I've wondered at times what kind of man this Judas was. What he looked like, how he acted, who his friends were.
I guess I've stereotyped him. I've always pictured him as a wiry, beady-eyed, sly, wormy fellow, pointed beard and all. I've pictured him as estranged from the other apostles. Friendless. Distant. Undoubtedly he was a traitor and a quisling. Probably the result of a broken home. A juvenile delinquent in his youth.
Yet I wonder if that is so true. We have no evidence (save Judas's silence) that would suggest that he was isolated. At the Las Supper, when Jesus said that his betrayer sat at the table, we don't find the apostles immediately turning to Judas as the logical traitor.
No, I think we've got Judas pegged wrong. Perhaps he was just the opposite. Instead of sly and wiry, maybe he was robust and jovial. Rather than quiet and introverted, he could have been outgoing and well meaning. I don't know.
But for all the things we don't know about Judas, there is one thing we know for sure: He had no relationship with the Master. He had seen Jesus, but he did not know him. He had heard Jesus, but he did not understand him. He had a religion but no relationship.
As Satan worked his way around the table in the upper room, he needed a special kind of man to betray our Lord. He needed a man who had seen Jesus but who did not know him. He needed a man who knew the actions of Jesus but had missed out on the mission of Jesus. Judas was this man. He knew the empire but had never known the Man.
We learn this timeless lesson from the betrayer. Satan's best tools of destruction are not from outside of the church; they are within the church. A church will never die from immorality of Hollywood or the corruption in Washington. But it will die from corrosion within--from those who bear the name of Jesus but have never met him and from those who have religion but no relationship.
Judas bore the cloak of religion, but he never knew the heart of Christ. Let's make it our goal to know...deeply.
-Chapter 10 | On the Anvil | Max Lucado | emphasis, mine.
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On the Anvil is divided in to three parts.
The pile of broken tools: outdated, broke, dull, rusty. They sit in the cobwebbed corner, useless to their master, oblivious to their calling
The anvil: melted down, molten hot, moldable, changeable. They lie on the anvil, being shaped by their master, accepting their calling.
Instrument for noble purpose: sharpened, primed, defined, mobile. They lie ready in the blacksmith's tool chest, available to their master, fulfilling their calling.
This chapter is part of the first type of tool--the pile of broken tools. This chapter will show us stories of different people in different situation --some who lost the passion already, some who have been complacent and some who doesn't feel anything at all.
This made me realize a lot of things and stirred up compassion in my heart for those who are on the pile of broken tools. We were once there, I was once there.. . one way or another.
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