Matthew 5:44. But I say unto you, Love your enemies.
Matthew 5:39. Turn the other cheek.
Luke 6:27. Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you.
Ephesians 4:32. Forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.
Matthew 6:12-14 And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us........
..............and on and on it goes, love and forgive, love and forgive. . That is until we get to Judas, where we read from the lips of Jesus god himself his dire warning of vengeance.:
"BUT WOE TO THE MAN BY WHOME THE SON OF MAN IS BETRAYED! GOOD WERE IT FOR THAT MAN IF HE HAD NEVR BEEN BORN". [ now hurry up and betray me Judas,quickly] Mark 14:21
We can just feel and see the warm compassion and forgiveness in those words of vengeance can't we? We can also see all those verses about Love and forgiveness go flying clean out of the window too.
Acceptable to Christians that this vengeful warning may be, and as contradictory to the fluffy nature that the scriptures attempt to portray Jesus to be, Christians have to realise that everything that Judas did, was all preordained by god himself , if we are to believe all the prophecies were being carried out. According to Christians and the Bible, this is what " must" happen and Jesus "spoke plainly " about what "must"happen too. Mark 8:31-32. So why the vengeful threat towards Judas, who didn't seem to flinch at the thought of the woe's that awaited him?
We can pick up the story at the last supper where Jesus announces in his usual cryptic fashion that he is about to be betrayed by one of those that dips his bread in the dinner bowel. Which at that point could have been any of them considering this is how a meal was eaten in those times, ie. everyone dipping bread into the same bowl of what ever was on offer.
The protests of "not me Lord" "who is it Lord" and " I would never do that to you Lord " are aplenty . Then-we read that Satan entering Judas and Jesus instructing Judas to go do what he is about to do and to do it quickly.John 13:27. All preordained see. So why the vengeful threat to his betrayer?
As an aside:
Odd isn't it that no one present asked why Judas was leaving the party at night in the dark. There are various excuses made for Judas' sudden disappearance but as usual they simply don't stack up. It is said some thought he was going to buy supplies for the supper, ....that they had already eaten.
But among those things that should stand out is the fact that Satan has entered Judas...... and no one recognised it!? Do the heavily relied on Old Testament for prophecies mention anything about Satan being involved in Jesus' betrayal? NO. The only 'prophecy' that is said to foretell of the betrayal that has been latched onto is Zechariah 11:12-13.
So here we have Judas being warned about doing what he is about to do, and on Jesus` word he goes out into the night to do what he had been instructed to do. But he will wish he had never been born when he does so.
Why hadn't a single one of those present recognized a demon when they seen one and cast him out? nearly 100 of his disciples had only recently been bragging about how they had cast out demons after being endowed with superpowers.Luke 10:17
And nowhere, in the whole of the scriptures will anyone read of anyone praying for love and the forgiveness of Judas...............Or Satan, come to think of it.