Keys to the Kingdom By Carolyn Tucker

Bad Baby Names

Choosing your child’s name is one of the most-important responsibilities of parents. Children are stuck with their name (unless it’s legally changed) for the rest of their lives. Several years ago, the old-fashioned names were brought back, which was refreshing for something old to become new. All my aunts are now deceased, but here are their first names: Letha, Mildred, Pearl, Floy, Elva, Christine, Ruth, Velda, Delta, Theresa, Ila, and Pauline. I would probably cause parents to have great anxiety if their son married a woman named “Jezebel,” or if their daughter married a man whose name was “Judas Iscariot.”

Judas Iscariot was the greatest pretender. He appeared to be right on the outside (one of Jesus’ chosen twelve disciples) but he became full of darkness and evil on the inside. The other eleven disciples rubbed shoulders with him on a daily basis and didn’t know who he really was. Judas went his own risky way rather than following Jesus. He didn’t allow the light and love of Jesus to penetrate his grasping, greedy heart. He fooled everyone —  except Jesus. The all-knowing Savior was not deceived when He spoke to His followers, “’But some of you do not believe Me.’ (For Jesus knew from the beginning which ones didn’t believe, and He knew who would betray Him.)” (John 6:64 NLT).

Judas had a toxic love affair with money. It’s interesting to note that he was appointed treasurer for the disciples. He pretended to care about the poor, but he was actually covetous of the money spent on the expensive perfume used to anoint Jesus’ feet. Judas said, “’That perfume was worth a year’s wages. It should have been sold and the money given to the poor.’ Not that he cared for the poor — he was a thief, and since he was in charge of the disciples’ money, he often stole some for himself” (John 12:4-6 NLT). Apparently, Judas would do anything for money because he became the archtraitor against God’s one and only Son. There’s nothing wrong with having plenty of money, but if the love of money takes precedence over loving God, we’ve got a big priority problem.

Jesus genuinely loved Judas even though He knew what Judas was going to do. Theologians agree that Judas must have been on the left side of Jesus at the table of The Last Supper. The position on the left of the host was the place of highest honor and reserved for the most-intimate friend. How amazing that, if Judas did occupy the seat of honor, it would have been at Jesus’ invitation to do so. Jesus extended His unfailing love, mercy, and grace to Judas right up to the very last minute. Scripture states that, “When Judas had eaten the bread, Satan entered into him” (John 13:27 NLT). Regrettably, Judas had yielded to the evil thoughts in his soul and opened the door to the devil. And Satan hit the doorway with destroying power like an EF5 tornado.

Judas pretended to love Jesus. In the Garden of Gethsemane, he approached the Son of God and betrayed him with a kiss from hell. Jesus then said to him, “Friend, why have you come?” (Matthew 26:50 NKJV). The reason Judas was able to do these appalling things was because he only knew about Jesus, he never really knew Jesus. I wonder if he would have dropped out of the discipleship classes if he’d not been the treasurer. He later regretted his act of betrayal, however, he did not repent. Sadly, Judas Iscariot didn’t know Jesus well enough to understand that he could ask to be forgiven and receive it.

The Key: No matter what bad things you’ve done, you can be forgiven. Just ask Jesus.