IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 736

ON LOVE; PART CCCXXV

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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May the Power of the One True God flow through His group of all true servers;

May the Love of the Christ characterize the lives of all who seek to aid in His work;

May I fulfill my part in the one work through self-forgetfulness, harmlessness and right speech

(Evening Reflection)

Based on the last two posts there should be no question on our thinking regarding the Apostle Judas, that he was chosen and sent to do the work of the Lord, to arrange for him to be ‘handed over’ to the to the religious Jews and the Roman authorities. It IS rather clear from the Master’s own words that this IS so and it should be clear in His words leading up to this last point as well but, because of the way that he is portrayed by others, this is lost in the hate and in the reviling attitude that His brothers have toward him and in the apostles’ own lack of understanding of what was happening around them. This story of Judas does have some strange twists and there is nary a word in his own voice that can serve to clarify what was going on in his own mind and, likely needless to say, there is confusion among them ALL as we see them querying the Master one by one as to the identity of the chosen one and even more, their individual questions as to whether it was them as we read today from Matthew’s Gospel: “And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.  And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I?” (Matthew 26:1-22). This is largely the same as we read in the Apostle Mark’s account yesterday and although these are a bit different that we read in the Apostle John’s words saying “Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom he spake” (John 13:22) the only difference is in their individual wondering if it was them. We should note here the overall mystery of what is happening and the lack of what the Master likely feared; an attitude of anger. Here we should understand as well that perhaps even Judas, in his yet worldly oriented mind, did not realize until the sop that it was him but this is unlikely from our perspective as we see the prior words of the Master directed at Judas as Jesus says “The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen” (John 13:16-18) and this after the Master’s words regarding the symbolic washing of feet and His words that “For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you” (John 13:15). From our perspective Judas IS the ONLY one who KNOWS what must transpire and that he has KNOWN and kept this to himself and this we can see in our understanding of the ideas imparted and directed to him regarding being clean, a word that we understand as Judas IS NOT clean from the perspective of Strong’s definitions of this word which includes the idea of: clear of responsibility, innocent ³. Here we can see again our idea of openness, that the eleven had naught to hide but the one, Judas, did. Now we CAN NOT understand the Truth of these things as we were not there but we should understand that save for a few minor details, our understanding, based upon His words, IS much clearer than the doctrinal view and our most apparent question of our own understanding is regarding the way these things are said; are they for posterity or are they to accommodate Judas in front of them ALL, in his anguish of KNOWING what it is that he must do.

In our text from John’s Gospel we find the question of who it is answered by the John’s calling attention to himself in his own writing as he is one who, “then lying on Jesus’ breast saith unto him, Lord, who is it?“. Aside from this point which shows to us the reality that the apostles are not yet free of their worldly nature, the gospels are more or less in agreement as the question is answered  as either “He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me” (Matthew 26:23) or as we read in the last essay, “He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it” (John 13:26). Since both of these apostles are there in the room, we can see here the way that their differing perspectives have affected their narratives. Regardless of how this transpires we do have Judas accepting the sop or dipping with the Master and ALL then KNOW that it IS him, it IS Judas that IS the chosen one. Here we should pause an look again at the totality of this and then try to understand what has happened and ALL the words that lead to this next part where they ALL KNOW that it IS Judas but that still here, at this point, they DO NOT understand what it means nor what the Master’s words Truly meant. They are reported here in a factual way but yet we are left with the idea from the next verse which tells us that “no man at the table knew for what intent he spake this unto him“. Two thoughts here are important; first that the word that we use to identify Judas acts, betrayal, did not have this same meaning to the apostles and secondly that the Master KNOWS that by His words He has successfully kept ALL but Judas in the dark as we discussed in the last post. Both are likely True to some degree as we have the Master’s words that tell ALL of them that “Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he“, and this just after He tells them “I know whom I have chosen….He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me” (John 13:18-19) and just before He tells them that whosoever He may send to do this should be accepted by the rest as though it were Him. Here is the notion of doing something against the Master that we interpret into the words “lifted up his heel” and, right before the questioning of the Master as to who it might be to do this, we find the more pointed saying as the Master says: “one of you shall betray me” (John 1:21). The Greek word paradidomi which is rendered as betray in most all contexts regarding Judas has many meanings and our verse here is rendered thus by Young’s Literal Translation: “Verily, verily, I say to you, that one of you will deliver me up” which idea is much less forceful perhaps than the idea of being betrayed and perhaps this is how the other apostles perceived the Master’s words. The lexicon also tells us that paradidomi means many things; we read that it can refer to: to give into the hands (of another); to give over into (one’s) power or use, to deliver to one something to keep, use, take care of, manage, to deliver up one to custody, to be judged, condemned, punished, scourged, tormented, put to death, to deliver up treacherously; by betrayal to cause one to be taken; to deliver one to be taught, moulded; to commit, to commend; to deliver verbally,; commands, rites, to deliver by narrating, to report; to permit allow, when the fruit will allow that is when its ripeness permits, gives itself up, presents itself ². This lengthy list should serve to highlight our point that this word perhaps did not mean what we see in history nor perhaps did the metaphor that we see earlier, “lifted up his heel“. Regardless, there IS confusion on which we can only speculate as we continue:

