Holy Wednesday: On Spies and Strengthened Faith
Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve.
~ Luke 22:3
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”
~ Luke 22:31-32
An internet search for “age of the disciples” turns up the hypothesis that, given the typical age of a rabbi’s students, many of Jesus’ disciples were in their late teens or early twenties when he called them. While we cannot know for sure, it is sobering to think that Judas Iscariot might hardly have been out of high school, by today’s standards, when he made the choice that sealed his eternal fate.
It would do us well, as young people, to consider Judas. We know little of him. Perhaps he was not too different from the other disciples—oddly stern or inflexible, perhaps, prone to exasperation with their Master’s excesses of compassion (John 12:4-5). Who knows what accumulated doubts, what frustrations, built up in him, perhaps leading him to excuse the occasional financial indiscretion (John 12:6). Perhaps he told himself it didn’t matter, since he served a Master who obviously cared nothing of managing money or time. Perhaps the accumulation of these doubts led him to make his choice.
Judas was not flamboyantly rebellious, like today’s Satanists—he was no devil-worshiper, and yet we are told that the Enemy, who had trailed Jesus from the beginning of his ministry (Luke 4:13), finally found the opportune moment to strike through Judas. Thus Judas turned against his Lord, the one who had called him, who knew of his betrayal and yet to the very end called Judas “friend” (Matt. 26:50).
Thirty silver coins burned Judas’ hands. He threw them back. He hanged himself (Matt. 27:3-5).
We must avoid psychologizing Judas into a sympathetic figure. His actions, his choice, were unequivocally evil. He gave place to the devil (Eph. 4:27), and the devil took it. Such evil exists and may exist in us. We must pray that it is never said of us, as it was said of Judas, “It would have been better for that man if he had not been born” (Matt. 26:24).
But we must also avoid viewing Judas as a figure of unfathomable evil. His evil was exceptional; it is far from unfathomable. Lest we be tempted to cry to Christ, “Lord, I will never betray you,” let us remember that Peter said similar words (Matt. 26:35). Let us consider Peter, the head of the apostles, the rock of the church, and realize that he, too, once was a vehicle of Satan’s attacks against Jesus (Matt. 16:23); that he denied Christ not only once, but three times. Judas deserved condemnation, but so did Peter; so did the other disciples who fled from Christ; so do we all.
The difference between Peter and Judas lay less in their sins than in their faith. Christ tells us that he prayed for Peter’s faith, that it would not fail. Peter’s faith was evidently too weak to keep him from denying Christ—but the faith that then seemed so fragile proved strong enough to hold him above the abyss of despair, to keep him from the noose that beckoned to Judas. Charles Spurgeon said of the thieves crucified beside Christ, “One is saved, and we may not despair; the other is lost, and we may not presume.” Here, too, one is saved and one lost. But Judas is lost through his despair; Peter is saved through a faith that must have seemed the utmost presumption. And yet that presumption—the hope that there might be restoration—was not in vain.
The disciples might have been very young still when they saw the empty tomb. They might have been very young when they heard the Great Commission, received the Holy Spirit, went out to all the world. They were young, and one less in number. Yet how much they had aged in the week of their Lord’s passion! How little they had to boast of in themselves, having forsaken Christ; how much they had to boast of in him who had not forsaken them. May we, too, though young, learn wisdom from the Ancient of Days. This Spy Wednesday, may we consider our sin, trembling at the Judases we are without grace. But then let our faith, like Peter’s, be strengthened as we consider the One who, for our forgiveness, stretched out on the cross the everlasting arms that will bear us into eternity. To Him be the glory.
Ardaschir Arguelles is a senior in Columbia College double-majoring in Classics and East Asian Studies. When he’s not writing, he enjoys reading, going to the gym, and exploring the city.