The Gift of Judas

Many infamous persons appear in the pages of the Bible, including in the New Testament, but perhaps the most infamous one, is the man who “betrayed” Jesus to the Roman and Jewish authorities; a betrayal which led to Jesus crucifixion. The word “Judas” is not only the name of perhaps the most infamous person in the New Testament, but has become an accusatory synonym for a turncoat or snitch, one who betrays his friends for selfish reasons. So why refer to Judas as a ”gift?”

 
Judas was one of Jesus most trusted disciples. How do we know this? Because Jesus gave to Judas the trusted responsibility of being the group’s treasurer; the one who kept the money that Jesus & his disciples used to live on while traveling the countryside. However, Judas is rarely mentioned until his rise to infamy at the end of Jesus ministry. And this action tells us much about the private, inner life of Judas.

By the time Jesus chose his inner core of 12 disciples, he was already famous. Thousands of people came out to see and hear him. Being Jesus “disciple,” one of his chosen insiders, had to be a great and widely recognized honor. However honor and public recognition always contain the danger of hubris, of pride overcoming humility. And we know that all of Jesus’s disciples were infected with the human need for recognition, and even fought over being ”first in his kingdom.”

 
In the gospel stories - all of which should be understood as teachings, metaphors for human living, not just as literal history - Judas’s betrayal of Jesus is a tragic story of human hubris taking over one’s life. It makes plain to us of the danger of living one’s life without awareness of one’s inner need for recognition; for notice of one’s accomplishments; for being rewarded for one’s cleverness and achievement.

Judas’s was offered 50 pieces of silver to be a participant in achieving the plans of the highest authorities of the nation and it played right into Judas’s need for recognition and achievement.

 
Judas is a major Biblical example of our own betrayal of our highest values, our best selves, by the hidden drive of our inner self, our suppressed dark need for recognition & for achievement. We all need and secretly desire public acknowledgement of our worth by “important“ people even to the betrayal of our own deepest values.

The Judas story is a “gift” to our awakening, to our becoming aware that a deep part of ourselves is willing to betray the “Christ” within us in exchange for our ego’s need for public recognition. This story is, for all Christians, “the gift of Judas..”