• “And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly.  Now no man at the table knew for what intent he spake this unto him. For some of them thought, because Judas had the bag, that Jesus had said unto him, Buy those things that we have need of against the feast; or, that he should give something to the poor. He then having received the sop went immediately out: and it was night” (John 13:27-30). As we move on here, this first verse is from John and are his thoughts regarding Satan and while we CAN NOT tell what IS in his mind about what exactly Satan IS, we understand this to be the ways of the world and the self-centered nature of man in the world. The notion of giving a personality to the idea of Satan likely dates back into Jewish times but aside from his being a character in the Book of Job there is very little said of him. We do KNOW however that there are many ideas that do not appear in the written Old Testament that the Jews believe in their traditions and their superstitions and we KNOW as well that the fixing of a personality to the idea of God IS equally not existent save the way that He is spoken of; for us, both of these principals are beyond our understanding and certainly ARE NOT persons of any kind that we could Truly identify with. As for the use of this word in the Book of Job, nearly half of the Old testament uses of the word rendered as Satan appear in there and, while we DO NOT and CAN NOT KNOW that Job is a real or fictitious figure, we do KNOW that the setting of his story is away back in those times of superstition and barbarism as he likely lived in or near Abraham’s time. This of course does not matter as in our more modern times where this superstition and need to see things on a human level no longer abound, we have developed better ideas on the nature of this principality as the Apostle Paul refers to this sense of evil. Notice that we did not dismiss the barbarism as this still reigns supreme in the hearts of many. Paul tells us of this evil which he calls also the “wiles of the devil” that: “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:11-12). Speaking of the Christ in another place Paul tells us that these very principalities and powers ARE themselves of God; the apostle says: “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist” and in this we should see similar ideas to the Prologue of John’s Gospel and we should reckon back also to our oft used words on vanity from Paul’s letter to the Romans. We digress here but for the purpose of diffusing John’s personal comment regarding Satan and Judas as this IS but his perspective on what he sees in retrospect as this evil that Judas has done. In the real however we take the next words where the Master tells Judas to move quickly and do that thing that he must do, arrange for the taking of the Master by the representatives of the Jewish High Priest. And so Judas goes and does as he KNOWS that he has to do and he KNOWS as well that in so doing he will be vilified by ALL who are close to Jesus and reviled by ALL who may hear his name. Nonetheless he goes and he does as he must do and here is an interesting part of this story; Judas KNOWS what he must do, the Master KNOWS as well, and in the entirety of this dialogue in which they ask Jesus who it should be, they ALL turn out clueless and unawares of what is happening even to the time where the apostles write their words. Hence our premise that this clever language by the Master was intended to instruct and to encourage Judas while at the same time keeping the eleven in darkness about what was to happen and, again, such darkness that even while John is writing his words about this, he does not see his own reality beyond his hatred, if we can use that word, for the man responsible for the demise of his beloved Master.
• “Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him” (John 13:31-32). In view of what we have said here we should see here in these words as well that from the Master’s perspective this IS what was to happen and that this was a necessary and predicted part of the whole of the Master’s journey with us in the Earth over 2000 years ago. We are left to see that without the work of Judas there would have had to be some other part played by some other person as the end result was the desired end and while this is not a pleasant thought, it is a necessary one and, we should understand that there could be no resurrection and the lesson that this was intended to offer without there first being a death and a public one. In Jesus words above we have the idea of glorify which is another doctrinally obscure word for which there are only emotionally based meanings in English. There is a meaning here in this Greek word that eludes us and the ideas put forth by doctrine are in worship and praise and in honor, a sentiment not seen in the sayings above, and which would NOT make the proper sense. We spend many words on this Greek word doxazo in In the Words of Jesus part 270 where we break this word down from our various sources and here we repeat this small part of our words regarding this type of emotional rendering of feeling toward God with which we do not agree; we premised that this glory is in the ability of one, a disciple or as above, the Master, to cause the dignity and worth of the Father to be seen by others and that this sense may become manifest in them and acknowledged as True. This is based upon the ideas from the lexicon and rereading these comments on the word rendered as glorify can serve to help understand this idea. Nonetheless this is an event in the mind of the Master and worth noting as He did and thus we see again the value again in the work of the Apostle Judas.

