Friday, April 5, 2024

THE NARCISSUS IN US

 

There were consequences for those who betrayed Jesus. The first to be convicted of sin was Judas: 

Then Judas, which had betrayed Him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, “I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood.” And they said, “What is that to us? see you to that” (Mat 27:3-4)

Judas repented, just as well the thief on the cross, for his sin. ‘Dismus,’ the thief repented because he realized that Jesus was innocent of anything. Judas did the same thing… he believed that he betrayed innocent blood. Was Judas saved to Paradise? There is no mention of that. What was missing in Judas that was there in Dismus? The latter, before Jesus even died, saw that Jesus was God in the flesh.

Repentance is not enough. Even Judas with Satan in him repented, not because Judas knew that Jesus was God, but because Satan in him knew that quite well. Judas repented to save his own flesh, whereas Dismus repented because He would have saved Jesus if he had been able to do that. Dismus felt no remorse for himself but was very much concerned with the agony of Jesus.

I may have missed something in my life. I have repented of my sins almost daily since I was a child. However, my repentance was to save my flesh from perishing without a thought of goodwill for Jesus. I have missed the mark, coming far short of the glory of God. For me, my concern for Jesus was mostly about my own flesh, never minding the well-being of Jesus.

About the fate of Jesus, the elders and priests said, ““What is that to us? see you to that.” Like me, they failed to worry about the fate of Jesus; even that He was innocent. The murder of Jesus was no concern to them, and what is more, they were not even concerned with the fate of their accomplice who would die.

That, in a nutshell, is the sin of so many of us. We have no concern for Jesus nor anybody else. Astute Christians will understand that the elders and priests themselves were breaking the Greatest Commandment, and by the sin of omission, neither have I not worried about the fate of others nor even that Jesus suffered in agony.


picture credit: Historic Mysteries; "Narcissus")

 

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