Judas

The whole Judas issue fascinates me.

It often seems to me that many people – from centuries past to modern day – delight in his suicide.

“Yeah!” they cry.

“Awesome!””

“He had it coming!”

“Serves that treacherous son of a bitch right!”

Most people don’t say it in those precise words, of course. But that’s the subtext underneath it all: the concept of righteous vengeance. The idea that you shouldn’t feel sorry for the poor sap, because he brought it upon himself.

There are two reasons to have a a problem with this line of thinking.

The first is fodder for many philisophical discussions, and likely always will be: somebody had to betray Jesus. Somebody had to get the ball rolling so that he could die for our sins, right? The whole of the Christian belief system kind of hinges on that.

The second is a bigger issue still, however: Christians are supposed to forgive.

No righteous vengeance.

No eye for an eye.

Forgiveness.

Think about that.