much a who-done-it. it s a why-done-it. why did judas betray jesus? that s really the biggest question in the entire gospel. in the new testament gospels, jesus starts his mission traveling through galilee and judea, gathering followers. from them, he chooses 12 to be his closest disciples. the term disciple simply means learner or student. so when jesus is calling disciples, he s simply gathering a group of students around to learn from him. the disciples come from a wide range of backgrounds from fishermen to tax collectors. there was recruitment by jesus, deliberate recruitment,
going to publicly shame him on a cross, judas apparently had second thoughts. after jesus was condemned, there had to have been a part of him that did feel remorse. judas clearly feels guilty after he s done this thing. we see a lot of his conscience. i have sinned by betraying innocent blood. he takes the money, and he throws it back. it s just blood money, and he doesn t want to get his hands dirty with it. there s something terrifying about judas that you could be doing so well and then make a mistake from which you can never come back. while all four gospels of the
judas has the courage to stand up and speak to him. i know who you are and whence you have come, and i am not worthy to utter the name of the one who has sent you. judas is singled out as the one disciple with whom jesus feels he can speak openly. judas understands. he ll take judas aside and explain to him cosmology, his own fate and the role that judas is going to play in human history. this lost gospel appears to give a new explanation of the betrayal of jesus and exonerate the man reviled throughout history, judas iscariot.
judas obviously is someone who was going through a lot of conflict. he s a real person with real emotions. he s a person who had great hopes in jesus. those hopes were dashed. he colossally overreacted, and so he leads the jewish authorities to jesus in the garden of gethsemane, but that s not the end of the story. we don t really know what happened to judas after he betrays jesus. does he follow jesus through the trial scenes just to see what happens? does he see pilate condemn him to die? does he perhaps watch the flogging and have to feel the reality of what he s done? when it becomes clear that they re not just going to do away with jesus, but they re
judas abruptly leaves. where is he going? you have the last supper. you have the garden of gethsemane. and it s like an endless night. while the disciples sleep, jesus spends the night in prayer. he s so anguished, so full of agony that he s sweating blood. the one i kiss will be the man. arrest him and lead him away. rabbi.