This should conclude our thoughts on this for this time and, as we said, we have wanted to discuss this for some time but never had the words to drive us to do so. As we close for today we add in the next words that the Master offers after the whole of this episode is done and while He is yet alone with the eleven. The Master says: “Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you. A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:33-35). First we have the finality of His saying that this IS the end, that based upon the success  of Judas’ work “yet a little while I am with you“. But this IS not our final point here, our point IS in the next verse on Love, a Love that is most likely meant to include Judas and from the perspective that the apostles would and should understand the Truth of what had happened. Ponder on this and we will complete this thought in the next essay and try to get back to our mantram a the top of our essay.

We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.

Note on the Quote of the Day

This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment.

Wakefulness is the way to life. The fool sleeps As if he were already dead, But the master is awake And he lives forever. He watches. He is clear. How happy he is! For he sees that wakefulness is life. How happy he is, Following the path of the awakened. With great perseverance He meditates, seeking Freedom and happiness. So awake, reflect, watch. Work with care and attention. Live in the way And the light will grow in you. By watching and working The master makes for himself an island Which the flood cannot overwhelm. The fool is careless. But the master guards his watching. It is his most precious treasure. He never gives in to desire. He meditates. And in the strength of his resolve He discovers true happiness. He overcomes desire – And from the tower of his wisdom He looks down with dispassion Upon the sorrowing crowd. From the mountain top He looks down at those Who live close to the ground. Mindful among the mindless, Awake while others dream, Swift as the race horse He outstrips the field. By watching Indra became king of the gods. How wonderful it is to watch. How foolish to sleep. The beggar who guards his mind And fears the waywardness of his thoughts Burns through every bond With the fire of his vigilance. The beggar who guards his mind And fears his own confusion Cannot fall. He has found his way to peace. (Dhammapada; on Wakefulness) ⁵.

This selection from the Dhammapada, the sayings of the Buddha, is from the chapter called Wakefulness. The ideas here are simple for the awakened but for the unawakened they can be very difficult. This is much like the sayings of the Christ and His apostles, especially these last ones that we discussed regarding the mysteries. Wakefulness here can be likened to our idea of focus on the Christ Within, the Soul, and the spiritual Life. Sleep is just the opposite and can be likened to focus upon the things of the world. To be awake is to see things as they Truly are and to be asleep is to see things in the illusion and the glamour of the world. Wakefulness makes a man the master of his own Life while sleep makes one the fool. Wakefulness is striving to enter at the strait gate while being asleep is to float aimlessly on the waves of the ways of the world where one may think that he is getting somewhere only to realize in the end that he has gone nowhere, accomplished nothing.

In the above we should see the idea of master as we understand the disciple in our writing, as the awakened one, the man in whom the Light of the Soul is being expressed through form, the disciple and the high aspirant and we should see the idea of the beggar as the seeker, the one who is seeking awakening.

This idea then of being awake can be seen running through the teachings of the Master and of the Buddha although the Master does not use the specific word but rather alludes to it in His teachings calling the asleep those whose “heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed” and the awakened those who “see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart” and this is a point that Jesus makes several times and it is to those who can realize their awakening that these words ARE directed: “blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear“.

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!

• ² New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
• ³ Strongest Strongs Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible – 2001