forever.
Second, this passage brings us face to face with the second coming. We must remember two things about the second coming. First, to speculate when and how it will happen is both foolish and useless, as Jesus said that not even he knew the day and the hour when the Son of Man would come (Mark 13:32). There is something almost blasphemous in speculating about something which was hidden from even Christ himself. Second, the essential teaching of Christianity is that God has a plan for us and the world. We are bound to believe that history is not a haphazard conglomeration of chance events which are going nowhere. We are bound to believe that there is some divine far-off event to which the whole creation moves and that, when that final fulfilment comes, Jesus Christ will be Judge and Lord of all. The second coming is not a matter for speculation and for a curiosity that is quite out of place; it is a summons to make ourselves ready for that day when it comes.
THE FATE OF THE TRAITOR
Acts 1:12–20
Then they made their way back to Jerusalem from the hill which is called the Mount of Olives, which is near Jerusalem, about half a mile away. When they came in, they went up to the upper room where they were staying; Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James were there. All of them with one united heart persevered in prayer, together with certain women and with Mary, Jesus’ mother and with his brothers.
And in these days Peter stood up among the brethren and said – the number of people who were together was about 120 – ‘Brethren, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold through the mouth of David about Judas who was guide to those who arrested Jesus, because he was one of our number and had received his allotted part in our service. (This man bought a piece of ground with the proceeds of his wicked deed; and he fell headlong and burst asunder and his bowels gushed out. This became a well-known fact to all those who lived in Jerusalem so that the piece of ground was called in their language Akeldama, which means the place of blood.) For it stands written in the book of Psalms: “Let the place where he lodged be desolate and let no one stay in it.” And: “Let another receive his office.” ’
BEFORE we come to the fate of the traitor Judas, there are certain things we may notice in this passage. For the Jews, the Sabbath was entirely a day of rest when all work was forbidden. A journey was limited to 2,000 cubits, and that distance was called a Sabbath day’s journey. A cubit was eighteen inches; so a Sabbath day’s journey was rather more than half a mile.
It is interesting to note that Jesus’ brothers are here with the company of the disciples. During Jesus’ lifetime, they had been among his opponents (Mark 3:21). It may well be that for them, as for so many others, the death of Jesus opened their eyes and penetrated their hearts in a way that even his life could not do.
We are told that the number of the disciples was about 120. That is one of the most uplifting things in the New Testament. There were only 120 pledged to Christ, and it is very unlikely that any of them had ever been outside the narrow confines of Palestine – but these 120 ordinary men and women were told to go out and evangelize the whole world. If ever anything began from small beginnings, the Christian Church did. We may well be the only Christians in our shop, our factory, our office, in our circle of family and friends. These disciples gallantly faced their task, and so must we; and it may be that we too will be the small beginning from which the kingdom in our area of life will spread.
The great interest of this passage is the fate of Judas. What exactly the Greek means here is uncertain; but in Matthew’s account (Matthew 27:3–5) we are left in no doubt that Judas committed suicide. It must always be a matter of speculation why Judas betrayed Jesus. Various suggestions have been put forward.
(1) It has been suggested that Iscariot means man of Kerioth. If it does, Judas was the only non-Galilaean among the apostles. It may be that he felt himself the odd one out and grew so embittered that he did this terrible thing.
(2) It may be that Judas became an informer to save his own skin and then saw the enormity of what he had done.
(3) It may be that he did it simply out of greed for money. If he did, it was the most dreadful bargain in history – for he sold his Lord for thirty pieces of silver, which was the equivalent of a little under six months’ pay for the average worker.
(4) It may be that Judas came to hate Jesus. From others he could disguise the evil intentions of his heart; but the eyes of Jesus could penetrate to the inmost corners of his being. It may be that in the end he was driven to destroy the one who knew him for what he was.
(5) It may be that Iscariot is a form of a Greek word which means a dagger-bearer. The ‘dagger-bearers’ were a band of violent nationalists who were prepared to undertake assassination and murder in a campaign to set Palestine free. Perhaps Judas saw in Jesus the very person who could lead the nationalists to triumph; and, when he saw that Jesus refused that way, he turned against him and in his bitter disappointment betrayed him.
(6) It is likeliest of all that Judas never meant Jesus to die, but betrayed him with the intention of forcing his hand. If that is so, Judas had the tragic experience of seeing his plan go desperately wrong, and in his bitter remorse he committed suicide.
Whatever the reason for his actions, Judas goes down in history as the most wicked name of all. There can never be any peace for anyone who betrays Christ.
THE QUALIFICATIONS OF AN APOSTLE
Acts 1:21–6
‘So then, of the men who were with us during all the time our Lord went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day on which he was taken up from us – of these we must choose one to be a witness of the resurrection along with us.’ So they selected two, Joseph, who was called Barsabbas, whose surname was Justus, and Matthias. Then they prayed and said: ‘O Lord, who knowest the hearts of all, do thou show us which of these two thou hast chosen to take his place in this service and in the apostleship, from which Judas fell away and went to his own place.’ So they made them draw lots and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was elected to be along with the eleven apostles.
WE look briefly at the method of choosing someone to take Judas’ place among the apostles. It may seem strange to us that the method was that of casting lots. But among the Jews it was the natural thing to do, because all the offices and duties in the Temple were settled that way. The names of the candidates were written on stones; the stones were put into a jar, and the jar was shaken until one stone fell out; and the one whose name was on that stone was elected to office.
The great fact about this passage is that it gives us two supremely important truths.
First, it tells us that the function of an apostle was to be a witness to the resurrection. The real mark of Christians is not that they know about Jesus but that they know Jesus. The basic mistake in Christianity is to regard Jesus as someone who lived and died and whose life we study and whose story we read. Jesus is not a figure in a book, he is a living presence; and Christians are men and women whose lives are a witness to the fact that they know and have met the risen Lord.
Second, it tells us that the qualification of an apostle was that the person must have been with Jesus. The real Christian is the one who lives day by day with Jesus. It was said of the great preacher John Brown, the eighteenth-century minister of the Scottish town of Haddington, that often when he preached he paused as if listening for a voice. The writer Jerome K. Jerome tells of an old cobbler who, on the coldest day, left the door of his shop open. On being asked why, he replied: ‘So that Jesus can come in if he is passing by.’ We often speak about what would happen if Jesus were here and how differently we would live if he were in our homes and at our work. The daughter of the British politician W. H. Smith, Lady Emily Acland, tells how once her little daughter had a spasm of temper. Afterwards, she and the daughter were sitting on the stairs making up again, and the little girl said: ‘I wish Jesus would come and stay in our house all the time.’ But the fact is that Jesus is