John 12:4 Commentary and Bible Study

In fact, immediately after this supper, Judas would betray Christ, or at least make the arrangements for the betrayal. ‘Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor? This he said, not that he cared for the poor; [and here is a revelation] but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein.’ Now we learn that he had been stealing from that treasury that he kept. Small and meagre as it mostly was. He pilfered it, and Christ said nothing. Christ had appointed Judas, but he knew that he would not believe. He knew, really as God as well as man, that Judas only wanted an earthly Messiah and became increasingly disillusioned. The clearer Christ made it that he was a spiritual Messiah not a political Messiah, the more disillusioned Judas became; the more he saw slipping away from him the possibility of being some high dignitary in the court of the political Messiah. He had no sympathy with spiritual salvation. He did not want a Saviour. He did not believe so he was unmoved by the miracles. His heart was so hard. So he complains.These are remarkable things. He expected Christ’s death because he knew everybody was looking out for him – he is going to die. He had misused the money in the treasurer’s bag before, we are told. But now he’d have it all – he’d have everything! Why, this is a whole year’s wages – would add substantially to that small sum he carried in his purse. And Christ would be taken and seized, and then he would profit – he would have it all. He was a thief, and the word ‘thief’, as opposed to the word ‘robber’, as we observed before, means one who steals by cunning, whereas the Greek word translated ‘robber’ in John’s Gospel refers to someone who steals by violence. He had no interest in the poor – he was an hypocrite – yet he influenced the others because, interestingly, when we turn to Matthew and Mark we find it was not just Judas who protested against this, it was the other disciples too; they went along with him, they agreed with him. Judas was enormously plausible. He perhaps had a very likeable personality, concealing his hypocrisy and his unpleasantness – who knows – but he certainly managed to carry the other disciples with him, though that point isn’t mentioned in the Gospel of John. He followed Christ, and he was respected for that, but he was a hypocrite - and Christ allowed it.