Seeing Jesus’ Love for Judas Throughout the Betrayal
Judas Iscariot’s betrayal of Jesus had a cultural and historical impact that really can’t be overstated. It was the turning point of the Holy Week that led to Jesus’ crucifixion and necessary resurrection, which Jesus predicted and disclosed to his Apostles — including Judas — beforehand. And through it all, even as Judas followed through with his promise to the religious leaders and identified Jesus with a kiss so he’d be killed, Jesus only spoke and acted with love. What better way to apply the commandment that Jesus declared the most important? To love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself.
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This love for Judas came even as the Apostle seemed to struggle with giving Jesus his full heart. Judas solely refers to Jesus in Scripture as “Rabbi” (Matthew 26:25, 26:49), meaning “teacher,” rather than “Lord” as the others do throughout. This supports the idea that Judas never bonded so closely with Jesus, and indeed, when he kissed the Son of Man in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:49–50), he exclaimed, “Greetings, Rabbi!” To that, Jesus replied, “Do what you came for, friend.”
That hits hard. Jesus saw this betrayal coming from a mile away, pointing to it as a fulfillment of Scripture (John 13:18). Even still, Jesus not only talked the talk but walked the walk by loving his enemy and calling him “friend.” This wasn’t the first time he had expressed this love for Judas, either, as he had been following him for a while at this point.
Flipping through the Gospel of John shows great examples of Jesus’ love for Judas. One example comes in John 6:66–71, after Jesus had spoken about eternal life and eating of his flesh, drinking of his blood. That strange visual was enough to turn many of his followers away, despite the true meaning that was packaged inside, but John 6:67 shows Jesus’ relationship with those who stuck around:
So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?”
Jesus could’ve easily kicked Judas out of the band at this point. He even calls it out in this same section, spending the penultimate verse of the chapter elaborating:
Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.”
Then John, the disciple that Jesus also loved, closes by saying:
He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.
The turning point I mentioned, then, comes at the feast of the Passover. After washing every disciples’ feet in John 13 — and it was all of the disciples, as Scripture never says “except for Judas” here — itself an obvious act of love, Jesus gives a speech. The main idea is that if this group’s Teacher and Lord would engage in such a selfless act, so should they with one another. This is where that fulfillment of Scripture is mentioned in verse 18 as Jesus prepares to subtly and intimately confirm to Judas that he knows of his betrayal:
I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’
Jesus made it a reality in verse 26 by giving Judas a morsel of bread that he’d dipped, following Peter’s question, “Lord, who is it?” The events after that have hurt the heart of so many Christians since, and whether it boils down to Judas’ greed or if Satan entered into him, Jesus still called him “friend.”
It’s impossible to imagine a better example of love than this, and that goes beyond Jesus’ love for Judas. It extends out to all of us as he allowed each step to happen, knowing full well it was in his strength as the Son of God to stop it. Instead, he submitted and laid down his life for us, even though sin made us his enemy (Romans 5:10). Jesus’ love is both intimate and widespread, something we should strive to replicate every day to honor and serve him.
