Judas Iscariot
Image taken from about.com
Judas Iscariot has been one of the most talked about and controversial figures in human history. His crime against Jesus forever made him a symbol of hatred and evil. But what was it that provoked Judas to commit one of the most infamous betrayals of all time. Why did Judas want to hand Jesus over to be killed? And what outcome did he expect to happen?
Judas was a follower of Jesus of Nazareth throughout his preaching years. In the bible, it seems Judas was always the disciple in the background. He never really did much and was not liked by the other disciples. It was well-known that Judas was a revolutionary with a great hatred towards the Roman occupiers. Judas may have been drawn to Jesus because of the anti-establishment messages that Jesus spoke. Judas had always wanted to ultimately use Jesus as a pawn to overthrow the Romans. His ultimate plan was to have the people of Israel rally behind Jesus and take revenge upon the Romans. When Judas realized this was not Jesus’ intention, he felt the only way to set his plan in motion was to put Jesus’ life at stake.
The idea was that when Jesus was faced with torture and with certain death, he would have no choice but to use his God-given powers as a tool for revenge. So Judas handed Jesus over to the High Priests of Jerusalem with the hope that Jesus would do what Judas wanted him to. This did not happen. Jesus took all of the accusations and torture and did nothing to save his own life. Judas now felt he had betrayed an innocent man and killed him for no reason. Full of despair, Judas hanged himself from a tree outside Jerusalem. He would go down in history as one of the most wicked men of his time.
