Three Pairs - A Study in Contrast
Lazarus is a New Testament figure who lived with his two
sisters—Martha and Mary in the small town of Bethany
near Jerusalem Magdala St. John
As we study the
characteristics of the two young women in the way they responded to Jesus’
love, certain interesting facts—based on their personalities--come to light. In
entertaining Jesus and looking after to His needs, Martha would not leave
anything to chance. Everything had to be absolutely perfect. She was working
under a certain amount of stress. By this time in Jesus’ life, the animosity
between the Lord and temple leaders has reached a point of no return and they
had nearly made up their minds to eliminate Jesus. The spies’ eyes were
everywhere He went and it included this little family that Jesus frequented. Martha’s work carried a certain amount of risk with
it which her sister was blissfully unaware of.
It is not
suggested that there was any feminine rivalry or jealousy between the sisters because there was none. But Jesus’ occasional visits transformed Mary into a
different person. She found total content and peace at His presence, a higher level of
consciousness that she had not found at any other time. She stuck to her
Master’s side and won’t change places with anyone for any reason.
Martha was
slighted because she thought the workload had not been evenly shared amidst
them and that was unfair. Doesn’t the Great Master know? She petitioned Him
that He must spare her sister for a time to help her with the household
chore. “Lord, don’t you care that my
sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to come and help me!”
The Lord’s answer flattened the self-righteous elder sister: “Martha. Martha, Martha,” the
Lord replied, “you are worried and upset about many things. But
only one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, and it will
not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:40, 41). Mary had got her priorities
right and knew it. She didn’t try to explain or defend herself. If a
Christian’s priority clashes with the world’s, He must be very clear in his
mind that Christ comes first.
When the members of Sanhedrin
warned Peter and John not to preach in the name of Jesus, this is what they
said: “We must obey God rather than men
(Acts 5; 19)’’. The Hebrew young man in the service of Emperor Nebuchadnezzar
refused to worship his statue and expressed a similar sentiment.
II. Simon Peter and Judas
Iscariot
In
a way Peter’s denying of Jesus is a worse sin than Judas’ betrayal. Simon Peter followed Jesus giving up a prosperous fishing business, as
Jesus promised to change him into “fishers of men”. He belonged to the “inner
circle” among the twelve and was a witness to everything Jesus did and spoke
during the brief period of His ministry. He was present with Jesus on the mount
of transfiguration and witnessed the
Lord’s original glory—a momentous occasion granted only to three men in
history. When Peter declared, “You are the Christ, the Son of the
living God” (Mathew 16:16), Jesus answered
and said to him, it was His Father in Heaven’ who had revealed this truth to
him and blessed him. He also proceeded to bless him,” And I tell you that you
are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will
not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on
earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Just before His arrest, Jesus
was warning all His disciples that all of them were going to be offended because
of Him. But Peter had said to Him, ‘’Although all shall be offended, yet I will
not’’. He was ready to go with Him even to prison and to death, he maintained. The Lord who knew the heart and mind of
every human being predicted, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow
today until you have denied three times that you know Me.”
It is this Peter who denied he
knew Jesus, before a maidservant. When people started to repeat the charge, he
began to swear and curse, denying the
Lord three times. Immediately the
rooster crew and the enormity of his betrayal dawned on him. He went out and wept
bitterly.
After the resurrection, Jesus
asked Peter if he loved Him. Even though the answer was affirmative, the Lord
repeated the question three times in a painful reminder of his three denials.
The Lord made it clear he was forgiven completely.
Very little is known about Judas
Iscariot’s antecedents. He was the only
non-Galilean among the Twelve. He might
have belonged to a political organization called the zealots who had vowed
to overthrow the Roman government through violent means and secure Judea freedom. He was recruited by Jesus and stayed with
Him till the sorrowful end, while many of the disciples had left Him because of
His teachings. It is likely that he was attracted to Jesus because of His talk
of the Kingdom of God
Why did he betray his master?
There are numerous theories. Of course, the money angle is there. We know he
handled the cash for the group and he used to help himself to it. If He were
that greedy why settle for a paltry sum of thirty pieces of silver? Caiaphas
would have given his right arm to have Jesus arrested. Other theories include:
1) He was impatient and disappointed in Jesus as He had not made any
political move, but went around telling stories and curing lepers! In anger, he
thought it served Jesus right to be handed
over to the Roman authorities.
2) Another theory is, that Judas thought he
could engineer a confrontation between Jesus and the religious establishment
and force Jesus’ hands to rebel and overthrow the alien rule. He was the Son of
God and mere men couldn’t have hurt Him. Angels would fight for Him.
