NO81 Judas Iskandar.
(Whoever falls on this stone will be broken.)
This painting is based on my story from the Holy Spirit.
Now, after Jesus had left Judas Iscariot in charge of the accounts, a rumor came to His ears that he was wasting money.
So, Jesus called him out and said to him, "I have heard this about you. If this is true, then you must give Me a written report of your finances. For I can no longer leave you in charge."
Judas said in his heart. The teacher is taking this job away from me, but what will I do now? I am ashamed to return to my old job, and I don't have the strength to dig in the dirt.
Ok, I got it. I'll do it this way, they will speak up for me."
So, he asked Thomas, "How much do you owe the teacher? Thomas answered, "Five denarii. “Then Judas said, " Here, five denarii. Give this back to the teacher.
“Then he asked Philip the same thing. He replied, "Three denarii.” So, Judas asked other disciples how much they owed Him and paid them all.
A few days later, Jesus gathered His disciples together saying, "There is one among you who is wasting everyone's money. What shall I do with him?"
When they all looked at each other in amazement, Judas threw himself down before Jesus and said, "Teacher, it is I. Please punish this sinful man."
Then Thomas stepped forward to Jesus and said, "Teacher, we are all here before the Lord. If you punish him, I will be punished too."
And Philip, hearing this, also said, "Teacher, I am guilty of the same thing. Don't punish him alone. He is my friend. “
And the disciples began to say so one after another. Jesus saw this and said to Judas, " You have done a good thing and gained a good friend with everyone's money.
But to remain with Me, you must make amends for the missing money. How much is missing?"
Judas answered. “Thirty pieces of silver," Jesus answered and said, “It will be paid for things about Me. Someone will appear to you who will teach it to you."
Neither the disciples nor Judas understood what Jesus was saying.
But Judas said in his heart. 'Oh, my God! The Teacher should have punished me. I bought their friendship with His money.　Besides, what if I lose His love? Moreover, I need money to stay with them."
Then he sighed deeply and said, " Who shall teach me to make money?"　
Here is a little explanation about Judas: He belonged to what is called the Synagogue of the Freedmen and was Cyrenian and was called by Jesus because he could speak Greek.
It was His mother Mary who encouraged Him to call him. For Mary's family had dealings with Gentiles who were migrant workers to Sepphoris next to Nazareth.
Iscariot's name comes from his real name Alexander, and the name Judah is a usual name in his job in the Jewish community.
Moreover, he was in the habit of talking big and saying that he would spread the teachings of Jesus to the whole world in Greek, so everyone made fun of him saying, "Are you Alexander the Great?”
The Arabic reading of Alexander the Great, Iskandar, was only accented into Hebrew and he was called Judas Iscariot.
He was smart enough to be appointed treasurer, but he was a petty and jealous man who did not resemble the Great King one bit. And he did not get along well with John.
　 But Jesus appreciated his Greek language skills and his earnestness. He did not have the same leadership skills as Peter, but he could negotiate with others satisfactorily, which came in handy when traveling.
Through his work, he approached Mary, a widow, and was soon attracted to her. And when Jesus began evangelizing, he naturally followed Him. As he followed Jesus, he was soon captivated by His graceful manner.
Judas had a habit of unconditionally loving beautiful things like a libertine, and he was also a spendthrift who bought beautiful things.
Whenever he found a beautiful ornament, he would buy it and present it to Mary. Mary was simply delighted. Jesus turned a blind eye to it.
It was because He felt that He was making amends for the fact that Mary had become pregnant with Him, which had prevented her from having a joyful engagement period with Joseph.
And so, although Judas was the only one of the twelve disciples who was not a disciple of Jesus' choosing, it was also out of a sense of filial piety toward Mary that Jesus gave Judas the position of treasurer, second only to Peter.
From his gestures in daily life, He knew very well how much he loved Mary and Jesus. However, an incident sparked Judah's jealousy, which ignited his love for Mary.　
It happened on Jesus' way up from Jericho to Jerusalem. James and John's mother kneeling before Jesus and asking something from Him.
And Jesus asked her, "What do you wish?” She said, "Grant that those two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right and one on Your left, in Your Kingdom.”
Jesus rebuked them. But when the disciples heard about it, they became angry with the two of them.
