Judas
The short answer
Judas Iscariot was one of the twelve disciples Jesus chose, the group's treasurer, and the man who handed Jesus over to the authorities. That last fact tends to swallow everything else. Say the name Judas and most people picture a villain—cold-eyed, greedy, doomed from the start. But the Gospels paint a stranger and more unsettling picture: a genuine companion of Jesus, present for the miracles and the teaching, trusted enough to carry the money, seated at the final meal with everyone else.
John's account of the Last Supper makes this closeness almost unbearable. When Jesus announces that "one of you will betray me," the disciples do not all turn and stare at Judas. They have no idea who it could be. Jesus is able to speak with Judas quietly, hand him the dipped bread, and send him out with the words "What you do, do quickly"—and still the others assume Judas is off running an errand. Whatever was happening in Judas, it was invisible to the people who lived alongside him.
William Barclay presses on that detail of the private conversation and draws a striking conclusion about where Judas must have been sitting: at Jesus' left, the seat reserved for the most honored and intimate friend. If that reconstruction is right, the meal itself was a final appeal—Jesus reaching for Judas even at the last hour.
Just as striking is what the Gospel of John does not say. Gerard Sloyan points out that the Evangelist discredits Judas by calling him a thief, yet never names greed as his motive for the betrayal, and leaves out the famous kiss in the garden entirely. We want a reason. Scripture, at least in John, declines to give us one. Judas remains a friend of Jesus whose inner life is left in shadow—which may be exactly the point.
What scholars say
These two excerpts approach Judas from opposite directions: Barclay reconstructs the seating at the Last Supper and concludes that Judas occupied the place of highest honor at Jesus' left, making the invitation itself an appeal, while Sloyan observes that John's Gospel resists our hunger for motive—branding Judas a thief without naming avarice as the reason for the betrayal, and omitting the kiss altogether.
“But it is the place of Judas that is of special interest. It is quite clear that Jesus could speak to him privately without the others overhearing. If that is so, there is only one place Judas could have been occupying. He must have been on Jesus’ left, so that, just as John’s head was in Jesus’ breast, Jesus’ head was in Judas’. The revealing thing is that the place on the left of the host was the place of highest honour, kept for the most intimate friend. When that meal began, Jesus must have said to Judas: ‘Judas, come and sit beside me tonight; I want specially to talk to you.’ The very inviting of Judas to that seat was an appeal.”
“The figure of Judas is immensely attractive in popular preaching. He is the favored one who turns on his friend, the table companion who acts against one whose only deeds were love. How to account for it? In a culture like ours, where human motivations are of paramount importance, this question can make even the world’s salvation look insignificant. The latter is cosmic and therefore daunting, but the microcosm of the human heart is the stuff of drama. The Evangelist, it should be noted, does not linger on the betrayal. He discredits the traitor by calling him a thief (12:6) without naming avarice as Judas’ motive for handing Jesus over. In the apprehension of Jesus in the garden, John omits the kiss of Judas as the identifying sign.”
What it means for you
It is comforting to make Judas a monster, because monsters are nothing like us. The Gospels refuse that comfort. Judas was close to Jesus—close enough that no one at the table suspected him. His story asks us to look honestly at our own capacity to be near what is good and still turn from it, often for reasons we could not fully name ourselves.
It also shows us something about how Jesus treats those who fail him. If Barclay is right that Judas sat in the seat of honor, then even the betrayer was met with an appeal, not a public shaming. That is worth sitting with the next time we are tempted to write someone off—including ourselves.
In context
Judas appears throughout the Gospels, but John 13 is where his story turns. Jesus washes the disciples' feet, then announces during supper that one of them will betray him. He identifies the betrayer only by a quiet gesture—handing Judas a piece of dipped bread—and tells him to act quickly. The others misunderstand completely, assuming Judas has been sent on business, since he kept the money box. Earlier, in John 12:6, the Evangelist has already noted that Judas was a thief who stole from that box. Judas leaves the meal, and the narrator adds simply: it was night.