Ego vs. Christ

5 min read

29 Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the festival, or to give something to the poor. 30 As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.

John 13:29-30

Everyone has a tendency to think that the world revolves around them. For sure, some more than others, but we all have this ego-centric view of the world. We can’t help it because of sin.

I think about when Jesus sent out His disciples to evangelize after John the Baptist got beheaded by Herod. Some people thought that Jesus was being possessed by the spirit of John the Baptist, and others thought that Jesus was the reincarnation of Elijah or one of the other prophets. Herod insisted that it was the spirit of John the Baptist, because he had beheaded John. For Herod, he himself was at the center of the story of the world, and so it must have been his beheading of John that was responsible for the signs and wonders being displayed in Jesus and His disciples (Mark 6:14-29).

I think about when Jesus was visiting the home of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. A dinner was being held in honor of Jesus, and Martha was frantically busy making sure everything was perfect, while Mary was sitting at Jesus’s feet listening to His teaching. Martha was upset at Mary (and at Jesus for not rebuking Mary) because she was certain that what she was doing must have been much more important than what Mary was doing.

And here we see Judas. He was in charge of the money. And in his mind too, what he did for the ministry must have been the most important part of the ministry. And so when Jesus said things like, “You will always have the poor among you” (John 12:8), he must have felt deeply de-legitimized.

But Jesus was not suggesting that the things Judas or Martha did (and by extension, their very selves) were unimportant. He loved them all very much—more than they loved themselves. It’s that their hearts were still firmly planted in the space-time continuum of themselves and of this world—not in the space-time continuum of Christ and His kingdom.

When our hearts are firmly planted in the space-time continuum of Christ and His kingdom, our understanding of what is important and necessary completely changes so that our priorities and our actions seem incomprehensible to the world.

The truth is, Judas was not the only one who betrayed Jesus that night. Yet, among the disciples, he alone was doomed to destruction because he took his own life before finding an opportunity for redemption. But that could have been any one of them.

And I know too—because of sin—I betray the work of Christ (and by extension, Christ) every day. But I have found the Doorway into the space-time continuum of the kingdom of Christ. The Doorway is Christ, and my hope is in Him alone.

Father, Forgive me for my sin. Where would I be without Your love, mercy, and grace. Continue to change my perspective so that the things of the world are put in their proper perspective relative to the things of eternal life. In Jesus’s name. Amen.