The disciples were all expecting that Jesus would finally ascend to Jerusalem and fulfill His role as king, and they were eager to get the best position when He did so.
And there was another reason why Judas was angry. It was because the brothers John and James had used their mother in their offer, and he had heard rumors that one of them would take Mary Magdalene as his wife.
The innocent Judah could not take it. Naturally, he was jealous of these brothers.　When he wanted to speak his mind to someone, the only woman he could think of was Mary, the mother of Jesus.
So, when Jesus left Simon's house in Bethany, he followed Jesus into Mary's house in Jerusalem to watch Him enter.
When Jesus came out, he intended to go right into the house and tell Mary what was on his mind, but Jesus didn't come out anytime soon. Judas gave up, returned to the inn where everyone was and went to sleep.
Then, in a dream, the naked body of Mary, sister of Martha, who was anointing Jesus' feet with perfume in Simon's house, appeared. Satan was beside her and said to him.
'You want to be alone with Mary, the mother of Jesus, don't you? I will grant you that wish.　Tonight, Jesus is staying with Mary. She knows that woes to Jesus.
I heard her tell Him that she was ready for that. Everything follows my procedure, but I will give you one share.
When morning has come, go to the chief priests and ask them, ‘What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you? ‘
　They will give you the money you need. So, you put it in your purse. After that, Jesus will have the Passover meal upstairs in a certain house, and you must be there.
Don't worry, I will be inside you then. He will get caught eventually, and all you have to do is help them finish the job early. He knows everything.
They will only seize Jesus and lock Him up in prison for the duration of the feast. Pilate does not want to get into trouble with the Jews, so he will let Him go as soon as the festival is over.
Why don't you use the money to comfort Mary, who worries about Him while Jesus is away, as much as you want? Isn't that why you have been following Him all this time?"
Judas nodded broadly in his dream. Then he murmured in his mind. “God, if iniquity exists in me, wake me before the rooster crow because I want to pray to You."
He heard the rooster crowing at dawn, but he could not get up, for Satan was upon him. When he finally rose in the morning light, Satan was gone. He went to the chief priests as he was told without a prayer.
　 What followed is exactly what the Bible says, and while Jesus' death on the cross brought us salvation, it also left us with several questions.
One of them is, did God abandon Judas? Jesus himself answered, "And anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him.” (Luke Chapter 12 Verse 10)
However, Judas, repenting when he learned that Jesus had been arrested and condemned, returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders and said, " I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.”
And they said, "What is that to us? You see to it." Then, he threw down the pieces of silver into the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself. (Matthew Chapter27 Verse3-5)
The chief priests then consulted with each other and used the money to buy the potter's field and bury him, and when they found out that he was a Cyrenian, they made it a cemetery for strangers and Gentiles.
Even today, we say in English that Potter's Field means an unmarked cemetery. And Matthew leaves out an important detail about Judas' motive for committing suicide.
Judas' reference to the blood of an innocent one was the blood of Mary, the mother of Jesus who gave birth to Him. No wonder the chief priests, who did not know this, had no idea what he meant and said, "What is that to us?"
For Judas, there was no longer any face to see Mary, the thirty pieces of silver were no longer needed, and he had lost everything.
As a result, although he took his own life before Jesus' forgiveness, God's plan left a surprising path to salvation for him.
Mark Chapter 15 verse 20 says "And led Him out to crucify Him. Verse 21, then they compelled a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian, the father of Alexander and Rufus, as he was coming out of the country and passing by, to bear His cross.”
God, to my surprise, had Judas' father, Simon, who had come from his hometown, carry the cross of Jesus instead of Judas, who should have carried it.
It clearly says here, Simon the father of Alexander, Judas’s real name. Moreover, John said that Judas Iscariot is the son of Simon two times in his Gospel. ( Chapter 6 Verse 71. Chapter 13 Verse 26) What an ironic ending!
　If Judas had thrown himself before Him, asking Jesus' forgiveness, he would have been given this task.
Jesus says that he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. (Matthew Chapter 10:38)
Therefore, Judas was the one who deserved to bear the cross in Jesus' place, and had he done so, he would not have left his name as a synonym for " betrayal " in the eyes of future generations.
