You Must Remember This

For many, Judas Iscariot has come down as the arch villain of all history. Shakespeare called him “that base Judean who threw away a pearl more precious than all his tribe.” So heavy for us is the betrayal of Jesus that we tend to forget that Judas was, after all, human.

We tend to forget that maybe even Judas had a sense of humor. We tend to forget that Judas could hurt just like we hurt; that Judas could cry just like we cry, that Judas had the human capability of saying “Yes” to God or “No” to God.

Judas appears infrequently in the Gospels up until the last few hours of Jesus’ life. He is mentioned here and there when the list of the original twelve Apostles appears, although he’s always listed last and he’s always identified as the one who betrayed Jesus.

In the Story of the “last supper,” after Judas has made his deal to betray Jesus, he now is sitting…