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Ever make a mistake? Of course you have. Who hasn't? We'll get to Him later. People make mistakes all the time. It doesn't mean that they're bad people. It just means that either they weren't paying too close attention or stepped into a situation too quickly to realize what was happening. Much like the story of the hospital patient who fainted when she was told she was to be discharged. When the nurse said, "We're sending you home today," the woman thought she had said, "We're sending you home to die."

For that matter there was the German man who was so down on his luck that he wanted to die. He decided to commit suicide and had heard that you could do that by turning on the gas in a gas cooking stove and putting your head into the baking chamber. He suddenly reconsidered what he was doing and called the police. Before the police could arrive the man was a nervous wreck. What did he do to help himself relax? He lit a cigarette. The police arrived to find the house in a shambles and the man gratefully still alive.

However, my favorite has to be the woman who came home to find her husband in the kitchen shaking uncontrollably with what looked like a wire running from his waist to the electric kettle. Sure that he was being electrocuted she found a board and whacked him with it a couple of times breaking his arm in two places. She did save him. His ear piece fell out and he was no longer happily listening to his Walkman. People make mistakes that sometimes have problematic consequences.

There are those who look at Jesus' choice of Judas from Iscaria as a mistake in choosing a disciple. In His epic prayer of John 17 He almost seems to apologize for losing Judas. In John 17:12 Jesus says to His Father, "While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. Those whom you have given me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition (Judas)." Did Jesus make a mistake? For that matter, did God? After all, Jesus pointed out that they were given to Him by His Father.

Yes, there is a mistake. But it is ours and not His. We often pick a phrase or a sentence and lift it out of the pericope. What follows in that same verse displays purpose to Judas' choice as a follower and not mistake. To finish the quote, "Those who you have given me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled." Jesus and His Father needed Judas' heart for the final stroke of salvation. Betrayal. That was Judas' mistake. It's okay to misunderstand someone's words, use poor judgment once or wrongly assess a situation. Betraying Jesus is a mistake we must all choose not to make.

"The Way" from Kevin Pauley

The Second Sin