Dictionary of all Scriptures & Myths

BETRAYAL OF JESUS

A symbol of the voluntary falling away from the Christ-soul of the lower element at the last, thus initiating the crossing over.

"And straightway Judas came to Jesus, and said, Hail, Rabbi; and kissed him. And Jesus said unto him, Friend, do that for which thou art come." - MATTHEW xxvi. 49, 50.

“Judas" stands for the lowest, or least raised, quality in the not yet perfected Christ-soul, consequently that is the quality which requires the Soul to go through the anguish at the final crossing over from the lower to the higher state. The exercise of choice of action is the means whereby evolution is accomplished. Choice has previously been offered to the quality Judas," when, having fallen away, he approaches to do that for which he has come. "Judas” by getting his selfish gratification (money) forfeits his claim to the Christ whom he betrays with a kiss; that is, he retains the semblance of affection without the reality.

“The great problem of existence is our perfection; the perfection, that is, of our liberty, the schooling of our choice or consent as powers, so that we may be fully established in harmony with God's will and character; unified with Him in His will, glorified with Him in the glory of His character, and so perfected with Him in His eternal beatitude. Persons or powers are creatures who act, not by causality, but by consent; they must therefore be set in conditions that invite consent." - H. BUSHNELL, Nature, etc., p. 62.

"In the lower stages of man's religious life we find this competition between different kinds of the good :--between the sensuous valuables to which the will is compelled by appetite, passion, and desire, and the spiritual values which religion, in its higher stages of the activity of intellect and imagination, presents as rivals to the sensuous And the man is called to choose between the two. This choice it is which seems to religion as a choice between the flesh and the spirit, or between the world and God, or between human favour and the Divine Approval; or, finally, between a widening moral separation from the Source of all spiritual Life and its voluntary acceptance as the indwelling and welcome Source of the soul's true and highest life." - G. T. LADD, Phil. Of Religion, p. 338.

See Also

DISCIPLES
JESUS OF THE GOSPELS
JUDAS
NIGHT (Darkness)