Did Jesus talk nicely with Judas?

The answer to this question has ramifications for how we should understand our relationship with the Lord today.

What Jesus knew about Judas

1. Jesus chose Judas (Luke 6:13)
2. Jesus knew from the beginning that Judas would betray him (Jn 6:64)
3. Jesus told the twelve that someone in their party was a ‘devil’ (Jn 6:70-71)
4. Jesus spoke plainly to the group that someone would betray him 
5. Jesus probably knew that Judas was stealing money from their common fund (Jn 12:4-6)
6. Jesus told the twelve who the person was that would betray him (Mt 26:21-23,25; Jn 13:21-26)
7. Judas planned to betray Jesus with a kiss (Mk 14:44)
8. Judas was multiple times referred to as ‘one of the twelve’ (Mat 26:14; Mat 26:47; Mar 14:10; Luk 22:3)

How Jesus interacted with Judas

1. Jesus spent time with Judas (Mk 3:14)
2. Jesus ate with Judas (Lu 22:14)
3. Jesus taught Judas (and the other disciples) privately (Mat 20:17, Mar 3:14, Mar 9:35, Luk 18:31)
4. Judas shared in Jesus’ ministry (Ac 1:17)
5. Jesus gave Judas supernatural authority (Mat 10:1, Mk 6:7, Lu 9:1)
6. Jesus identified with Judas – if they accept you they accept Me (Mat 10:40)
7. Jesus gave Judas the special responsibility of controlling the money bag (Jn 12:4-6)
8. Jesus washed Judas’ feet (Joh 13:5 )
9. Jesus called Judas ‘friend’ (Mat 26:50). Note that this word does not necessarily connote close friendship.
10. The Psalms suggest Judas was a ‘close friend’  which Jesus ‘trusted’ (Psa 41:9 and Jn 13:18 and possibly Psa 55:12-14)
11. Jesus told Judas that he would have a place in the Kingdom (Mat 19:28; Luk 22:21-22 then Luk 22:28-30)
12. The disciples seem to have no inkling of what Judas had done or would do (Jn 13:27-29)

What we can infer from these facts

1. Judas seemed to have embraced two sins, both related to greed.
   1. The first was theft – he was stealing from the common purse.
   2. The second was his plan to betray Jesus for money. It seems unlikely that this plan was hatched early in Jesus’ ministry. 
   3. It is possible that Judas’ evil intentions and sin began early in Jesus’ ministry.  However the statement in Jn 6:64 that Jesus knew from the ‘beginning’ what Judas planned was probably spoken in the 3rd year of His ministry. That Jesus ‘knew from the beginning’ does not necessarily imply that Judas was stealing from the beginning nor that he had evil intentions from the beginning. 
2. Jesus will chose someone to be His disciple even though He knows they will fall away.
3. Jesus interacted with Judas in ways that were no different from the other disciples. This can be inferred from the fact that the disciples were oblivious to Judas’ true intentions. Even though Jesus knew Judas harboured sin serious enough to call him a ‘devil’, Jesus seemed to interact in a perfectly normal manner. So we can infer that…
4. Judas’ hidden sin:
   1. did not stop him from experiencing the power of God
   2. did not stop him from being commissioned by Jesus to important tasks
   3. did not result in Jesus rejecting him
   4. did not stop Jesus from giving him guidance
   5. did not result in rejection
   6. did not stop Jesus from eating with him
   7. did not stop Jesus from talking with him
5. Jesus continued to 
   1. guide Judas
   2. fellowship with Judas. 
   3. provide for Judas. 
6. Jesus will say things to His disciples that Jesus knows will not be true at the end (ie Judas will sit on a throne in heaven when instead he was destroyed (John 17:12)  and replaced (Ac 1:24-25) ) 
7. That Judas expected to be able to ‘kiss’ Jesus on the night of His betrayal suggests a certain closeness. One  assumes that this was not an abnormal way for Judas and Jesus to interact. 
   1. This is supported by the prophecy in the Psalms identifying  Judas as a ‘close friend’ of Jesus 
8.  Jesus taught publicly that greed and theft were evil. Jesus may or may not have repeated this teaching directly to Judas in one-on-one conversations. 

What does this mean for our relationship with the Lord