Happy Zombie Savior Day!

This requires a bit of a disclaimer as to qualifications and credentials before we begin. I'm not sure if you've picked up on this already, but I am not a christian. I was raised Methodist, though not very strictly. I did go to sunday school. I'm reasonably certain that my confirmation bible is on the bookshelf currently to my left, but I'm not going to get it out to check any of my claims. In other words, I've done about as much research for this Easter post as Gibson did for Passion of the Christ. So here we go.

This Easter, I'd like to bring your attention to one of the most important and yet most underappreciated characters in christian mythology. Judas. Christianity would have nowhere near the signifigance, following, or global importance that it has today without the brave, and admittingly controversial, actions of Judas Escargot. (ok, maybe I should have at least checked the bible for spelling.)

Ask a few christians what the most important story in the bible is. Most will say the death and ressurrection of Jesus. But did Jesus plan this? No. Sure, he knew he was going be betrayed, but he didn't betray himself. There wouldn't have been any crucifixion without Judas actually doing something about it. The primary symbol of the entire religion, the cross? Wouldn't mean anything without Judas. If Jesus had gone on to tell his happy little psalms until he died of old age, what sort of symbol would you use to ward of vampires? An old man in a bed? Who's going to wear that around their neck? Without Judas christianity would have fizzled away after a few generations. There's no recruitment power in "Jesus told some cute stories about how we should be nicer to each other, then lived a long and happy life," is there?

Judas did what needed to be done for Jesus's teachings to grow and last for millenia. All the other disciples just sat around wondering why they were all on the same side of the table. So remember Judas this Easter, and stop picking on the guy. Three cheers for Judas!

Runners up / Honorable Mentions:

Thomas. I've always sort of liked Thomas. Not so much because of the doubting, but the results of it: Thomas is pretty much the only person to get a straight, direct answer from Jesus to his doubts. Jesus didn't say to Thomas "God works in mysterious ways" or "Just have faith, I don't need to prove anything." No. Jesus said to Thomas "Come here and stick your hand in this bloody wound in my side so you can feel with your own senses and no that it's me. DON'T just take everyone's word for it, check this out." We need Thomas around these days, he could get us some answers about dinosaurs and war and evolution and tsunamis.

The Romans. Every time there's a ridiculously graphic retelling of the crucifixion story you get a bunch of arguement about it reminding everyone that Jews killed Jesus. And I just gave Judas most of the credit, too. Isn't it about time we gave the Romans some credit for the actual Christ-killing? And the torture and the cross and all, they did that. They could have just stabbed him. Then there'd have been no passion and suffering, and maybe christians would support euthanasia instead of dragging out everyone's pain.
You know, the Romans brutally murdered Jesus for your sins. Isn't it time you accepted the Romans into your heart?