Children's Story: Jesus Loves You, Warts and All

How well do you know yourself?

• Do you know what kind of job you'll have when you're 25?
• Do you know who you'll have for friends in a couple of years?
• Do you know whether or not you'll even like some of the friends you have now?
• Do you know if you'll be making good or bad choices over the next year?
• Do you know what your great-great-great-great grandparents were like?
• Do you know who you'll be marrying? (Assuming Jesus hasn't come back yet.)
• Do you know who your great-great-great-great grandchildren will be?
  (Again, assuming Jesus hasn't come back before then.)
• Do you know if you will continue to follow Jesus all through your life?

There's a whole lot that we don't know, even about ourselves.

There was a man named Judas, who had a father named Simon, and who came from the town of Kerioth. We usually refer to him as Judas Iscariot. Judas was one of the Twelve specially selected by Jesus to be close to him everywhere he went.

When we read the Bible, we learn that Judas was the one who helped the Jewish leaders capture Jesus in the middle of the night and put him on the cross. Why would Judas do that?

I don't think he really knew himself -- what he really wanted. Judas thought Jesus could give him what he wanted. When Jesus didn't do what Judas thought Jesus should be doing, he tried to force Jesus into doing the things he though Jesus should be doing. Judas thought he was doing the right thing -- that he was helping Jesus. But Judas didn't really know himself, nor did he really know Jesus, even though he had been with Jesus nearly every day for a few years. And when Judas realized that Jesus would allow himself to be crucified, Judas didn't believe Jesus would or could ever forgive him.

One of Jesus' other disciples, John, wrote:

(For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) ... “Did I not choose you, the Twelve? And yet one of you is a [the] devil.” He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the Twelve, was going to betray him.

You see, Jesus knew from the very beginning that Judas was going to help put him on the cross. But that didn't stop Jesus from loving Judas, from allowing Judas to be close to him.

Why? Because Jesus wanted Judas to get to know him, Jesus. And Jesus wanted Judas to get to know himself, so that he might choose to allow Jesus to change his heart. Jesus wanted Judas to come to know and trust him. Jesus wanted Judas to know and believe that even after he had chosen to betray Jesus, he loved Judas so much that Jesus could and would forgive him.

Jesus hasn't changed in the two-thousand years since then. He's chosen every one of you to be with him. He wants you to get to know him and to learn to trust him. And as you get to know and trust him, he wants you to learn about yourselves. To get to know things about yourselves that disappoint and hurt Jesus, so that you can let Jesus change those things for you.

Jesus already knows all the ways in which you will hurt him. But he has chosen you anyway. That's what the Bible calls grace. Jesus has already chosen to forgive you. Even if you choose to turn away from Jesus, if you want to come back, He's there to welcome you back.

Judas couldn't believe that someone who turned away from Jesus could ever come back. But Jesus isn't like us people. It doesn't matter what we do to him, or how many times we turn away from him. If we want to come back to him, he's there to welcome us back.