychological and vocational
aptitude consultant.
The profiles of all
the tests are included, and you will want to study each of them carefully. It is the staff’s opinion that most of
your nominees are lacking in background, education, and vocational aptitude for
the type of enterprise that you are undertaking. They have not caught on to the team concept. We would recommend that you continue
your search for persons of experience in managerial ability and proven
capability.
Simon Peter is
emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper. Andrew has absolutely no qualities of leadership. The two brothers, James and John, place
personal interests above company loyalty.
Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine
morale. We feel it our duty to
tell you that Matthew has been blacklisted by the Jerusalem Better Business
Bureau for his tax collecting business.
James and Thaddeus definitely have radical political leanings and both
registered high scores on the bi-polar scale.
One of the
candidates, however, shows great potential. He is a man of ability and resourcefulness. He meets people well, has a keen business
mind and contacts in high places.
He is highly motivated, ambitious, and responsible. We recommend Judas Iscariot as your
treasurer and right-hand man. All
of the other profiles are self-explanatory. We wish you every success in your new venture. Sincerely, Jerusalem Management
Consultants.
It’s a clever story, but not quite correct. Judas was as unsafe as any of the
others. Jesus didn’t pick safe
disciples—he picked disciples in whom there was great potential, and that
included Judas.
There was an older woman who was trying to get into a
certain retirement center made up of quite active retirees. She was nervous in answering the
questions on the application form, afraid that she might not be thought healthy
enough to be admitted. She finally
finished the form, signed her name and filled in the place where it asked for
her current address. After the
word “ZIP”, she printed firmly—Normal for
my age!
Jesus chose disciples with zip! Each of them had potential for both great success and
spectacular failure. After all,
Simon Peter denied Jesus, Thomas doubted him, the rich young ruler wouldn’t
even accept his call and went away sorrowful, and at Jesus’ arrest, the
scripture says that ALL of his disciples ran away.
But these were the 12 that Jesus wanted to be called
apostles. His group was to be no
example of the bland leading the bland.
He wanted followers who had inside themselves all the possibilities for
success and failure.
So, Mark says, out of all his followers, Jesus selected
those “whom he desired” and yes, Jesus desired Judas along with the rest. Matthew tells us that after his
choosing them, Jesus immediately sent them out, including Judas.
Jesus did not choose safe disciples. The job was too great for that, the
mission was too important. Jesus
chose men in whom goodness and badness warred constantly, but who were drawn to
him as the Son of God.
We modern-day disciples who have been drawn to Jesus have
inside us the same possibilities for both victory and defeat, both of which Judas
experienced.
There WERE victories for Judas, don’t forget. Matthew 10:5-8 5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. 6 Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. 7 As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy,[a] drive out demons.
When Jesus sent out the 12 disciples in pairs, Jesus gave
Judas, along with the rest, authority over unclean spirits, power to heal every
disease and infirmity, and with some unnamed partner, Judas was sent out to
preach, teach and heal. He was
even sent out to raise the dead. And
for three years, Judas did just that.
We don’t often think of that, do we? Judas healing.
Judas casting out demons. Judas
seeing leprosy disappear as he touched lepers. Judas bringing healing and hope and encouragement to the
crowds. And Judas raising the
dead. I wonder how many people
Judas raised from the dead?
I mean, can you imagine the next time that Judas came
through one of those towns formerly broken people running up to him shouting, There’s Judas! He’s the one who opened my blind eyes! I couldn’t walk until Judas laid hands
on me! Judas is the one who cast
demons out of my son and now my son is perfectly whole. I was isolated from my
family and everyone else because of my leprosy until Judas came and healed me. My daughter had died, and Judas came
and called her back from the dead—here she is standing here with me! I
wonder how many people had a testimony for the rest of their life of how God
touched them through Judas!
And think of everything that Judas witnessed as he
accompanied Jesus. Judas, with the
other disciples, handing out a few pieces of bread and fish to 5,000 men and
seeing it multiply right before his eyes.
Blind eyes opened. Deaf
ears opened. Crippled people
walking. Dead people brought back to
life. Jesus walking on water. Jesus calming a storm on the Sea of
Galilee, where Judas was in danger of losing his life, along with the other
11.
But despite all these victories, something happened, didn’t
it. Note carefully, that in our
scripture from Luke’s gospel, Luke says that Judas BECAME a traitor. He wasn’t a traitor to begin with—he
BECAME one. As Simon Peter BECAME
the rock upon which Christ would build his church, and James and John BECAME
the sons of thunder in their enthusiasm, Judas BECAME a traitor.
I suspect that Jesus watched with wonder and love and
compassion as the inner battle went on within each of the disciples. Simon Peter battled his impulsiveness,
and James and John battled their tempers, and Thomas battled his skepticism,
and Nathanael battled his timidity, and Judas battled his impatience. Some of those battles were won and some
were lost, and Judas BECAME a traitor.
What
are YOU becoming as Jesus’ disciple? All of those possibilities and more are
mixed up in you and I today. None
of us is exempt. Even the Apostle
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:27 [NKJV] But I discipline my
body and bring it into
subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. Paul recognized that even he could be disqualified and ruin
his life for God.
