The older I grow the more I ponder Judas Iscariot. He came so near to not betraying Jesus. He was a loyal disciple. It took courage to join that little band, and Judas had it. Then doubts began. What kind of Messiah was this who refused violent revolution and talked about loving one’s enemies? Was not this idealistic Jesus letting them down? So the doubts grew, until in an explosive hour—oh, fifty-one votes against forty-nine—Judas sold his Lord. He came so near not doing it, that when he saw what he had done he hanged himself in shame. Ah, Judas, if you had only doubted your doubts enough to wait until Easter, until Pentecost, until Paul came, you would not be the supreme traitor of the centuries. You stood in the presence of divine greatness, and you disbelieved.
Harry Emerson Fosdick[1]
[1] Thomas G. Long and Cornelius Plantinga, A Chorus of Witnesses: Model Sermons for Today’s Preacher (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1994), 116-117.