Making allowances for a traitor

It has become fashionable to make excuses for Judas, the man who betrayed Jesus. Good Christians think they are not to pass judgment on other people’s actions or opinions. Compassionate people try to understand and make allowance for someone who betrays a friend.
There are theories about why Judas did it. The most likely one is that Judas expected Jesus to lead an uprising against the occupying Roman forces, because Jesus was not acting quickly enough Judas tried to hurry things by a confrontation that would compel Jesus to start a revolution. Yes it probably was just like that.
So he made a mistake! Was it so serious? Don't we all make mistakes? Judas was just trying to do what he thought best.
After all Jesus intended to make himself an offering to God, and was ready to die, so was it so serious that Judas would be the man who started the whole thing in motion? Would Jesus blame him for taking matters into his own hands? There was money involved and perhaps Judas had been deprived in his youth. Jesus would make allowances for him.
It comes as a shock to hear what Jesus said, "One of the people eating at this table with me is going to betray me, and it would have better for that man if he had not been born." How terrible. How did Judas react? He immediately asked Jesus if he knew who it was who was going to betray him. Jesus made it clear that he did, and then said, 'Go and do what you have to do." The other bit, the bit about it being better not to have been born, didn't seem to have registered on Judas. I suppose he was still thinking that he could explain it all when it was over and that Jesus would make allowances. Jesus understands doesn't he?
Judas probably reasoned that if Jesus didn’t want him to do it Jesus would have stopped him. Actually the warning should have stopped him, but it didn’t. It didn't go as Judas had planned, and before mid-day the next day, Jesus was dead. Judas committed suicide.
"Better not to have been born." was a warning. Judas chose not to think about it. Jesus issued a lot of warnings; mostly we don't think about them. They are so unlike the image we have of Jesus as a kind understanding person, making allowances for us.
The whole story of Judas is a warning, a present day warning. Like Judas, we prefer to trust our own wisdom and manage our own lives.
(Mark 14 verses 18 ff)

Who was the woman who wasted the perfume?

Who was the woman who poured expensive ointment over the head of Jesus as he sat in the house of the healed leper? Isn't it strange that Jesus said wherever his story was told her story would also be told, but we don't even know her name? Seems to suggest what Jesus thinks about fame; that the deed is more to be praised than the person.

This story encourages me enormously. What Jesus valued was not even the gift, it was her understanding that he was actually going to die that he valued. She understood that Jesus intended to let his accusers convict and execute him and that he had a reason for doing so. More than that she probably did not know. Lazarus had recently been brought back to life after three days in the grave, but Jesus had made that happen and if Jesus was dead he couldn't bring himself to life.

Jesus wasn't executed because he was wicked but because he insisted on obeying God, who had sent him with a message and a revelation to deliver. The message that the kingdoms of earth would become the Kingdom of God was was a threat to Rome. The message that Jesus was God made visible, was considered blaphemy. So the leaders had to kill him. Their law was that anyone who blasphemed must die. Jesus knew this.

Almost everyone was surprised when he rose from the dead three days after he was buried, (at the same time many other graves were opened and many other people came alive but we don't hear anymore about those other people.) It was understood that only God himself could have made him come alive, which meant that Jesus was not blaspheming when he said he was God made visible.

After his resurrection Jesus was seen by many people, all his close followers, some of his family, and over five hundred people at one time. They testified that he had walked with them eaten with them and spent many days explaining the Kingdom of God.

The woman who poured the expensive perfuse over Jesus had shown that she understood that Jesus intended to submit to arrest and execution. Did she understand at the time that dying would be the single most valuable thing of all the things Jesus did? God raised Jesus from the burial cave. by this act God showed that Jesus had not been lying when he said that he was God made visible. God on high raising the dead and God on earth dying on a cross. One God, only one God, yet in many places, doing many things. God The Holy Trinity. Goodnight and Godbless.

When you are walled in by circumstances.

[Psalm 28:6] Blessed be the LORD, for he has heard the sound of my pleadings. [7] The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts; so I am helped, and my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.

Life can sometimes feel like a dungeon, because whichever way a person turns there is no way out of their circumstances. The circumstances can be poverty, sickness, unemployment, or being unloved. God does hear and he does bring us out, even though every direction seems like the solid rock of an imprisoning cave, God makes a way. He makes a way where there is no way. The Bible does not say that God helps those who help themselves, what it actually says, and repeatedly says, is that God helps those who cannot help themselves.

Those words, 'God helps those who cannot help themselves' are not welcome words, because nobody wants to acknowledge that they cannot help themselves. Desperation and despair are what we cannot yield to, and should not. There is no need to feel ashamed about asking God to do what we cannot. We ask Governments to do what one individual cannot do, and we are not ashamed. We ask banks to lend us money that we do not have, and we are not ashamed, we ask teachers to teach us what we can't learn alone and we are not ashamed. Why then should any person hesitate to come to God and simply say that certain situations in our life are beyond our control, but causing us distress and threatening to destroy us. I cannot tell you how or when God will bring you out of the cave that imprisons you but I can tell you with confidence that God will do so. He hears and he answers and many people tell wonderful stories about the way that God rescued them from impossible situations.

Ask today, don't fear that God will reject you. Jesus is your priest, he has opened the way into the holy place so that you can address God. He has forgiven the things that would come between you and God. Just turn to Jesus your priest, say, "Take me to God" and he will. In God's presence make your requests known and God will keep his promise to grant whatever we ask in the name of Jesus. Jesus will remain with you, opening your mind to see the miracle of his work on earth on your behalf. Do not be afraid, only be afraid of delaying or denying the salvation that God has made available to you.