Jesus Loved Judas

Despite knowing that Judas would betray him, Jesus loved him just as he loved the other 11 disciples. If Jesus could love Judas, what does that mean about his love for us?

Judas. The name is synonymous with treachery, backstabbing, betrayal, double-crossing. A “Judas” is “one who betrays under the guise of friendship.” Judas betrayed Jesus.

What do you know about Judas?

It was in those days that he went up the hillside to pray, and spent the whole night in prayer to God. When daylight came, he summoned his disciples to him and out of them he chose twelve whom he called apostles. They were Simon (whom he called Peter), Andrew, his brother, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James, the son of Alphaeus, Simon, called the patriot, Judas, the son of James and Judas Iscariot, who later betrayed him. (Luke 6:12-16 JBP)

Jesus had to make an important decision: Who should he choose? These would be the Twelve who would be with him. He would train them. They would represent him. They would share in and carry on his ministry. Jesus spent the whole night in prayer… asking God to give him wisdom; guidance to choose the right ones. Judas was one of the Twelve he chose.

Did Jesus make a mistake when he chose Judas? Did God answer Jesus’ prayer? Did God give him wisdom? Did he guide him? What did Jesus see in Judas? Why didn’t he see the warning signs?

John tells us of a time when, after having given a particularly “hard” teaching (“Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you….”), many of Jesus’ disciples left him (John 6:53ff.). But none of the Twelve left him. They were not “offended” by Jesus’ teaching. They had left everything to follow Jesus (Matthew 19:27). They wouldn’t turn their backs on him now. But Jesus pressed the Twelve: “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Peter responded for the group: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:68-69).

But did Peter respond for all of the Twelve? None of them left Jesus at this point, but were all of them really with Jesus? After Peter’s declaration Jesus went on to say some “hard” things directly to the Twelve. “The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe…. Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil” (John 6:63,64,70)!

Surely the Twelve must have been perplexed, stunned by what Jesus said to them. The Twelve hadn’t left him, as “many” of his disciples did. Certainly those who remained believed in him… didn’t they? How could Jesus have doubted their faith, their commitment to him? Even more, to accuse one of being a devil?

If Jesus said it (some did not believe, one of them was a devil), it must have been true. But why would he say these things? What was the point? What did he hope to accomplish? Wouldn’t saying these things just fuel suspicion, discord, speculation and accusations among the Twelve? If Jesus knew there were some unbelievers among them and that one was a devil, why didn’t he name names? Why didn’t he expose the rats and clean out the whole cellar then and there?

At the time, John, like the rest of the Twelve, seemingly had no clue who Jesus was talking about. (I don’t think even Judas knew it was he Jesus was talking about.) Years later, in his Gospel record, with the benefit of hindsight, John included these clarifying notations: “For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him….” “He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him” (John 6:64,71).

Jesus was referring to Judas. Judas did not believe. Judas was a devil. And Jesus had known about Judas from the beginning, at the time he chose Judas to be one of the Twelve. Jesus had seen something in Judas when he picked him… and it wasn’t good. Knowing this, you’d expect Jesus not only to not have picked Judas as one of the Twelve, but to have thrown him out altogether. But Jesus did, indeed, know Judas was a devil, from the beginning, and that was why he picked him.

Jesus picked Judas because he was a devil, because he knew he would betray him. Jesus did many things that directly led to his crucifixion. Choosing Judas was one of those things he did to “fulfill the Scriptures” regarding the Son of Man (God’s Messiah). Jesus knew what the Scriptures prophesied regarding God’s Messiah and he stepped into that role. He fulfilled the Scriptures intentionally, not accidentally. Everything Jesus did was intentional; reverent submission; in obedience to the will of his Father. Jesus didn’t make a mistake when he chose Judas, he knew exactly what he was doing. He was being obedient to the will of his Father. God did answer his prayer. God did give him guidance and wisdom. In the end, Jesus wasn’t the sad victim of a corrupted religious system controlled by evil men. When Judas betrayed Jesus, when Jesus was taken in the Garden, it’s obvious he is the one who is in control of what was happening. He wasn’t taken by force, he willingly surrendered.

”Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?” (Matthew 26:53-54)

“The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” (John 10:17-18)

Jesus knew what had to happen. Jesus knew what would happen. Jesus knew Judas would betray him. It was inevitable. But it was not inevitable in the sense that Judas was not a willing participant. He was. It was inevitable in the sense that if Judas remained true to his character—self-centered, hypocritical, self-deceived, greedy (see John 12:4-6)—it was inevitable that he would betray Jesus. Jesus made it clear, in sobering language, that Judas would be held responsible for what he did. “Woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born” (Matthew 26:24).

God’s judgement against Nineveh, their destruction, was inevitable in just forty days according to the prophet Jonah—unless they repented. God sent Jonah to warn them, to plead with them to repent, so that what was inevitable—judgment—would not come upon them. Even though Nineveh was known for its wickedness, God cared about those people—120,000 people who could not tell their right hand from their left—and extended mercy, love and grace to them through Jonah.

