Saturday, August 20, 2005

"Because he was a thief..."

John 12:1-6. NASB95
1 Jesus, therefore, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
2 So they made Him a supper there, and Martha was serving; but Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him.
3 Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
4 But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was intending to betray Him, *said,
5 "Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to poor people?"
6 Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it.
Judas had the money box, entrusted with that which was held in common by Jesus and the disciples. John knew he was a thief. Did Jesus?

If He did, was Jesus trying to say something about human nature? Letting a thief take charge of what was held in common?

Why did Jesus leave a thief in charge of the money box? If Jesus knew, does not that make Him complicit in the thefts? Of course, God knows everything, and that does not make Him complicit in the evils men commit.
Philippians 2:6,7. NASB95
6 who, although He [Jesus] existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,
7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
Jesus laid down the “perquisites of godhood.” Did He also lay aside omniscience, the ability of God to know all things?

I do not have any answers on this. Just questions.