As I have been preaching through 2 Samuel, I have pointed to what I regarded as a reverse type of Christ, which was the death of Absalom. You have two sons of David, one faithless and the other faithful (thus “reverse”), but who both died hanging on a tree, both pierced by a soldier, and who by their deaths provided deliverance for Israel. This brought me into a discussion with a parishioner who didn’t quite see it that way. He allowed that Absalom could have been a type of Judas, but not Jesus.
I mention this, not to continue that discussion, although it is a worthy subject, but rather because that stray comment made me think of something that had never occurred to me before, which is the stark parallel/contrast between Judas and Jesus.
Begin with the fact that Judas is simply the Greek spelling of the Hebrew name Judah, and we can note Jesus was descended from the tribe of Judas. He was born in Bethlehem, which was in the land of Judas (Matt. 2:6). Jesus was “of Judas” in some sense.
