Cops, Criminals, and Christ
"Cops, Criminals & Christ" is a podcast delving into the intertwining worlds of law enforcement, crime, and faith. With Dale Sutherland, a former narcotics Sergeant turned pastor, it features gripping narratives and candid interviews exploring behind-the-scenes work of life undercover, as well as the transformative power of faith in the lives of both cops and criminals. Tune in for compelling insights and real-life stories that challenge, inspire, and reveal God’s grace available through it all, at the hands of its host and Dale’s daughter, Kristen Crew.
Cops, Criminals, and Christ
The Judas Case: Investigating History’s Most Infamous Betrayal
The crucifixion of Jesus Christ, history's greatest crime, began with an intimate betrayal by one of his closest companions, Judas Iscariot, who delivered him to authorities for thirty pieces of silver.
• Unlike the other disciples who came from Galilee, Judas was from Judea
• Judas was so trusted that Jesus appointed him treasurer of the group
• No other disciples suspected Judas would betray Jesus at the Last Supper
• Scripture says "Satan entered Judas," indicating spiritual warfare
• Judas knew Jesus' private prayer locations and routines
• The religious leaders were "delighted" when Judas offered to betray Jesus
• Judas identified Jesus with a kiss—the ultimate symbol of friendship turned to betrayal
• Despite being betrayed, Jesus prayed "Father, forgive them"
• Judas couldn't live with his guilt and committed suicide after returning the money
• Jesus knew Judas would betray him but chose him anyway, showing his remarkable love
Come back to explore more crimes in the Bible through the eyes of a detective—rapes, murders, kidnappings, and what they teach us about scripture and faith.
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The greatest crime in the history of humanity was the murder of an innocent man. This murder was brutal. This murder involved torture. This murder involved real long pain and yet we know so little about how it all came together. What happened that? Jesus Christ, the greatest even Time Magazine says the greatest man of all time, certainly changed the world. This man, jesus Christ, this one, jesus Christ. So what happened that he ended up on a cross? Why would anybody ever take him there? Well, let me tell you a little bit of the background To understand a murder.
Speaker 1:I was a retired DC policeman and at some point I worked in homicide. But I spent most of my life working criminal cases where we would put together all the facts. We would need witnesses, we would need the details, we would need the setting. We'd need to understand all those things so that we could put it back together again. I can remember a homicide when there was just one guy in an alley he was buying drugs and his son-in-law was sitting in the car. So it was just him, the killer and the guy buying drugs, and in that alley he was stabbed to death by the killer and the guy buying drugs. And in that alley he was stabbed to death by the killer and the only one left alive to tell who it was was just this one guy. With one witness alone, we couldn't make a case. You need more than that. You need more detail, you need more evidence, you need to bring it together. That's what we want to do for you today to help you understand why and how Jesus Christ ended up on the cross. Jesus Christ, we know, changed the world, but let's see how did he get there.
Speaker 1:Well, there's a name that you know, that is, I think, most on the planet would know. When you say it, it's synonymous with bad, it's synonymous with informing, it's synonymous with being a snitch, and that is a Judas. A Judas synonymous with being a snitch, and that is a Judas, a Judas. But the name Judas at this time was a good name. It was actually a very good name and, if you look at it, judas was well known because there's a couple different Judases in the New Testament. Now, people would name their dog Judas, but not a human being. Nobody's going to name their child Judas, in our culture at least.
Speaker 1:So, as you look at this, how did this one, this guy who's so rotten, this betrayer, how did that happen? How did he get there? Well, let me tell you this let's go back and let's study and see what was really happening. What did the scriptures say about Judas? And let's see if we can't put together this story that led to the crucifixion of Jesus. If we start first, we want to understand Judas.
Speaker 1:So it says he was Judas Iscariot, and it's interesting, in the New Testament times there were no last names, only first names. So that's why it was Jesus of Nazareth, because you'd say there's 10 Jesuses here, but this one was from Nazareth. Okay, the guy from Nazareth. Or it would sometimes say the father's name. So Judas, the son of Joseph, let's say.
