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162 How Can We Know the Christian Scriptures Are True?
Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that
you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and
revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious
will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father,
and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows
the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to
reveal him. (Matt. 11:25–27)
No one knows the Father or the Son apart from this supernatural gift
of sight. The reason Peter saw Jesus as true and great and supremely
rewarding was that God, in free and sovereign mercy, chose to open
his eyes to see what Paul called “the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ.”
Withholding Healing Does Not Cause Blindness
But for Judas and others like him, “Seeing they do not see, and hearing
they do not hear” (Matt. 13:13). Judas saw the same physical Jesus
that Peter saw. He was part of the circle of apostles. He was with Jesus
almost nonstop for three years. Why did he not see? It is not fitting to
say that he didn’t see because God did not open his eyes. God’s gracious
gift of sight is why people see. Its absence is not properly why they don’t
see. God’s withholding of healing is not the cause of their blindness.
The story of Judas reveals why he could not see the glory of God in
Christ. Judas was a lover of money (Matt. 26:15), a liar (Luke 22:48),
a thief (John 12:6), and a traitor (Mark 14:10). This was his blindness.
When Jesus visited Martha and Mary’s home, Mary anointed Jesus
with expensive ointment. Judas objected, “‘Why was this ointment not
sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?’ He said this, not
because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having
charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put
into it” (John 12:4–6).
There it is: lover of money, thief, liar. That is what loving God’s
creation more than God does to the human soul. He helped himself
to what was put into the apostles’ treasury. He was a thief. And he
covered his stealing by hypocritical protests about loving the poor. He
was a liar. He asked Jesus at the Last Supper, “Is it I, Rabbi [who will
betray you?]” (Matt. 26:25), although he knew perfectly well he was