Judas

The other week I was with a friend at a guitar shop. We picked up an accoustic bass, a guitar, and had some fun playing the song "Judith" from the debut album by "A Perfect Circle." A few years old now, one of the best rock albums produced. I couldn't help but contemplate the words after we had finished,

"It's not like you killed someone. It's not like you drove a spiteful spear into his side."

What was the grave crime of Judas? Selling out a friend for money? Selling out God for money? Given the context, I don't think he should be judged so harshly. Judas didn't ask for Jesus to die, or to have him arrested. A warrent was out, Jesus was a suspected criminal, and Judas brought him to the authorities for justice. The blood from the trial, or mistrial, is not on his hands. The man simply did his civic duty. But is that true, even if he did it for money?

Sure. All wanted men have a price on their heads. If it's the money that sways one to turn in an Al Queda suspect, even a suspect who is a friend, so be it. The correct or incorrect handling of the suspect thereafter is on the hands of the government. Certainly, we can imagine counter-examples. We would not turn in a Jew to the third Riech, friend or otherwise, simply for being a Jew. But Jesus was a contraversial figure, and becoming a public nuisance amongst his own people. Rome was certainly not out of line to ask for his arrest as a part of an investigation. The execution of Jesus in my opinion, was not justified, but that's niether here nor there, for Judas.