3) A third fantastic theory goes like this: Judas
understood the scriptures correctly, knew what Jesus’ role would be, and
offered himself -- with the full knowledge of Jesus -- to play the role of
traitor. Knowing the Bible, he played his role as the “traitor” to perfection
and fulfilled the prophecies, a self-appointed scapegoat!
4) Finally, some
think that Judas was predestined to betray Jesus and could do nothing else.
Jesus foresaw this and allowed Judas's betrayal because it would help God's
plan to be fulfilled. The fact that lends credence to this concept is, Jesus
knew Judas would hand Him over to the soldiers, but did nothing to prevent it.
If there’s any
truth in the above theories, why would Jesus refer to Judas and say “One of you
is a Devil”. Why does the Bible say Satan entered him? Jesus prayed in John
17:12 “I guarded them so that not one was lost, except the one headed for
destruction, as the Scriptures foretold”.
What do you make of this? Assuming he couldn’t help betraying Jesus, Judas could have repented after the act. When he went to the temple and threw down the money, as the priests were taking Jesus to Pilate, Judas could have gone and fallen down at his Master’s feet and cried, “Forgive me, Lord, I did not know what I was doing.” The Lord would have forgiven him.
What do you make of this? Assuming he couldn’t help betraying Jesus, Judas could have repented after the act. When he went to the temple and threw down the money, as the priests were taking Jesus to Pilate, Judas could have gone and fallen down at his Master’s feet and cried, “Forgive me, Lord, I did not know what I was doing.” The Lord would have forgiven him.
But he tried to undo the evil he had done by returning the
money. Once he realized the enormity of
his crime and its consequences, he tried to make amendments in his own way. He
did the same mistake Adam and Eve did. When the import of their crime hit the
ancient couple they tried to cover themselves up with leaves! Judas was overcome
with remorse but did not repent like Peter did. This is where the big
difference between them comes. By killing himself, He only increased the burden
of his sin.
III. The
Prodigal Son and his Petulant Brother
The characters of this story are not real people, but are
contained in a parable taught by Jesus in Luke 15:11-31:
The parable begins with a young man, the younger of two sons,
who asks his father to give him his share of the estate. The boy was not ready
to wait until his father's death for his inheritance, but wanted it immediately.
According to Jewish law, the sons inherit the father’s property after the
father’s death. The eldest son gets a double portion, the right of the
first-born. But as the younger boy insisted, the father agreed and gave him his
share. Upon receiving his portion of the inheritance, the younger son traveled
to a distant country and wasted all his money in extravagant living.
Immediately thereafter, a famine struck the land; he becomes desperately poor and
is forced to take work as a swineherd.
(This is abhorrent to Jesus' Jewish audience, who considered swine unclean
animals.)
He had sunk so low that he was eager to eat the pods the
pigs ate, but he was denied even that. When he came to his senses he said, "How many
hired servants of my fathers have bread enough to spare, and I'm dying with
hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, ‘, “Father,
I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be
called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”‘ (Luke 15:18) He
arose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw
him, and was moved with compassion, and ran towards him, and fell on his neck,
and kissed him, giving the clear impression the older man had been waiting and
hoping the boy would return.
Even before the youngster could complete the rehearsed
speech, the father had his servants to dress him in a fine robe, a ring, and
sandals, and slaughter the "fattened calf"
for a celebratory meal. The older son, who was at work in the fields, heard the
sound of celebration and was told about the return of his younger brother. He was
not very pleased with this and addressed his father furiously "Listen, these
many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed a commandment of yours, but
you never gave me a goat that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this
wicked fellow who had squandered your earnings on prostitutes returned, you
killed the fattened calf for him." The father answered ‘Son, you are
always with me,’ and all that is mine is yours. But it was right to celebrate
and be glad because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was
lost and is found.’”(Luke 15:31)
To sum up: When the younger son realized he had hit rock
bottom, he repented and humbled himself. He didn’t plan anything desperate like
suicide or turn to any vice or violent act or thievery but thought about his
father, the only one who could rescue him. He returned home to realize his
father had forgiven him, was glad he was back. Whereas his brother who had
stayed with his father and worked for him had his mind on the luxury his father
could provide. He was apparently happy his brother was gone. He boasted about
his virtues and lacked humility. He complained against his father that he had
not appreciated his duty-consciousness and obedience. He refused to come down
from his high moral ground and forgive his younger brother.
What Jesus is implying with the parable: more than just
teaching the Jewish leaders to rejoice as he does over repentant sinners, he is
teaching them how Israel
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