Insightful Musings on the Scriptures
by
Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67
Greetings, dear ones.
It’s a little too late to say, “Good morning.” We just crossed over into afternoon.
There is still the view of snow on the ground. But, again, it’s melting fast. There probably won’t be much visible tomorrow. At least this weather that promotes more being inside has also offered more time to devote to sign design work. I’ve been able to knock out several important layouts to present to different customers.
May the rest of your day unfold just fine.
Love, Dad/Ray.
We will never know exactly what drove Judas to do what he did. We are not given the lines of reasoning that wafted through his heart and mind. All we really know is that it had to be perverse. But a positive benefit that can be gleaned from the account leading to his demise is that it offers a small window into the psychology of guilt and depression—and pushes us to identify the proper response to those most common human conditions.
According to our best understanding of the Biblical Gospel, is it not valid to affirm that we have “all sinned” (Romans 3:23) and have “betrayed innocent blood”? If Jesus is indeed the substitute sacrifice for our sin—and that “the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6), how can it be otherwise?
I’m inclined to believe that the hard-hearted Jewish officials were stating Biblical truth more profoundly than they were capable of knowing when they said, “That’s your responsibility.” I agree. It really was Judas’ responsibility to deal with his own guilt. And it’s your responsibility to deal with yours, and me with mine. All we need to do is understand that our guilt before a Holy God is a bigger problem than we are capable of handling on our own. Isn’t that why the Gospel is the Gospel?—incredibly good news for our guilt problem that far exceeds human capacities? So what was the most responsible way for Judas to handle his responsibility? Suicide? Not at all. That only made his problem worse!—infinitely worse! All Judas needed to do was the same thing Peter did—go out, get alone with his Holy but Gracious God, confess his sinfulness, and weep bitterly in repentance—“God, have mercy on me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13). It is extremely difficult for me to believe that Judas was predestined to suicide—that he had no choice or responsibility in the matter—that he was absolutely denied the option of repentance and forgiveness.
Even Pilate had responsibilities and options. He didn’t really have to cave to these angry loud-mouths. “He knew” (27:18) what was right—that Jesus was innocent—that “it was out of envy that they had handed Jesus over to him.” I wrote in my Bible margin, “I wonder how Pilate’s marriage fared after that.” After all, his own wife had sent him a stern dream-inspired warning to not yield to the demands of the Jewish leaders. As he went on to grapple with his own guilt and depression, she could have turned up the heat by hammering him with, “I told you so!”
Once again, I’m forced to ponder why I’ve had to cope with the unexpected rise of some tear-jerking emotions even as I compose these lines. Unless someone can convince me otherwise, I think it’s evidence that I’ve rambled again into the core of the Biblical Gospel—and my own mind is impacted with gut-wrenching sadness over the unnecessary choices made by Judas and Pilate in resolving their guilt and depression—not to mention the many many more like them—to this day. I don’t think I’m supposed to get used to this reality. There’s way too much eternity involved.