I’ve often wondered: what kind of man was Judas? Who were his friends? I’ve pictured him as estranged from the other apostles. Friendless. Distant. Yet I wonder if that’s true. Perhaps he was just the opposite. Maybe he was robust and jovial. There’s one thing we know for sure: He had no relationship with the Master. He had seen Jesus, but he did not know him. He had a religion but no relationship. As Satan worked his way around the table in the Upper Room, he needed a man who’d seen Jesus but who did not know him.
We learn this timeless lesson from the betrayer. Satan’s best tools of destruction are not from outside the church; they are from within the church. Judas bore the cloak of religion, but he never knew the heart of Christ. Let’s make it our goal to know him…deeply!