Sunday, April 3, 2011

Church Notes | Blood Money

We are going thought a study that will take us up to Easter Sunday titled "Witness' of Christ". Each Sunday is focusing on a person that Christ encountered during the week leading to the crucifixion. So far we have met Mary Magdalene with her unexpected and extravagant manner of worshiping Christ. Encountered the Pharisees and saw how blind their hearts were when what they were looking for was right in front of them. And about 2 weeks ago met the man I am blogging about right now, the betrayer; Judas Iscariot.



For me Judas has been a source of mixed emotions. He was the man who betrayed Christ and then hung himself. I've always wondered why he betrayed Christ? And why he committed suicide and what did his suicide mean? For a long while I would wonder if he even had a choice.

But I realized that we can't really ask the question if he had a choice. We have to assume he did have choice, because we've all had choice, all of us from Eve to Adam to you and me. I truly believe that choice is a primary form that God's love takes in our lives. If we did have the ability to choose we would be incapable of love, and on a side note and slight tangent, that is why addiction is so evil, it mars our ability to choose, but thats a blog for another time so anywho...

I always thought as a child that Judas betrayed Jesus because be was greedy and was supposed to. What I realized in that study, and have been trying to blog about for the last 2 weeks, was that Jesus wasn't what Judas wanted him to be. Judas did not understand how this man was going to establish a new kingdom and he did not submit his understanding to the both the Scripture and the prophet standing in front of him. His pride and vanity stood in the way not allowing him to see Jesus as a true prophet, let alone the Christ and Son of God. Out of what we can assume to be immense frustration and bitterness he turned Jesus in to the authorities. Even after the crucifixion I don't think he recognized Jesus as the Christ. He said that he spilt the blood of an innocent man, not that the Blood of the son of God. I really think this line of thought is supported through the actions Judas took after his admission. He did not seek repentance and redemption, but wallowed in his own remorse incapable, himself, of solving the issue, and I really feel that that desperation and isolation is what opened his heart and mind to suicide.

Basically what I got from this study was that I need to be careful to not allow pride to blind me from seeing how Christ want to work in and through my life. And that there is a world of difference between remorse and repentance.

5 comments:

  1. I agree completely. The concept of being blinded, where Judas didn't even know what he was doing, possibly even to the moment of his death, as well as the concept of addiction, where our ability to choose is impaired - it reminds me to be sober-minded, free from all forms of intoxication, whether it's pride or alcohol. For me, it can definitely be pride.

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  2. "incapable, himself of solving the issue"... how we will all end of like Judas if we don't take a good hard look at what we are pursuing here: Christ or what He does for us. man. and in your last paragraph you totally touched on something I am seeing has immense ability to warp and mask our gifts from God: pride. but be encouraged because if you are intentionally looking for where you can be tripped up, you have a MUCH better chance of surpassing it with the strength of our Father. : ) thank you so much for blogging.

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  3. totally agree. Your walkthrough of all this is something similar to what I was realizing too. So your thoughts and comments are helping me process even more thoughts, so thanks for that. As usual though, dig the art. Just had to say it lol.

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  4. Dude, this is awesome. I think this is exactly what I was feeling like listening to this sermon. I started to think...I'm not greedy just as Judas wasn't...but when I start to think that Jesus isn't going to "pull off" what I want...then that is when I find myself pawning Jesus off for a cheap bag of coins...and that's when sin happens. It is in our nature to sell out for the wrong reasons. I feel and hear God calling me to hang on, and I am so rewarded when I do. It is my prayer that we all hang on and know and fully trust that God has is/will/HAS already pulled it off :) like I said, this is awesome.

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  5. okay, yes. thank you for posting this. two things stood out to me immensely.

    "choice is a primary form that God's love takes in our lives." that is an amazing thought, and i think very true. it completely alters how we look at decisions. we often view them as burdens or stressors, when really they are opportunities to exercise an expression of God's love for us. that is revolutionizing for our futures.

    also, "there is a world of difference between remorse and repentance." oh yeah. i remember it being phrased this way too, by darin i think: "God doesn't call us to feel sad about our sins, he calls us to turn from them." right. so that's convicting.

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