Traitor (Matthew 10:2-4)

You know how when you go to the opera, how there is a list of donors in the little booklet that they hand you at the door?  Okay, I don't go to the opera much either, but some how I know there is a little booklet that they hand out with donor's names in it.  Do you ever look to see whose name is there?  Often there is quite list of movers and shakers.  Well, here is another list.  See what you notice about it...

Matthew 10:2-4   2 The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother;  3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;  4 Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. 

Mark 3:16-19   16 Simon whom he surnamed Peter;  17 James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James, whom he surnamed Boanerges, that is, sons of thunder;  18 Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Cananaean,  19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. 

Luke 6:14-16   14 Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew,  15 and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot,  16 and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. 


Wow!  I bet at the opera, the list never ends with a note reading "who betrayed us" or "who became a traitor."  Judas is long dead as the gospels are being written.  His story ends with "when Judas saw that Jesus was condemned, repented himself, and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,  saying, I have sinned in that I betrayed innocent blood. But they said, What is that to us? see thou to it.  And he cast down the pieces of silver into the sanctuary, and departed; and he went away and hanged himself"  (Matthew 27:3-5).

Judas repented and confessed his sins to the wrong people - to the people who could not only not forgive him, but who were actually more evil than even Judas.  People who could not tell him of Jesus' power to forgive and transform.  I wonder what would have happened if Judas had confessed to the right people and lived.  I wonder what would have happened if he confessed his sins to the other disciples or to Jesus as he hung on the cross.  I wish this story ended differently.  That Judas transformed and went on to be used by God for good.  It would have shown the ultimate power of God to forgive and transform even the worst of us.  

But Judas - who may have thought that his betrayal would not lead to Jesus' death, but that Jesus would save himself - is so overwhelmed that he kills himself.  

Sobering.  Repentance and confession is important.  But repenting and confessing to God and to those who will assure you that you are forgiven can "make you".  Repenting and confession to the wrong people can "break you."  Be careful who you trust with your heart.