What Did Judas See?

Mark 14 begins with the Chief Priests trying to figure out how they can kill Jesus. They need someone on the inside. And they get their agent. In Mark 14, Judas sees something, and then turns.

What he sees, convinces him that Jesus is a fraud, not saintly, and worthy of death.

After narrating this event the Bible says:

“Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them.”

So what did Judas see?

One of The Most Polarizing Event in History

In Mark’s account 1, Jesus visits Simon’s house, a former leper. A lady takes expensive perfume (a year’s wage, so imagine $70K - $100K in NA today) and pours it on Jesus head.

Guests said: This is awful. The poor will go hungry due to this waste.

Jesus said: This is beautiful. This is how to treat me. This will be part of the gospel.

This is what Judas saw.

Remember Judas saw Jesus raise the dead, calm the storms, heal the sick and more, feed 5000 and much more.

But seeing this was enough to convince him that:

  1. That Jesus wasn’t sent from God.
  2. That Jesus was an unholy law-breaker, just like the Pharisees said.
  3. Jesus’ miracles must have been from Satan’s power.
  4. Jesus was self-seeking, getting people to love him instead of God and the poor.
  5. Jesus cared too much about himself.

Why?

Because only helping the poor is godly.

Satan is happy to have us diligently follow the 2nd greatest commandment if we abandon the first.

The Divide

The most potent good, is acts of deep love for Jesus. To those without the grace of God, they seem wasteful. Satan can turn people (as devout as an apostle!) by causing them to judge JESUS as not worthy of love, but suggesting that only the plight of the poor is a worthy object of love and resources. But those people themselves are hypocrites. If more needs to be done for the poor, it is up to them to do it, not to judge someone else’s deep acts of love to Jesus. And Judas, the hypocrite above all, was actually a thief, stealing from the donations that went to Jesus.

Love Sacrifices

It’s easy to judge sacrifices to Jesus as having no utility. But love to Jesus, and there sincere expressions, are the highest good.

Today people can get indignant over:

  1. The Church building a beautiful building to honor Jesus, rather than giving to the poor.
  2. Someone spending a lot of time praising God in prayer, rather than helping the world.
  3. Someone dedicating a year of their life to God’s service, rather than advancing their career.

The Hypocrisy

Everyone is indignant that another person’s money didn’t go to the poor. Jesus calls them out. YOU can give to the poor anytime you want. If they need more give more. It wasn’t godliness that fueled their shock and outrage.

The Plight of the Poor

The poor and hard-done by are the special objects of God’s love.

“He that gives to the poor, lends to his maker.” The one who saved you from eternal death says, “I’ll owe you won if you help them!”

Satan attempts to appeal to the plight of the poor in a holier-than-God move.

Satan wants:

  1. Free drugs handed out.
  2. Economies destroyed and dictatorships established
  3. No worship of God in his churches.

So Satan uses the following logic:

  1. The poor are dying from drug overdoses, let’s build safe injection sites.
  2. The poor don’t have enough food, let’s introduce communism (which the church hates)
  3. The worship services in liberal churches are absent of deep worship of God

  1. Each gospel writer includes only very small pieces of the story. It is true that the woman is a sinful lady, likely a prostitute. Simon the Pharisee, who was also a Leper, recoiled at the idea that this shady woman would come with tears and wipe Jesus feet. Maybe this contributed to Judas’ turning, but it is intentionally omited when Mark tries to explain what Judas saw. He focused on one thing, the love lavished on Jesus. ↩︎