When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened. (Jonah 3:10)

Judas betrayed Jesus. But that didn’t mean Judas was shut off from, that he was beyond the mercy, love and grace of God. From the beginning, from the time Jesus chose Judas, to the night Judas betrayed Jesus, the mercy, love and grace of God was poured out on Judas through Jesus. Jesus loved Judas. This is what Walter Hilton (1340-1396) so beautifully pointed out in his book Toward a Perfect Love.

Stop and think how Christ loved Judas, who was both his mortal enemy and a sinful dog. How good Christ was to him, how benign, how courteous, how humble toward him whom he knew to be damnable. He chose him for his apostle and sent him to preach with the other apostles. He gave him power to work miracles. He showed to him the same good cheer in word and deed. He shared with him his precious Body, and preached to him in the same manner as he did to the other apostles. He did not condemn him openly; nor did he abuse him or despise him, nor even speak evil of him (and yet even if he had done all of that, it would simply have been to tell the truth!). And above all, when Judas seized him, he kissed him and called him his friend.
All this charitable love Christ showed to Judas whom he knew to be damnable—without feigning or flattering, but in truthfulness of good love and pure charity. For though it might seem to us that Judas was unworthy to have any gift of God, or any token of love because of his wickedness, nevertheless in God’s eyes it was worthy and reasonable that our Lord should show himself to him as he is.

For he is love and goodness, and therefore it is characteristic of him to show love and goodness to all his creatures, as he did to Judas.

Jesus loved Judas. He poured himself into Judas just as he did to each of the Twelve. He did everything he could to save Judas. So I believe it was with sorrow and pain—not with malice and contempt—that Jesus foretold what he knew to be Judas’ destiny. “Woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born” (Matthew 26:24). And I believe that it could have been different for Judas in the end, that it didn’t have to end the way it did.

More than once Jesus warned Judas—discreetly, by telling the Twelve he knew he would be betrayed by one of them—about the direction he was headed. He was letting Judas know that even though he knew what kind of person Judas was, what he was capable of, what he was going to do to him, he still loved him. Jesus left the way to God’s mercy, love and grace open to Judas; for him to come back to him after he betrayed him.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” (The Prodigal, Luke 15:20)

When Judas realized the full extent of his betrayal, that Jesus had been condemned to death as a result, he was seized with remorse. He returned the silver he had been paid. And he openly confessed, “I have sinned, for I have betrayed innocent blood” (Matthew 27:3-5).

Does God require from us anything more than what Judas experienced—remorse, restitution, confession—to come to him and receive from him mercy, love and grace? Couldn’t Judas have been forgiven and restored? Peter was restored following his despicable sin: having denied Jesus three times, after having been warned by him, in just a single evening, when Jesus most needed Peter’s support. Peter was forgiven and restored. Judas was not. “Judas went away and hanged himself.”

Paul said there are two kinds of sorrow for sin: worldly sorrow and godly sorrow (2 Corinthians 7:9-11). Worldly sorrow, Paul said, ends in death. Judas was sorry for what he had done. But his sorrow was worldly sorrow. This person remains in his sorrow, wallows in his sorrow and regrets but never moves out of his sorrow. He never gets over it or beyond it. It’s sorrow without faith. And it ends in death. Godly sorrow is true repentance. It is sorrow and regret for sin and it moves on to faith in God. Godly sorrow looks to God; trusts in God; and receives from him the mercy, love and grace that saves. “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret….” Repentance is turning from sin and turning to God.

Jesus loved Judas. And if Jesus loved Judas, he loves you. “For he is love and goodness, and therefore it is characteristic of him to show love and goodness to all his creatures, as he did to Judas.” Jesus would have forgiven and restored Judas, as he did Peter, and he is always willing to do this for you.

Jesus loved Judas. What a wonderful truth. How beautiful the love of Jesus is.

Not only does Jesus want you to experience his love, but he wants his love to work in and through you so that others experience the love of Jesus through you. Jesus loved Judas. You can love like Jesus. Walter Hilton goes on in his writing to make this application.

Follow after him somewhat if you can, for even though you are imprisoned within the walls of your bodily dwelling, nevertheless in your heart, where the place of love is, you may be enabled to have part of such a love toward your fellow Christians. Whoever imagines himself to be a perfect follower of Jesus Christ’s teaching and life—as some persons judge themselves to be, inasmuch as they teach and preach and are poor in worldly goods, as Christ was—and still cannot follow Christ in love and charity, loving his fellow Christians every one, good and ill, friends and foes, without pretense, flattery, despising them in his heart, or indulging himself in resentment or self-serving reproof, well, truly that person deceives himself (Matthew 5:43-48; 1 Corinthians 13:1-3). In fact, the nearer to Christ he imagines himself to be in such a state, the further away in fact he is. For Christ said to those who would be his followers: “This is my commandment, that you love mutually as I have loved you” (John 13:34). Or we may also translate it: “This is my bidding, that you love together as I love you, for if you love as I have loved you, then are you my disciples.”

Jesus loved Judas.