"Soft" on Judas

Yesterday was an absolute gorgeous day in Greene County, MS. Our attendance was down in comparison to last week, which was the best attended Sunday since I began as pastor here just over 2 years ago.

The children sang in the morning service and we had special guests play brass duets (trumpet and trombone). They did a great job. My son Jared was enthralled.

My sermon was a biographical message based on the life of Judas. While I know I was true to the scripture text in examining his life, I always seek to preach the truths from the Bible with the idea of God's grace in mind.

The life of Judas is tragic. He was with Jesus when Christ performed miracle after miracle. He heard Him teach about the Kingdom of God, but the expectations of Judas were different from the purpose of Jesus. Obviously, he wanted to profit from his association with Christ. Also, he must have had political aspirations, which he realized Jesus would never help him to achieve.

His betrayal of Christ was horrible, disgusting, and pathetic. However, if he had sought forgiveness from Jesus, instead of the religious leaders, he could have been in a right relationship with God. However, his betrayal, unlike the denials of Peter, were not forgiven. Without a God intervention, guilt becomes unbearable.

Yesterday, as folks were ritually shaking my hands as they exited the sanctuary, one man said, "Preacher, I wish I could be as soft on Judas as you were today."

While I don't think I was "soft" on him, I must admit it saddens me to see a life like that of Judas that is wasted when there were so many opportunities available to him to make a positive impact upon the world. Judas could have a difference, but instead he chose to betray the very person he could have blessed him beyond measure.

If "soft" refers to grieving folks who die to enter eternity separated from God, I plead guilty.

Jesus said, "While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled (John 17:12)."

When I was in Alaska, a promising college graduate named Chris McCandless journeyed to the "Last Frontier" and camped in the wilderness in the Denali National Park. He hiked into the wilderness in April 1992. He crossed a river that was low since the snow and ice of winter were just beginning to thaw. After several mishaps, he began to near starvation. So, he decided to hike out of the park, but, when he reached the river, the water was too treacherous to cross due to the melted snow. He lost all hope. He returned to his temporary shelter and died of hunger.

After he was discovered and pictures he had taken were developed, folks discovered he had killed a moose and other wildlife, which he did not know how to preserve or cook. He had eaten some berries, which suppressed his appetite and produced prolonged intestinal problems. He had made several mistakes. However, the biggest mistake was to refuse a map that he was offered before he began his journey into the wild.

If Chris McCandless had looked at a map, he would have realized that from the point of his original crossing of the river a hand drawn ferry was only a quarter of a mile to the south. He was only a short walk from hope.

Judas lived the last years of his life in the shadow of Jesus. He was an armlengths away, really a prayer away, from the epitome of hope. However, he died hopeless.

What a waste. What a lost. I pray stories of human tragedy always soften me.

Read more about Chris McCandless by clicking here.