The Suicide (Judas was condemned because of his unbelief) - Lent Mid-week 3 - March 23, 2011 - Text: Matthew 27:3-10

It was believed and taught for many years that if a person committed suicide they would go to hell. As the saying goes, “Go directly to hell, do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars.” As a matter of fact, if a person did commit suicide they were not even allowed to be buried in the church cemetery, which is why from time to time you see graves outside the cemetery fence. The reasoning and logic behind this belief was that if you committed suicide you did not have enough time to repent before you died, and if you did not repent before you died, then you were eternally condemned. The fallacy and the problem with this thinking and logic is that if you take the logic to its final conclusion then can expect to be saved because, again, following the logic, since none of us knows when we will die, none of us knows when to repent just before we die and so we would all be eternally condemned. So, thinking suicide through from a logic point of reasoning, it is not the actually killing of oneself that would condemn someone to eternal spiritual death, rather it is unbelief that condemns, which is always the case. It is always unbelief that condemns. Remember, the only unforgivable sin is dying in unbelief. But, let us get to our topic for this evening, namely, Judas.

Now please understand that I am not trying to defend Judas’ and what he did, but I am simply attempting to help us to understand, perhaps why he did what he did. There are some who believe that Judas believed Jesus was a social/political Savior. They believe that Judas believed Jesus was the Savior, but not a spiritual savior, rather that he believe that Jesus was the one who would overthrow the Roman government and bring the Jews back into power. In his defense, if this was the case, he was not the only one who held this social/political point of view, at least he was not the only one who was looking for a social/political savior. God’s promise to send a Savior was about 4000 years old and it had been some 500 years since the nation of Israel had actually heard from God, or at least had had a prophet among them. So, by this point in history, many of the Jews had given up belief in a spiritual Savior and perhaps that was not even being taught, instead they were looking for a political savior.

Along these lines, then, some people believe that the reason Judas set Jesus up and betrayed Him into the hands of the Sanhedrin was in an attempt to “force” Jesus into action. The argument is that Judas believed that if the right events were to transpire then Jesus would have to act. He would have to begin the revolt and reformation promised, to save the nation of Israel.

But, what did actually happen? Judas was called by Jesus to be one of the twelve. Judas was called by Jesus and set apart as an apostle. He was with Jesus for three years, watching, listening, working with, eating with Jesus and certainly you would have thought that he knew Jesus pretty well. Actually he knew Jesus well enough to know where He would be and when He would be anyplace, especially on Maundy Thursday, in the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives. So, Judas went to those who were seeking Jesus and for a price, which they both agreed on, thirty pieces of silver, Judas agreed to point Jesus out with the sign of the kiss of a friend. Although some would argue that the money was important to Judas, even suggesting that he was a thief who stole from the group treasury, I would argue, perhaps not, as we will see when he returns the money.

As the account continues, as usual, this was something that Jesus and His disciple were in the habit of doing, Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane, to the Mount of Olives to pray. After praying, as we heard last week, Jesus was strengthened and prepared for the events which He knew were about to take place and He was ready and went out to meet Judas and the gang of temple guards who came out with him to arrest Him. And so, as the events played out Jesus was there with His disciples, who fled the scene, and He was arrested.

Jesus was taken and put on trial, actually He was tried several times and most of the proceedings were done illegally, at night. There were laws against having such night trials. There were laws against condemning someone with only one witness. There were laws which the Sanhedrin broke and broke and broke in order to get the conviction they were seeking. Yet, during all these precedings, legal and illegal, one of the most amazing things that stands out is that Jesus did not defend Himself. Certainly Judas did not understand why Jesus was not defending Himself and even more, why He was not calling for a political revolution. After all the trials, and on trumped up charges, and false witnesses, Jesus was sentenced to die.

Today we often hear about what is called the unintended consequences of certain actions. What was the fall out, what were the unintended consequences of these events, of Jesus’ arrest, trial and conviction? For Judas, he had remorse. He was sorry for what he did, that he betrayed Jesus for money, perhaps showing that it was not the money that motivated his actions. He even repented, at least he repented of his miscalculation, his misdeeds, his betrayal of Jesus to the chief priests and elders.

As for the chief priests and elders, they were not concerned about Judas, nor about his repentance and so they gave him no absolution. So much for their being the spiritual leaders of the community. Their only concern was getting rid of Jesus. As for the betrayal money, the blood money, the money paid to Judas, in his despair he threw into the temple in a sign of repentance. As for the Sanhedrin, they simply, judiciously decided that it could not be used in the temple, since it was blood money, so it was decided to use it to buy a burial plot for outsiders. And as we are told, this was done to fulfill one of the prophecies concerning the Messiah.

So, Judas was remorseful, and repented, but not receiving any forgiveness, he was left in despair. The reason Judas was in despair was because he received no absolution and he did not believe he could be forgiven. So, what actually condemned Judas was not his taking his own life, not his suicide, but what condemned Judas was his refusal of forgiveness, his unbelief.

What does this mean? What do we take from these Words of Scripture? We all have expectations. We have certain expectations of ourselves, of family members, of co-workers, of others and we even have certain expectations of God. Unfortunately, very often we have wrong expectations especially of God as we continually misread and misunderstand His Word which causes us all kinds of consternation. At times we may even feel a little like Judas must have felt, unloved and unforgiven.

We have expectations of God and God has expectations of us. Unfortunately, more often than not, we fail. We fail by doing the things we should not be doing. We fail by not doing the good things we should be doing. We fail and we sin.

Thanks be to God that we know our sin and we confess our sins. We repent and thanks be to God, unlike Judas, who did not hear words of absolution and fell into despair, we do hear words of absolutions. Each week we confess our sins, in thought, word and deed, and we hear the most beautiful words ever, that our sins are forgiven.

The difference between us and Judas is that we are given absolution and we know and believe we are absolved, forgiven, by God for Jesus’ sake.

None of us knows when we will die. None of us has an expiration date on our birth certificate. Thus, it is important, it is imperative that we are always ready for our last day, our last hour either when we pass on, or when the Lord returns, which ever is first. And we are ready and our Lord makes us and keeps us ready through His Word and Sacraments and especially through the forgiveness of sins. To God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.