And Judas Iscariot | Page 6

with
his insinuations, possibly causing him to slip and fall in occasional sins,
but finally he has control and then betrayal, denial and murder are the
results.
I looked the other day into the face of a man who said to me, "Do you
know me?" and I told him I did not, and he said, "I used to be a
Christian worker and influenced thousands to come to Christ. In an
unguarded moment I determined to leave my ministry and to become
rich. My haste for riches was but a snare. I found myself becoming
unscrupulous in my business life and now I am wrecked, certainly for
time--oh," said he, "can it be for eternity? I am separated from my wife
and my children, whom I shall never see again." And rising in an agony
he cried out as I have rarely heard a man cry, "God have mercy upon
me! God have mercy upon me!"
III
There are but three things that I would like to say concerning Judas as I
come to the end of my message.
The first is that he was heartless in the extreme. It was just after a
touching scene recorded in Matthew the twenty-sixth chapter the
seventh to the thirteenth verses, "There came unto him a woman having
an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head,
as he sat at meat. But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation,
saying, To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have
been sold for much, and given to the poor. When Jesus understood it,
he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a
good work upon me. For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye
have not always. For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body,
she did it for my burial. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel

shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this
woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her." It was after this that
Judas went to the enemies of Jesus and offered to sell him, and as if
that were not enough, it was just after he had left Gethsemane, in
Matthew the twenty-sixth chapter the forty-fifth to the forty-ninth
verses, that he betrayed him with his kiss. "Then cometh he to his
disciples and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest; behold,
the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of
sinners. Rise, let us be going: behold, he is at hand that doth betray me.
And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with
him a great multitude, with swords and staves, from the chief priests
and elders of the people. Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign,
saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast. And
forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, Master; and kissed him."
The blood drops had just been rolling down the cheeks of the Master,
for he sweat, as it were, great drops of blood; and I can quite
understand how upon the very lips of Judas the condemning blood may
have left its mark. But do not condemn him; he is scarcely more
heartless than the man who to-day rejects him after all his gracious
ministry, his sacrificial death and his mediatorial work of nineteen
hundred years.
Second: His death was awful. Acts 1:18, "Now this man purchased a
field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder
in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out." I can imagine him going
out to the place where he is to end it all, remembering as he walked
how Jesus had looked at him, recalling, doubtless, some of his spoken
messages, and certainly remembering how once he had been with him
in all his unfaithful ministry. All this must have swept before him like a
great panorama, and with the vision of his betrayed Master still before
him he swings himself out into the eternity; and then as if to make the
end more terrible the rope broke and his body burst and his very bowels
gushed forth. Oh, if it be true that the way of the transgressor is hard, in
the name of God what shall we say of the end?
Third: I would like to imagine another picture. What if instead of going
out to the scene of his disgraceful death he had waited until after Jesus

had risen? What if he had tarried behind some one of those great trees
near the city along the way which he should walk, or, possibly on the
Emmaus