The Betrayal of Judas

Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests 

and said, "What will you give me if I deliver him to you?" And they paid him thirty pieces

of silver. And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him. (Mt 26:14-16)

The name Judas has entered every language and is synonymous with betrayal.  What

makes Judas’ case unique, however, is that his motive was not entirely clear.  Why did

Judas betray his Master? Was his treachery motivated by greed, bitter disappointment

with Jesus, hatred because of disillusionment, or all of these together?

Recently, we were treated to the news that a newly discovered ‘Gospel of Judas’

might shed new light on the apostle’s identity and relationship with Jesus. The inference

in the news reports was that Judas might have been unfairly made out to be a conniving

betrayer. Part of the Judas manuscript has Jesus collaborating with Judas to begin the

drama of betrayal that eventually led to Jesus’ death. True or not, it is unlikely that pure

greed was the sole motivating factor for Judas to betray Jesus.  If his motive had only

been greed, he should have been happy after receiving the thirty pieces of silver from

those who wanted to arrest Jesus.  Instead, he was thrown into despair and hanged

himself. 

So there is reason to believe that Judas never really intended Jesus to die. Maybe

he thought Jesus was proceeding too slowly and not acting aggressively enough in setting

up his messianic kingdom. Perhaps Judas only wanted to force Jesus' hand by

compelling him to act. Come to think of it, his tragedy may be more of impatience than

greed, more of his refusal to accept Jesus as he was than wanting to possess those thirty

pieces of silver. As for Jesus, he knew beforehand what would befall him and the one
who will do it: When it was evening, he sat at table with the twelve disciples; and as they

were eating, he said, "Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me." (Mt:26:20) With

these words, Jesus put all of his twelve apostles under trial and suspicion and challenged

them to examine themselves rightly, lest they be high-minded and think themselves

innocent and exempted from betraying him.

One could argue that Jesus’ act of redeeming humanity came about as

consequence of Judas’ betrayal. Yes, but the act of betrayal was itself a great evil. Dante

got it right when he placed Judas in the very heart of hell, eternally gnawed by Satan, the

great prevaricator. God can - and does - bring good out of even the most heinous human

acts. But that does not make evil good. The fact of evil remains. Judas did not want to

face that fact and so took his life. There is only one way then to avoid a similar trap and

redeem our tendencies to be like Judas: to admit that we seldom have pure motives, for

good or ill.  Judas’s motives may well have been an emotional mixture of all of the

above.  Separated, none of them may have been strong enough to move him; but

confused and over-heated, they were a potent mixture.  If we took time to think clearly

we would probably do a lot less damage in our lives.  But that is what Judas was unable

to do: take time.