Verse 49
And straightway he came to Jesus and said, Hail, Rabbi; and kissed him.
The marginal note in the English Revised Version (1885) translates the Greek as "kissed him much." Judas' conduct here gives a case study of excessive wickedness which answers some of the problems confronting society in any age. The current social thesis that savage and desperate criminals are more sinned against than sinning, that society itself is in fact to be blamed for whatever wicked men do - that philosophy is struck a mortal blow by the case of Judas. Wherein did Jesus fail with Judas? How could Judas' environment have been improved? How was society to blame in his case? Clarence Darrow, the noted criminal lawyer, did not believe that any man is responsible for his crimes. He said:
No one attributes free will or motive to the material world. Is the conduct of man or the other animals any more subject to whim or choice than the action of the planets? It will be admitted that no one is responsible for his birth or early environment.[17]
He espoused the thesis that people are no more responsible than animals.
We know that all these causes influence man the same as other animals. ... We know that man's every act is induced by motives that led or urged him here or there; that the sequence of cause and effect runs through the whole universe, and is nowhere more compelling than in man.[18]
To Clarence Darrow, all criminals were "victims of civilization"! The freedom of the will, individual responsibility, and personal accountability are being more and more rejected by a materialistic and secular society; but the word of God reveals the higher view that men are responsible for their deeds. True, one cannot control heredity or early environment, etc.; but one can control the way he reacts to them. This is not a merely: animal response. From the same slum there rise an Al Capone and an Al Smith; but every man decides the kind of "Al" he will be. From the same apostleship there rose Peter, and there fell Judas.
[17] Clarence Darrow, Autobiography (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1932), p. 76.
[18] Ibid., p. 340.
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