November 12
Which Also Betrayed Him
In the Hour of Silence"Judas, one of the Twelve."—Matthew 26:47.
STRANGE that there should be a Modred among the knights at Arthur's Table Round! But stranger far, and mournfuller, that there should be a Judas among the twelve chosen friends of Jesus! My questioning mind finds inscrutable mysteries here; but my heart may read solemn and practical truth.
It teaches me that a man's gift may be a man's temptation. Judas had the business faculty, the commercial instinct, the capacity for management, as his simpler comrades had not. But his carefulness degenerated into covetousness, till for thirty pieces of silver he sold his Lord. Ah, let me watch lest my very endowments and powers should prove my undoing. Where I fancy myself strongest, the enemy may vanquish me.
It teaches me that a man's external nearness to Christ may be inward distance and alienation. None could be closer than Judas, none more honoured than he; and yet this was the outcome of it all—this black treachery, this consummate sin. I too am reckoned among Christians. I have had my visions and experiences. I have made my promises. I have rendered my service. But what if I have only a name to live, while I am dead?
It teaches me that a man's will may defeat the Lord's will. Jesus did everything for Judas that could be done; but Judas took his own way, and went to his own place. With me, the Saviour has been busy; for my heart and its obedience He yearns; with me He pleads, and pleads, and is loth to depart. But I can resist Him. I can gain a victory—a dreary, suicidal, ruinous victory—over the power and grace of Christ.
I can—but, God helping me, I never will.