He Stood With Them

...And Judas, who betrayed Him, also stood with them." -John 18:5

John in his gospel has a strong theme running through his book, and it's a scary one. It's a theme of those who close their eyes to who Jesus is and step off into a dark hole. There are the Jews who see his miracles and hear his claims, and then crucify an innocent man as a blasphemer. There are the Pharisees who knew the OT Scriptures and saw them fulfilled before their eyes to the most minuscule detail of every prophesy, and carried out a plot to kill the Son of God.

Worst of all, there's Judas, who walked with Jesus and heard his heart piercing teachings on the dangers of loving money more than Him. Judas also saw him have compassion on the worst of sinners. Somewhere in the middle of all that Judas' heart became love-proof, warning-proof, and repentance-proof. He had a hard heart of unbelief. If there was any doubt to Judas whether what he was doing was spiritual suicide or not it should have all cleared up for him when Jesus said, "...woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born." If Judas ever doubted that Jesus was talking about him when he kept talking about the one who would betray him, Jesus confronted him here so as to leave no doubt.

When Judas left Jesus it was for the final time. John says, "...(Judas) then went out immediately. And it was night." Judas closed his eyes in hardened unbelief to Jesus' appeal of warning, and it wasn't just dark outside, but it was forever dark in Judas' soul. One interesting thing is that Jesus let him go. Sometimes we look at this and say "Why didn't Jesus run after him, doesn't he care?!" We have to trust that only God knows when it's time to turn an unrepentant sinner over to their sin. Sadly the next time we see Judas, John says that he stood with the Pharisees. This wasn't just a description of the proximity of Judas to the crowd. The Pharisees wanted Jesus dead and out of the way. So there they stood...with the treacherous Judas standing with them. This wasn't a momentary lapse for Judas and this wasn't something he fell into. This is something he thought out and deliberately stepped into. He sided with the murderers of Jesus...for a hand full of change.