Speaker 1:Well, in this case, the other way, is Judas Iscariot, and they think that this was referring to Kiriath, part of Judea. It was a location. Now, this is interesting because you had Judea and you had Galilee. So Jesus and the other apostles you remember they're up at Capernaum and he meets them there and he recruits them up by the Sea of Galilee. Well, judas is the only one who comes from this area in Judea. Different area, different place to grow up. He was either his family would have been farmers, tradesmen, shepherd but around there they had more Roman soldiers, more antagonism to the Romans.
Speaker 1:Some believe that Judas was even part of this zealot group that really wanted to overthrow the Romans and that maybe that's what attracted him to following Jesus is that he thought that he could rebel and get Jesus to take over everything. We don't know that, but we do know this Judas went from being a wonderful human being, so wonderful that he was trusted in the group that he was in. He was selected as the best guy. Think about it to carry the money. You only would get the treasurer to be a really good guy, and Judas was selected to do that. Who was he selected by? Was it a bad pick? Was it bad planning? No, jesus Christ selected Judas and it says in John 6, 70 to 71, one of 12, jesus chose is an ally of Satan. Get this. He says about him. He actually became Jesus' close friend.
Speaker 1:Psalm 41.9, a prophetic Psalm, says this my close friend, in whom I trusted, that's who betrayed Jesus. So Judas went with Jesus for three years sorry, for three years walking everywhere, talking with him, learning him, watching the miracles happen. He knew all about Jesus and Jesus knew all about Judas, but the other guys with him. Judas did nothing to indicate that he was unhappy, that he was angry that he was going to betray Jesus. You know how do we know that? Well, at the Last Supper, if you remember, jesus announces one here will betray me. And not everybody stopped right then and said Judas, you, no good, you're going to betray him. No, nobody thought it was Judas. They looked around and they said who would betray him? Who would betray him? It certainly wouldn't be me. So Judas had a great cover.
Speaker 1:Judas began this thoughts towards betrayal, treachery, on a path that we don't know what began to turn, except that the Bible says this, that the scriptures say that Satan entered Judas. Very interesting in spiritual warfare we know that Satan can tempt us, satan can cause us difficulties, but for Satan to enter him, that's John 13, 27,. This is what really started the crucifixion. So what happened was Judas would have gone to the high priest Now to help you understand, there would have been law enforcement. So today's world.
Speaker 1:I dealt with informants all the time. So informants would come into us. I remember one guy coming in because his uncle had been killed by a gang of criminals and he wanted us to catch him. So he came in to give us information, to inform on them, so we could go catch the ones who killed his uncle. It was get back. It was vengeance, was his motivation, lots of motivation For Judas.
Speaker 1:We know the different motivation here. We know for sure was money, because there's some that suggest, well, maybe he was mad because Jesus wasn't going to rule, maybe he was mad because Jesus wasn't. But the Bible doesn't say that at all. Matter of fact, the Bible says that he is the son of destruction, the Hebrew one destined for this mission. He was evil, downright evil. A matter of fact, we hear description after description in the book of Acts, where he says that he was treacherous, that there was treachery. He acted as a guide.
Speaker 1:Here's what happened. He, like the informants, like I, started to say they came to these guys. Now let me explain to you. He didn't go to the local police. There were no local police, but there was a group of religious leaders that controlled the Jewish population. Now, then there were the Romans, who had the physical strength to control the society and they were in charge. But with Judas, what he did was he went to his own Jewish leaders and he said to them I know, you've been looking for Jesus. Now you say, why would they look for Jesus. Why were they trying to kill an innocent man? Well, because he had been threatening their authority. He had been threatening them and telling them that they were sinful and they were living a corrupt religion, and for that they could have no patience. He was threatening them in popularity too. He was so popular, jesus was so popular that some believed. John MacArthur says that he healed everybody in Israel during his three years. Jesus was powerful, he was widespread, he was known, and about a week or two weeks before this, he had raised somebody from the dead, and this was. Everybody was talking about that, of course. So here it is.
Speaker 1:Judas goes, and he would have approached those leaders with his plan. It said that he planned it knowingly to betray him. And what did he do? To hand him over to them. That's exactly what he's going to do Take his good friend, who he'd seen doing all this, and hand him over to them. Now, in those days in Rome, there would have been no idea like long-term punishment. Jails were even made as very small and horrible settings that were just short-term to try to get him to execution. So when Judas turned him over to him, he knew that he was getting him executed. Judas goes to him. He probably made this plan with them three weeks before. Now the plan was a little bit more than you think. The plan was that he had to know some inside stuff. Only Judas knew where Jesus went to pray alone. Only Judas would have been at that dinner at the Last Supper who could tell them everything that Jesus was saying and how important it was that they did this. Now, only Judas knew the movements of Christ on that night and his normal patterns. And so when he went to him he said I'm going to help you catch him and I'm going to hand him over to him.
