Judas Iscariot Was A Hero

By Hafeez Onitilo

Please take not that my intention is not to cause any religion hubbub but just to point out some fact about something I think might sound interesting to you so please read this with an open mind.

I was providential to be the co-mc at a Christian gathering that was organised for kids and teenagers in Lagos and to be honest the program was great and inspiring, the kids were just lovely. Excluding the fact that I was able to show my skills as an MC, I was also able to learn a lot things from the program and I must say I was really delighted to have attended the program but let leave that aside, I am not here to talk about myself.

One of the speakers at the event spoke about the crucifixion of Jesus and there was something she said that caught my attention which got me thinking. She spoke about how Judas betrayed Jesus and how Peter denied Jesus but what really caught my concentration was how she spoke and described Judas. We know the story of how Judas betrayed Jesus so when the speaker was painting Judas as a bad person to the kids I understood where she was coming from. We all know how bad it is to betray someone especially someone that has so much love for you, it is a very bad thing to do which made Judas' betrayal a very bad act which immediately made Judas a bad person not just among the apostles but also among the followers of Jesus across the globe.

The difficulty I had after the event was that I couldn’t stop thinking about what Judas did to Jesus and it was then it hit me as I began to ask myself some questions. It is a general believe among Christians that Jesus came to the world to die for sins of mankind and if we should interpret this, it means that Jesus life plan or life mission was to come and purify the sins of mankind by dying which he eventually did. Now my first question goes thus 'what if Judas did not betray Jesus would he still have died for the sins of mankind?' I am sure we would say yes because we believe that his mission was to come and cleanse the world from the sins of mankind but what if Judas had not betrayed him can any of you illuminate me on what would have happened? 

It was said that Jesus knew that Judas was going to betray him and if that is true that means God must have told Jesus that it would be Judas that would lead him to his death. Now if we believe that Jesus knew Judas was going to betray him and it was that act that would lead him to the cross where he would be crucified then I guess it is safe to say that Judas only played the part he had to play in Jesus' life . Let look at the present day scenario, there is this believe that God will not come down to help you achieve your mission in life instead he would use someone to be the architect of whatever you have set out to be. If that is the case, don’t you think it is only logical for us to see Judas as the architecture of Jesus life mission which was to die for the sins of mankind?

I think it is unfair when we go around insulting Judas and calling him all sort of names simply because he betrayed Jesus forgetting the fact that if Judas had not betrayed Jesus, Jesus won’t be crucified and the cross won’t have become a spiritual symbol and without Judas betrayer there won’t be any cross of cavalry. I think Judas should be seen as the person that helped Jesus to achieve his life mission which was to die on the cross of cavalry so that the sins of man could be cleansed. I think Judas should also be respected for having the courage to be the architecture of Jesus life mission something other disciple couldn’t do.

Like I said in the beginning my intention is not to cause any religion uproar so you can easily disregard what I just said if you don’t believe that Jesus' life mission was to come and die for the sins of mankind but if you do believe that that was his mission then put aside your religious feelings and think about what I just said in a logical way and see if you would come to the same conclusion with me.