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Someone recently accused me of fishing for arguments, and although I sometimes do that when I'm extremely bored I usually put out provocative material in search of the odd discussion that really gets both parties using their brains - like the one that inspired this post.

I'll try to make a separate piece about the Judas discussion itself (and if so I'll add a link in this section), but what inspired this particular piece was what it got me thinking of about why Judas betrayed Jesus, and the less commonly considered matter of why he would buy a field, of all things. Please bear with me, as I don't know any way to make this explanation a short one. If you want to get straight to the punchline, just go down to the caps lock.

Like many people of his time, Judas was expecting a superhero Messiah; someone like a latter-day Gideon or King David who would overthrow the enemies of Israel (i.e. the Roman Empire) and restore Israel to its former glory. This is especially likely if, as some have suggested, Judas was part of a rebellious sect of Zealots called the Sicarii (which I see some reason to doubt, but I'm open-minded). Either way, it was likely that Judas expected some kind of physical revolution like the other Apostles. When Jesus spent three years dealing, if anything, far more harshly with the Jewish leaders than with the Gentile overlords, Judas likely became frustrated. When He talked about being handed over to the Romans, that frustration more than likely turned to fear and anger. Like the other apostles, he had no idea what Jesus meant about being crucified and raised from the dead.

Many scholars believe that Judas grew tired of waiting for Jesus to get with the program (notice the irony?) and decided to force His divinely empowered hand. His intention, the theory goes, was never to see Jesus actually killed, but to force Him to unleash His holy wrath as He indeed said He could do if He chose (Matthew 26:53). This, Judas hoped, would spark the longed-for uprising and lead to the destruction of Rome and the long-awaited Messianic reign.

Now, one of the prophecies about the earthly reign of the Messiah was that it would herald in a time of tremendous agricultural prosperity. Judas, always looking for a chance to line his own money bags (pretty sure they didn't use pockets in those days), knew the best way to make this happen was to buy up some farm land. Most likely, btw, this was with money embezzled from the apostles' treasury rather than the blood money for betraying Jesus, but that's another matter. His remorse, in the end, was not truly that he had betrayed Jesus, but that his plan to force God's hand had failed. (see also www.deviantart.com/dragontamer… )

THE MAIN POINT THAT STRUCK ME HERE was that I do the same thing all the time. I've never sold anyone over to corrupt authorities, let alone to be murdered, but every time I lose my temper I'm ultimately losing patience to see God's plan unfold in God's time, and letting my focus center on wanting things my way in my time. Same if I jump too hastily to fix a situation, even when motivated by altruism, and end up resorting to harmful or unethical means (remember when Gandalf refused the One Ring?). I could go on, but it's enough to say there's a lot of ways I've committed this blunder, and most of them more often than I like to admit. Even in prayer and Bible study, the greatest intimacy with God this side of Heaven, I have to constantly remind myself, and would encourage all who read this, to beware the danger of trying to tell the maker of the universe how things ought to be.

There but for the grace of God go I.

Description
Someone recently accused me of fishing for arguments, and although I sometimes do that when I'm extremely bored I usually put out provocative material in search of the odd discussion that really gets both parties using their brains - like the one that inspired this post.

I'll try to make a separate piece about the Judas discussion itself (and if so I'll add a link in this section), but what inspired this particular piece was what it got me thinking of about why Judas betrayed Jesus, and the less commonly considered matter of why he would buy a field, of all things. Please bear with me, as I don't know any way to make this explanation a short one. If you want to get straight to the punchline, just go down to the caps lock.

Like many people of his time, Judas was expecting a superhero Messiah; someone like a latter-day Gideon or King David who would overthrow the enemies of Israel (i.e. the Roman Empire) and restore Israel to its former glory. This is especially likely if, as some have suggested, Judas was part of a rebellious sect of Zealots called the Sicarii (which I see some reason to doubt, but I'm open-minded). Either way, it was likely that Judas expected some kind of physical revolution like the other Apostles. When Jesus spent three years dealing, if anything, far more harshly with the Jewish leaders than with the Gentile overlords, Judas likely became frustrated. When He talked about being handed over to the Romans, that frustration more than likely turned to fear and anger. Like the other apostles, he had no idea what Jesus meant about being crucified and raised from the dead.

Many scholars believe that Judas grew tired of waiting for Jesus to get with the program (notice the irony?) and decided to force His divinely empowered hand. His intention, the theory goes, was never to see Jesus actually killed, but to force Him to unleash His holy wrath as He indeed said He could do if He chose (Matthew 26:53). This, Judas hoped, would spark the longed-for uprising and lead to the destruction of Rome and the long-awaited Messianic reign.

Now, one of the prophecies about the earthly reign of the Messiah was that it would herald in a time of tremendous agricultural prosperity. Judas, always looking for a chance to line his own money bags (pretty sure they didn't use pockets in those days), knew the best way to make this happen was to buy up some farm land. Most likely, btw, this was with money embezzled from the apostles' treasury rather than the blood money for betraying Jesus, but that's another matter. His remorse, in the end, was not truly that he had betrayed Jesus, but that his plan to force God's hand had failed. (see also www.deviantart.com/dragontamer… )

THE MAIN POINT THAT STRUCK ME HERE was that I do the same thing all the time. I've never sold anyone over to corrupt authorities, let alone to be murdered, but every time I lose my temper I'm ultimately losing patience to see God's plan unfold in God's time, and letting my focus center on wanting things my way in my time. Same if I jump too hastily to fix a situation, even when motivated by altruism, and end up resorting to harmful or unethical means (remember when Gandalf refused the One Ring?). I could go on, but it's enough to say there's a lot of ways I've committed this blunder, and most of them more often than I like to admit. Even in prayer and Bible study, the greatest intimacy with God this side of Heaven, I have to constantly remind myself, and would encourage all who read this, to beware the danger of trying to tell the maker of the universe how things ought to be.

There but for the grace of God go I.