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May 2, 2020 Good afternoon, " … Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him … " Matthew 10:4 Judas. Iscariot. No one is named Judas. And no one would say that they are from Iscariot. Judas stole money from the disciples' treasury. He is the one who kissed Jesus in the garden, and then the soldiers knew whom they should arrest. It was Satan that entered Judas , and then he knew that he was going to give up Jesus to the authorities. So, as with Matthew and Simon the Zealot , why did Jesus pick Judas, from Iscariot ? Without Judas, the plan of death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, would not have happened ? So, was Judas always part of the plan of salvation ? The early church had these kinds of discussions of how to make sense of Judas' actions. Also, some people thought that Judas betrayed Jesus because he wanted Jesus to bring about the Kingdom. He might have wanted Jesus to overthrow the temple and the Empire. He was going to force Jesus' hand in the plan, and that is why he sold him out for 30 pieces of silver. What do you think ? But, these ideas never caught on, and Judas was never made a saint in the church. He is the bad guy in the story. What kind of meaning can we take from this part of the story ? Do we worry, if we have to make tough decisions about our relationship with Jesus ? With the stress of these times, are we tempted more ? The God of all creation will take care of us, and love us to the end. Prayer for Today Somewhere there's a rainbow Somewhere there's a hill Somewhere there's a moment we can kill Where the weather's far behind us And we'll dance the skies to blue 'Cause in the end That's all you can do So let the highs and lows Roll on the winds that blow We'll take them as they come Won't let a day go by Because we're afraid to find A shadow on the sun There's no perfect path of gold And there's a bump in every road along the way. It's okay Alan Doyle Fred |
Ponder Anew 