It is said that a certain traveling evangelist years ago
prepared to go to Cincinnati for an evangelistic meeting. He wrote the mayor of the city asking
for a list of those in the city who needed special prayer before his Cincinnati
campaign started. The mayor
responded by sending the evangelist the entire city telephone directory,
because he felt that everyone in his city needed prayer.
If there are any among us who feel nothing in common with
Judas, if there are any among us who are quite comfortable with our
righteousness and who do not feel the battle going on inside us, Paul’s words
to his Corinthian friends are especially important to hear in 1 Corinthians
10:12—therefore, let anyone who thinks
that he stands take heed lest he fall.
Jesus chose Judas just like he chose Simon and Andrew and
Matthew and all the others, and just like he chose you and I—because he saw in
Judas such a potential for service and sacrifice and growth and success. A part of the tragedy of Judas is what
he did—he betrayed Jesus. But just
as tragic is what Judas did NOT do.
The unrealized potential within Judas that never came to the surface, is
just as tragic. The poet, John
Greenleaf Whittier’s familiar words say, Of
all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these—“It might have been.” It
might have been!
That’s the real gist of it when we consider Christ’s call
on our lives. Without knowing the
final score, without knowing what we will do with the chances given us, Jesus
reaches out to us today, and what will be the result? How will the game end?
We have our moments of betrayal, no doubt about it. But equally regrettable, think of all
those things we might be doing and being that never come to be. So much ability inside us. So much potential. So many spiritual gifts. And it stays unborn within us. What might have been! The stories they MIGHT have told about
us!
I grew up in St. James UMC in Philadelphia, a church with a
tall, stone gothic cathedral style sanctuary, it had beautifully carved wooden
angels on the supports for the ceiling.
And it had three huge stained glass windows that were several stories high. The one in the center was a picture of Jesus
dressed as a king on a throne with a crown on his head and a huge kingly
robe.
On the one side, was a stained glass window of James, the
apostle that the church was named for.
I can’t remember which apostle was on the other side, but
imagine with me if it was a picture of Judas, the repentant sinner. Imagine if the story of Judas ended
with Judas coming forward unexpectedly at Jesus’ trial, Judas witnessing to his
faith in Jesus, and volunteering to die in Jesus’ place. Imagine that they turned him down and
that Judas went on from there to write a gospel that emphasizes how people can
start over again after making mistakes and falling into sin. Just look at those stained glass
windows in my church, the Jesus window, the James window, and the Judas
window! I imagine I might have
liked the Judas window most of all, because I am one who often makes mistakes
and sins and needs another chance to start over again.
Of course, there is no Judas window in my church. But Jesus chose Judas because this story
MIGHT HAVE BEEN. We will never
know how close it came to happening just that way. Most of us know how close to victory our defeats came, and
how close to defeat our victories were.
WE have inside US raw materials for both victory and defeat, so the story
of Judas draws us, fascinates us, stirs us.
At the last supper, Jesus tells his disciples that one of
them will betray him, and the gospels tell us that EACH of them, all 12 of
them, said, Surely not I, Lord? But it is asked as a question, like You don’t mean me, do you? Each of them saw within themselves
the potential to be a betrayer. Luke
tells us that after that an argument arose around the table about who was the
greatest disciple among them and Peter jumped in there and said that he would follow
Jesus to the death! Of course we
know that Peter denied Jesus three times and ran away.
The story of Judas is a story both for encouragement and
warning. When we look inside
ourselves we see there all those possibilities for both successes and failures. We feel our kinship to this unfortunate
disciple who lost the last battle.
I can’t help but find strength and encouragement when I remember that
knowing full well, the potential for both high achievement and low failure,
Jesus CHOSE Judas.
Jesus has chosen you too, you know. Jesus recognized great potential in you
to do some things that no one else can do. He has a destiny for you. There are lives that only YOU can touch for him. You have been chosen to grow into the
likeness of Christ himself. You
have been chosen to do the things that Christ did while he was here on
earth. Jesus said in John 14:12
that those who believe in him will do what he had been doing, including signs
and wonders and miracles.
Yes, there are possibilities that you may fail. All of the 12 disciples failed Jesus,
too. But you can receive
forgiveness for those failures if you turn to Christ in repentance, faith and
obedience.
This week that started with Palm Sunday and ended that next
Saturday was a time of testing, and ALL of the disciples failed the tests that
they faced. Some recovered from
that failure and one did not.
Judas was the one who did not.
He didn’t live to see the resurrection. He went out and hung himself after he betrayed Jesus for 30
pieces of silver. He died without
hope, smothered by his guilt. It
was a tragedy of lost potential.
Jesus hasn’t chosen “safe” people; he has chosen people
with great potential, giving them an opportunity to be faithful to him and do
great things through the power of the Holy Spirit within them. And when they are not faithful, when
they do not fulfill their destiny, he gives them an opportunity to return to
him.
Will Jesus choosing you prove to be a disappointment or a
source of great joy in heaven? The
choice is yours!
No comments:
Post a Comment