← The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
Why Did Judas Betray Jesus?
00:09:09
Did Judas think he was actually helping Jesus fulfill His mission by betraying Him? Was Judas pre-destined to become the traitor of the Lord? Fr. Mike Schmitz asks these bold questions and unpacks what Scripture says about the person of Judas Iscariot. By evaluating his motivations and his lack of cooperation with the grace given to him, Fr. Mike details what a tragedy it is that he never became St. Judas.
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There has been this kind of growing trend, certain people trying to kind of rewrite, not rewrite the Gospels, not rewrite the story, but rewrite the motivation of Judas. Maybe Judas betrayed Jesus because he thought he was helping Jesus. I'm going to thrust you out. You're going to reign, you're going to dominate. I didn't realize you were going to let them kill you. Or maybe Judas's motivation was that when Jesus said to Judas, whatever you're about to do, do it quickly. Jesus told him to do this. Maybe this was God's plan the whole time. Jesus wanted Judas to betray him. It's not really betraying. Wait, did Judas think he was doing a good thing? Did Jesus tell Judas to do this thing? Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and this is Ascension Presents. When it comes to ascribing other people, motivation for their actions. When there's a gap between what someone's done and my understanding of what they've done, our inclination is to suspect them, right? To have suspicion. And there's something so powerful, so good about just even having that language to be able to say, I don't understand what you were doing. I'm going to choose to see your actions through the best possible light. I'm going to fill the gap with trust. There's something so helpful, right? There's something so healthy, there's something so just gracious about choosing to do that. Now, obviously, if someone has demonstrated that they can't be trusted, it would be foolish to trust them. At the same time, we don't always know a person's motivation. And so why not? Why not assume the best? All that being said, let's talk about Judas. So all that being said, it's a good thing to assume the best. Let's talk about the person of Judas in the Gospels. Here's what we have to know. The Bible actually tells us Judas betrayed Jesus for money. And if we're going to believe the Bible, if we're going to believe the Gospels, if we're going to believe this, these accounts of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Three of the Gospels say that Judas did this for money. To step back and say, yeah, but maybe it was because, no, the Bible tells us Judas did it for money. To let that sit there, to let that be there. I already made a video on Wicked, the musical Wicked, about how we rewrite some of these characters and say, well, maybe their motivation was this or that, the other thing. But it's called retconning. It's not a Great thing. But this is actually a human being, historical character who actually lived Judas. And the historical record tells us his motivation. We might think, well, maybe that was the bonus, like he. He really wanted. He was. Didn't think he was betraying Jesus, but he just thought he was going to get this money. His motivation was he did it for money. Now here's the next question. Did Jesus want Judas to betray him? I mean, he says, what you're going to do, do quickly. That is not Jesus instructing Judas to betray him. That's Jesus accepting the betrayal. There's a very, very big distinction. We know that St. Paul's letter to Timothy clearly states that God wants to save all human beings. God desires all men to come to knowledge of Christ Jesus and to be saved. In the book of Wisdom, God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living. That God doesn't want anyone to be condemned. God doesn't want anyone to be lost. God never, ever wills that someone sins. So Jesus is not telling Judas to go betray him. He's allowing him to. Why would Jesus do that? Why does he do that with us? He allows us to betray him. Every time we sin, we are betraying Jesus. So was Judas destined to betray Jesus? Did he have to betray Jesus? The answer is no. Why? Because God destines no one for sin, right? God destines no one for death. God destines no one to do evil. Judas had a choice. Now, well, wait. If Judas didn't betray Jesus, what would have happened? I don't know. I don't know. There's this mystery of divine knowledge and God's grace and free will that we don't know how they interact with each other. All we know is that God has divine knowledge, that he does give us his grace, and that we do have free will. And all of that works together somehow to maintain each and every one of those things. We retain our free will. God retains his working of grace and God retains his knowledge, even though one doesn't overwhelm the other. Think about this. Judas didn't have to betray Jesus, But he did. And that's us. We don't have to. We don't have to say no to God. We don't have to sin. We don't have to betray our Lord every time we explicitly and consciously do what he told us not to do. And yet we do reflect on the reality of betrayal. You can't betray a stranger because a stranger hasn't put their trust in you to only a certain degree. Can you betray an acquaintance or a buddy? Because to only a certain degree have they placed their trust in you. You can only truly betray someone who has placed their heart in your hands, who's placed their themselves in your hands. You can only. You can only betray a friend. And here's Jesus was pl. He had placed his heart in Judas's hands. He gave Judas his friendship. That's tragic. That's every sin. Every sin is this tragic betrayal. God has called us his friends. Jesus, remember, he said, I no longer call you servants. I call you friends. He's our brother as well as our Lord and God. I can betray him because he trusts me. The most tragic part of the story is if we say it like this. We know this. We know that both Peter and Judas regretted what they had done. Judas regretted betraying Jesus. Peter regretted denying Jesus. They both went out into the darkness and they both their hearts were both broken. I'm sure they looked at Jesus and realized, oh, my goodness, what have I done? And ran away. Peter came back and now he's What? Now he's St. Peter. After his denial of Jesus in this critical moment of Christ's life, he came back and he let God's mercy win his heart. He let God's mercy not only forgive him, but restore him. Go back to John's Gospel. At the end of John's Gospel, what is. You're on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Peter swims to the shore. There's Jesus. He's making some breakfast with fish. And he asked the question, simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? Yes, Lord. You know I love you. Ask him three times. And what does he do? He says, feed my lambs. Tend my sheep. Feed my lambs. What does he do? He's restoring Peter to that role of chief Shepherd. He is St. Peter. He gets his job as pope back. The tragedy is there's no Saint Judas. Maybe the most tragic reality of the Gospels is there's no Saint Judas. I mean, obviously the death of God is tragic, but he used that death to restore us. The betrayal of Judas is tragic because there's no restoration. There's no restoration. And there could have been. It doesn't really matter what Judas motivation was. He betrayed his friend. He betrayed his God, our Lord. The thing I think all of us can walk away with and learn from is. That could be me. I can betray God. I can betray my friend. I can betray my Lord. And it. I might not come back. I might not let him forgive me. I might not let him save me, I might not let him restore me. When that's all he wants to do. That's all he wants to do. So if you are someone who believes that, you're too far gone. If you're someone who believes that. No, I've done the worst thing. Listen, I. That's betraying Jesus, handing him over for money, the death of God, it's a pretty big thing. Jesus would have forgiven Judas if he had given him a chance. You are not too far gone. The difference between Judas and St Peter isn't that one failed and one didn't fail. It's that one failed and chose to remain lost and the other failed and chose to let Jesus find him. Let Jesus find you. Let him forgive you. Let him restore you and let him make you a saint. Anyways, for all of us here, Ascension presents. My name is Father Mike. God bless.