Make no mistake: You are a life manager, and your objective is to manage your life in a way that generates high-quality results. –TV psychologist PHILLIP McGRAW
Every few pages in the New Testament we encounter someone named John, Simon, or Judas.
As to the latter, there's Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus. Then there is Judas, surnamed Thaddeus (Luke 6:16), also one of the Twelve. In the Acts of the Apostles there's a reference to Judas the Galilean (5:37) and to another Judas, also called Barsabbas (15:22).
The most famous Simon, of course, is Peter (Simon Barjona), but a second disciple also bears that name. He is referred to as Simon the Zealot or Simon the Canaanite. In the gospels we meet Simon the leper, with whom Jesus dined (Mark 14:3), and Simon of Cyrene, who bore his cross. Then, in Acts, there's one more Simon, the tanner (10:6). An interesting piece of trivia is that the name of the father of Judas Iscariot was—you guessed it!—Simon.
As for John, we all know of John the Baptist and John the disciple. But don't forget John, surnamed Mark, who wrote the second gospel, and another John who was the father of Peter and Andrew. (Simon Barjona means "Simon, son of John").
Jesus was related by blood to a John (the Baptist). Of Jesus' four brothers, one was named Simon and another Judas. The latter was the author of the next-to-last book in the Bible. In fact, a Simon, a John, or a Judas wrote the last seven books of the New Testament.
To explain this phenomenon, we must go back 160 years before the birth of Jesus to Modein, a small village seventeen miles northwest of Jerusalem. A Jewish priest named Mattathias is standing before the local altar facing the decision of a lifetime. Armed Syrian officers are commanding him to offer a sacrifice to a pagan god. To obey is public blasphemy; to refuse is certain death.
This scene is part of a life-and-death drama unfolding across the whole nation. Antiochus Epiphanes—the supreme ruler of the eastern half of the Greek empire, a man pathologically obsessed with the spread of Greek culture—has gone so far as to make worship of the Greek gods mandatory in Israel. Already, thousands have remained true to Yahweh God and been slain. Women who have defied Antiochus and circumcised their babies have been executed with their dead infants draped over their necks. In Jerusalem, the sacred Temple has been desecrated by an offensive act: a pig, of all things, has been sacrificed to Zeus on its altar.
This wave of persecution has now come to Modein, and Mattathias the priest is ordered to offer the first heathen sacrifice. The year is 167 B.C. As a crowd of nervous worshipers looks on, he makes his final decision:
Even if all the nations that live under the rule of the king obey him, and have chosen to do his commandments, departing each from the religion of his fathers, yet I and my sons and my brothers will live by the covenant of our fathers. Far be it from me to desert the law and the ordinances. We will not obey the king’s words by turning aside from our religion to the right hand or to the left. –1 Maccabees 2:19-22
Another Jew, fearing mass execution, steps forward and volunteers to offer the sacrifice in his behalf. In a violent rage, Mattathias slays the Jew and the king's officers and levels the altar. Then he takes to the hills with all who would join his new cause. From the wilderness of Judea he wages guerilla warfare on the forces of Antiochus Epiphanes. Among those at his side are his five sons. The three oldest are named John, Simon, and Judas.
Upon the death of Mattathias a year later, Judas assumes leadership of the rebel forces. He is able to use his cunning military genius to full advantage because Antiochus is busy dealing with problems elsewhere. Though vastly outmanned, Judas defeats the Syrian general Appolonius at the Battle of Samaria, then gets the better of General Seran in the valley of Bethbara. To top it all, he leads six thousand ill-equipped warriors to victory over fifty thousand enemy troops at Mizpah.
Such sudden, decisive blows earn Judas the nickname Maccabeus, translated "the hammer." They also attract the undivided attention of Epiphanes, who quickly dispatches General Lysias, sixty thousand foot soldiers, and five thousand cavalry with specific instructions to annihilate the Jews. By this time Judas is down to a mere three thousand fighters. Incredibly, he beats the odds again and secures another victory at the Battle of Emmaus, a mere seven miles from Jerusalem. Then he proceeds to liberate the capital and purify the Temple. The date is December 25, 165 B.C., celebrated every year thereafter with the eight-day Festival of Lights, better known as Hanukkah. Within a few months the Maccabean revolt succeeds in liberating almost all of Palestine, and Judas and his brothers become national heroes. Not surprisingly, every mother and father want to name their son John or Simon or Judas.
When Antiochus dies in a military campaign in Persia in 163 B.C., General Lysias—no doubt with revenge on his mind—gathers a massive force of 120,000 just south of Jerusalem. At his disposal are thirty-two war elephants, to whom he offers grape and mulberry wine before unleashing them toward the Jews in a drunken stampede. Judas has no recourse but to retreat into Jerusalem. Lysias surrounds the city on all sides, and it seems only a matter of time before the Jews must surrender or die of starvation. Just when the last vestige of hope is evaporating, Lysias learns of a threat in another area of the empire and quickly makes peace with Judas. The Jews are granted freedom to worship their own God in exchange for political loyalty to Syria.
The popularity of Judas, now at fever pitch, is magnified all the more by his premature death in 160 B.C. while attempting to squelch civil insurrection. His older brother Simon, an able diplomat, is successful in gaining complete political and religious independence in 142 B.C., the first taste of true freedom the Jews have enjoyed in four hundred years. Simon himself becomes both high priest and supreme ruler of Israel. After his death, the Hasmoneans (descendants of the Maccabees) rule seventy years more, eventually falling to the rising power of Rome. Even then, the adulation of John, Simon, and Judas continues unabated. In fact, it increases to new heights during a resurgence of nationalistic zeal at the turn of the first century. No wonder we meet so many Jewish males in the New Testament with these names!
Fast-forward now to modern history. Think with me of famous people named John or Simon. There’s John Kennedy, John Glenn, John Lennon, Johnny Carson, Elton John, Pope John Paul, and Johnny Unitas. Consider Paul Simon and Carly Simon in the musical world, Simon Cowell of American Idol, Israeli politician Simon Peres, the television show Simon & Simon, book publisher Simon and Schuster, and the childhood game Simon Says. Add to this list all the Johns and Simons in your own family, community, school, or workplace.
But what about Judas? I personally don’t know of one person, famous or not, who today bears this name. Do you? If a Judas can somewhere be found, he must indeed be the rare exception. That moniker, once so popular, has completely lost its appeal. History reveals that by the end of the first century few boys are given the name. You can easily guess who is responsible. With a kiss in Gethsemane, Judas Iscariot did more than secure the death of Jesus. He crucified the good name of Judas Maccabeus as well.
Do you see the message for you today? Before you is a lifetime of opportunity to do good or ill. The choices you make will have far-reaching effects. Heed the words of Mark Antony in Shakespeare’s
Julius Caesar: "The evil that men do lives after them." That’s true, but also remember that the good lives on as well. When you die, will this world be a better or worse place because you lived? Will you be a Maccabeus or an Iscariot?
