I love talking about happy places, times, and endings. You know; abundant living in connection to Christ. But, God’s Word reminds us that around the Light of His love, darkness can be found. We are so used to the sunlight that follows the nighttime that we forget God’s Word talks about a darkness that is eternal. The life of Judas can tell us about the darkness. Picture the story. Jesus is sharing a final meal with his disciples. Judas, who is choosing to remain in the darkness, acts like he really cares about Jesus. Oh, he might care about him, but make no mistake, Judas cares more about himself than anyone else. It’s a dark process of thinking; selfishness. The pressure of being near the Christ (the selfless One) is putting too much pressure on poor Judas. He has to leave the presence of Love; “So Judas left at once, going out into the night” (John 13:30). Yes, it is much more comfortable in the darkness when you’re selfish.
Judas progressed into the darkness; one selfish step at a time. His next move would be a deeper level of darkness; total resistance and betrayal of True Life. Jesus came to teach us how to live as humans; to be our role model. He is the Rabbi and we are the disciples. Christ longs to bring conviction and warn us of dark places so we will avoid them. We need to heed his warnings. You and I know when we do wrong things. Those things condemn us; our conscience bears witness. Those are little steps into darkness. Judas’ life warns us that Christ can be with us and we can still choose the darkness; even eternal darkness.
Every day we must choose to dwell in the power of the Spirit to love and light the lives of others. That’s the heart of Christ, isn’t it? God has given us a life with a certain number of days. Will we invite the light of Christ to help us connect in love to others each day? We must make the choice. If we are honest, we know our selfish ambitions are empty and dark wells. Or, will we sneak into the darkness like Judas, dwell on self, and loose our many opportunities to serve the King with our lives. Here’s a poem for you to ponder:
The clock of life is wound but once
and no man has the power
To tell just where the hands will stop
At late or early hour.
To lose one’s wealth is sad indeed,
To lose one’s health is more,
To lose one’s soul is such a loss
As no man can restore.
So do not wait until tomorrow
To do His blessed will,
The clock of life may then be stopped—
The hands may then be still.
–Author Unknown–