Speaker 1:And you know what the Bible says about the cheap priests when they heard from their informant it says they were delighted. They were delighted. They were betrayed. They were excited. I mean, they were excited by the betrayal. And then the scriptures say they agreed. But they gave him money. Money drove Judas 30 pieces of silver, something like a month's wages back then. Just to give you some idea in terms of what he sold Jesus out for A month's wages. So you figure what you make in a year. You got it all in one month. You got it one time.
Speaker 1:Judas then knows they're at the Garden of Gethsemane. He takes them and takes the temple guards, because now there were some guys with them because the temple had police or guards around them. So they took them with them. They go up and they went in a group and Judas is leading the group, his good friend leading the group, and can you imagine that moment? All the other apostles now they see who's betraying them. Jesus seeing them, even though Jesus knew it had to be.
Speaker 1:We know that Jesus felt pain, felt discouragement, felt the disappointment. And so here Judas walks up and, even worse than just saying in the crowd, he's over there, he walked up and he kissed him. He kissed him the ultimate of betrayal. He took their friendship, he showed affection for the one he was about to murder, right, well, you know the rest of the story, except you may not know that Judas was guilty. It was so much guilt for him that the scriptures say that, as they describe him, judgment is coming to the man whom betrayed Jesus. Jesus, it says, while he was praying there, right before Jesus was kissed by Judas. It says that he was in agony, that he anguished, he was deeply distressed and he prayed more intently. And then this guy walks up with the kiss, jesus goes into chains. He then goes through multiple trials and ends up being crucified. It was at that time.
Speaker 1:Judas' reaction was not to spend the money. Matter of fact, he took the money back and tried to give it back to the priest. They said you can't give it back now it's yours. And through that, they ended up buying this plot of land and they named it and they kept it, and it's still there today. Or at the time of the writing of the New Testament, and they kept it and it's still there today. Or at the time of the writing of the New Testament, jesus, excuse me, judas.
Speaker 1:Here, then, we have a couple of different options in terms of understanding what happened, but it's clear that he committed suicide. He couldn't live with the guilt anymore. He had betrayed Jesus, and I think the great thing about this story is that Jesus gets on the cross and while he's being murdered innocent, now innocent he's being murdered. He looks at those and Judas was included in this prayer and he says father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. That's the savior. They're hurling insults, they're betraying him, we're turning on him and Jesus says father, forgive them, for they don't know what they do and, as a result, a Roman centurion came to faith right there and, as a result, I sit here today talking to you about Jesus Christ a Gentile, thousands of years later, remembering this story all through the biblical record, to help us understand what happened that day that the most innocent man gets murdered on the cross in Rome that time. I hope this story of Judas helps you to.
Speaker 1:Number one want to study your Bible more, to dig in to understand the scriptures, to understand all that's there. Let the scriptures come together and paint the context of the stories that we read. Second thing I'd want you to do is see the wonderful Jesus. Jesus knew what Judas was going to do from the time he chose him to the time. Judas betrayed him, and yet Jesus loved him. Jesus showed him mercy. Jesus, let him walk with him. This is the love of Jesus. Will you not walk with you or me?
Speaker 1:All of us have been Judas to a degree. All of us have betrayed Christ to some degree, and this is an opportunity for us to see clear as day and hear the words of Jesus Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. This is a wonderful Savior. There's no one, no one, no one ever been like him and to see him in his relationship with Judas alone is just one more way. One more way to see the wonder and the beauty and the majesty of Jesus Christ. More way to see the wonder and the beauty and the majesty of Jesus Christ. Okay, listen, come back. We want to keep studying crimes in the Bible. We want to get in there, dig in, understand what really happened. What happened with the rapes in the Bible? What happened with the murders in the Bible? What happened with the abductions, kidnappings? All these things are in the Bible. We want to study the crimes of the Bible through the eyes of a detective and what we would need to put together the case.
