Another fear came into their minds as Jesus said, "One of you shall betray me", a very personal reaction," Lord, is it I?. Why is the life of Judas included in our study of this passion week of our Lord? because the betrayer of Jesus cannot be removed. We would prefer to sponge him from the record, but his traitorous act is inscribed in the minds of men, on the pages of history and in the life of our Lord. The potential of betrayal was in the life of every man within that room - not only in Jesus - as they say "Lord, is it I"? There was a consciousness of sinful weakness in every heart. What man is there who knows fully the potential of his own heart? "There are same sins which we have a mind to, and some sins that we are not inclined to". But that is for today only, and who can speak of tomorrow? Who can foresee the degeneration of a soul? Judas had no campass in his heart, he literally disintegrated in the testing time of his life. Judas is an example of a life that wound up on the rubbish heap. In the self-examination of the disciples in the upper room we are reminded of the potential in each of us. Just before the supper they had been talking about which one would be greatest in Christ's Kingdom. After Jesus had washed their feet, they had learned a lesson. Therefore they didn't ask, "Lord is it going to be Andrew, or Juda, they said, Lord, is it going to be "I". There was a deep heart-searching on the part of each one of them, prophet Jeremiah had written, "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it? (17:9) The name of Judas is itself a contradiction; was he criminal or was he Christian? The name "Judas", as far as the dictionary is concerned, means, "Thanksgiving, praise unto God", when Juda was born there was rejoicing as in the countless other houses when a son is born and his parents gave him the name which meant "thanks be to God'. When one speaks of Judas today, his name brings to mind the word "betrayal". There is written upon our memories an unholy kiss.

Sometimes, there are traitors even in a family circle. Traitors have been known throughout history- and they are not all dead yet - but Judas is considered the prince of traitors. Jesus knew it when He chose Judas. Judas did not know that he was the son of Perdition. What he did, he did willfully. Judas was once better than a betrayer. He was a chosen man with some abilities the other disciples could see, for they asked him to be the treasurer, the administrator of the group, Jesus gave him every confidence, hoping that he could bring out the best within Judas. Many people respond to confidence, many respond to friendship. Every effort was made by Jesus on behalf of Juda that he might have an opportunity to know Jesus as the son of God. Judas failed to see Jesus as the son of God, some have said that Judas betrayed Jesus for money; That is possible, for we know there was covetousness in his life. There were some other motives, one might have been jealousy. Jealousy has a strange way of twisting the truth to mean something different. The motive of Judas, I think, was simply this, he joined the disciples in order that he might be a follower of one he hoped would be the earthly messiah, when Jesus had the opportunity to become an earthly ruler and refused it, Judas turned away from Him in disillusionment we can see the disintegration of Judas beginning then, he soured and turned on the leader for whom he felt he had wasted his life.