Judas
Imagine yourself as an artist painting The Last Supper. You have spent many long hours painstakingly brushing in every minute detail. The canvas is beginning to come alive. The dimly lit room, the massive table surrounded by Jesus and the Twelve; it all seems so real. You have just one figure to portray before the portrait is complete: you have not drawn Judas. His chair is empty. Thoughtfully you study the scene and wonder: “What did he really look like?”
What do you think? Practically every portrait of Judas reveals a man dressed in black. His face is twisted in anger; his expression is sinister. His picture looks like one you would find in the mug file at the police station.
Contrary to what most people think, Judas could not have looked like that at all. In fact, he was the opposite. When the time came for the disciples to choose a treasurer, they picked Judas. he probably looked more trustworthy than any of the others! He was different and that is without question. He was the only disciple not from Galilee. He was from Judea and he probably felt like a Southern gentleman in New York City!
But we do not remember Judas for this difference. We remember him for the difference, not in his personality, but in his character. Judas was a traitor. That is what we think of when his name is mentioned.
But Judas did not have to betray Jesus Christ. He had the same opportunities offered to the others. He was, after all, chosen to be a disciple after Jesus spent a night in prayer. But Judas sold out. He made a decision and he paid the price for it.
Judas wrongly used the greatest power God gives to man: the power of choice. God has given to you that same power of choice. He offers you the same opportunity He offered Judas. On the surface, Judas was probably one of the most “spiritual” of the disciples, but he was a counterfeit Christian. He was 100% phony. And, unfortunately, a staggering number of professing “Christians” today are just like Judas.