Not only could he have been more than Peter, synonymous with a man who had recovered, and a leader of the apostles who followed, but he could have used his fluent Greek to do more than Paul, to whom he was subsequently called. However, the dream of a small-minded man who was ridiculed as Judas Alexander the Great (Iskandar) did not boldly repent before God, but ended his life with a short-sighted solution: suicide.
John, who had witnessed his life, wrote. For we do not have a High Priest (Jesus) who cannot sympathize with our weakness but be in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews Chapter4 Verse15〜16)
Finally, I would like to explain why Jesus declared Judas a betrayer.
Jesus came to the world to die on the cross for the salvation of mankind, as is written in all the Gospels.
Therefore, it would not have mattered if the cause of His death was the betrayal of His disciple or the people's ignorance.
He clearly states that Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven him. Why, then, did He dare to stigmatize Judas as a betrayer at the Last Supper?
If you have read this far, you have probably noticed that Jesus accuses Judas of betrayal because of having a side love for His mother Mary.
Jesus was very protective of His mother Mary, who accepted the Holy Spirit and gave birth to Him as a human being in the flesh on this earth.
Especially after the passing away of His adoptive father Joseph, Jesus added to His role not only as a son but also as a protective husband to her.
Jesus is protected by angels as the Son of God, but Mary is not. And human beings have carnal desires, which are necessary for survival.
And for Jesus, who had seen the various events caused by this lust, the young Judas who approached the widow Mary must have become a source of concern day by day.
Like this painting, I have often recalled the image of Jesus watching with mixed feelings as Judas tried to attract Mary's attention with gifts.
Jesus Himself was able to fend off Mary Magdalene and Martha of Bethany and the sisters of Mary's infatuation with Him with His strong will. Still He was powerless against Judas who was coming closer to His mother Mary.
He had to rely on Judas' self-control to make everything happen.
Jesus Himself testified at the Last Supper, quoting Psalm 41:9 “He whom I trusted, who did eat My bread, has lifted his heel against Me.”
I see how they once sat around the table in harmony. Also, in verse 8,
“An evil disease, say they, claves fast unto him: And now that he lies, he shall rise no more”
This describes the condition of Judas the night before the Last Supper.
And just as the prophecy said, Judas tempted by the lust of the flesh, gave himself up to Satan and participated in the transaction that separated Him from Mary.
I am convinced that Jesus' rebuke of Judas with strong indignation manifested His love for Mary as her Son and that His subsequent prayer and suffering in Gethsemane was a prayer of farewell to Mary.
Jesus, as the Bible tells us, always walked His public life retaining the characteristics of both the Son of Man and the Son of God.
It seems to me, however, that at the Last Supper, He expressed more clearly His position as the Son of Man, the Son of Mary.
It seems to me that the word "betrayal" was the word that the Almighty God spat out to Judas in the last moments of His life as the only sinful Son of Man, as the Son of Mary, in a fit of uncontrollable emotions.
I do not know if Jesus had a gentleman's agreement with Judas about his relationship with Mary. But there is no doubt that He was Mary's son at the Last Supper.
Jesus had to die as a human being, as the forerunner of the gift to us, eternal life.
Therefore, He was numbered with the transgressors because He dared to curse Judas, contrary to God's teaching, fulfilling the words of the Bible. (Luke chapter 22 verse 37 and chapter 23 verse 43. Matthew chapter 5 verse 22.)
And His own last words on the cross, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?” that He denied being the Son of God, and saying, "Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit, “that He returned triumphantly to heaven as a human being.
And as John, who later took Mary in, wrote, Jesus loved such a human being. For God had prepared a way of restoration even for Judas, the betrayer.
Christianity strongly denies the act of suicide because it believes in God's teaching that all things work together for good.
Later, when Mary learned that Judas had committed suicide and was buried, she went to his tomb.
She then buried all the objects given by Judas beside the tomb. Among them was a collar of red agate, which looked like blood, so she called this place ” Field of Blood.”
Then, remembering Jesus' words, she asked Peter to tell everyone that Judas did not die by suicide, but by falling headlong into this field and being broken to death.
This was because she thought that suicide was contrary to the Word of God. So from then on, this place was called Akeldama, (Field of Blood) in their language.
The Holy Spirit also led me to testify to this so that Christians would not unjustly persecute the Jews of the world any longer because they would think that Judas was a Jew. Amen.



December 2023　 Oil 910mm×1167mm
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