Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Judas Really Had A Heart For The Poor

And that is why he was so very upset when Jesus was anointed in Bethany. Apparently, Jesus Himself was also quite irritated at the "waste" of money but then changed His mind and decided that she had done a good thing in anointing Him. You've got to love the creative arts. ::sigh::

Here are the highlights:

Judas told us that if we lived simply and saved every shekel, one day we would be able to do some wonderful things for the poor and downtrodden. He had a big heart for things like that. He was always talking about the poor.

...

I never believed that part about the thirty pieces of silver, by the way, and I still don'’t. I know they gave him a bag of coins, but there was no way Judas would ever betray a friend for money. No way. There was something else going on, and I think I know what it was. I saw something in JudasÂ’ face that night. And in the face of Jesus too.

...

And I saw something that night that Judas missed. I saw something amazing in the face of Jesus.

When the woman poured that perfume on Jesus;’ head, I saw him cringe. He squeezed his eyes shut and bit his lower lip. It was over in a moment, but it was enough to tell me all I needed to know. This wasn'’t something he wanted to happen.

...

Jesus got everyone quiet, even Judas. Then he began to talk. The amazing thing was, he took the woman's side. He looked right at Judas and said that the poor had been waiting a long time, and they would still be waiting when Judas finally got his money together, and made his plans, and did whatever else he felt he had to do before he could start helping people.

He said that what she did was a nice thing, even the right thing. He also said that it was a beautiful gesture and that it was getting him ready for his burial. We had no idea what he was talking about, of course. Then he said that no one would ever forget what she had done for him, which turned out to be true, by the way. After that he didn'’t say anything else.


You can find the entire essay here (emphasis mine). Poor Judas, how we have misunderstood him!

2 comments:

David said...

As I've said before, anyone with a keyboard can be a theologian these days.

Why do I get the feeling that some super-relevant EC dude is reading that and finding wonderful insight in it?

Kristina said...

Because the author is relevant enough to cuss? ;)