Frustrated or Triumphant?

Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.

Matthew 26:14-16

A small storeowner was being pressured to sell his store to the owners of a large department store who had bought every building on the block, except his. Frustrated by the man’s refusal to sell, they eventually opened their huge store on either side of the small one, with a big banner running from one side to the other, proclaiming in huge letters "GRAND OPENING."

Feeling equally frustrated, the small storeowner did finally outsmart the large department store. Below the grand opening sign, across the front of his small store, the man put up a small banner over his door: "MAIN ENTRANCE."

Well, that is one creative way to deal with frustration. But that’s not usually what we do when we are frustrated.

When we get stuck in frustration, we forget about the needs of others in our hurry to do what we want to do. When our lives stick in a pattern of frustration, we run over others, we become inconsiderate of others, we are in such a hurry to do what we want to do.

Judas Iscariot is a fascinating study in frustration. Here is a man who was trying to get something done. Trying very hard to achieve a goal, but not succeeding. I see Judas as a frustrated man, one whose feelings of frustration pushed him over the edge and into sin and death.

Judas had an agenda. Very likely it was a selfish agenda. He had been pursuing this plan for a while. Maybe for three years, maybe longer. And he couldn’t wait any more. He had to have what he wanted to have.

Isn’t that a parable of our lives? We try to make things fit. We force people to fit our notions of what we want. And when they won’t fit, when they resist, we forget that they are people with feelings. We forget that they can be hurt. We just plunge ahead, impatient to make a name for ourselves, hurrying to get where we are going. We are stuck in frustration, and we take it out on others around us.

Being stuck in frustration is sin. It makes us forget the needs of others in our hurry to have what we want to have. Not only is it that when we are stuck in frustration, we forget how others feel. It is also that we forget how God feels. We have decided that we are going to do things our way, not God’s way. We are going to take over from God, who is impossibly slow and never gets around to giving us what we want!

Let’s give Judas the benefit of the doubt for the moment. Let’s suppose that it wasn’t just greed for money that drove him to betray Jesus. Let’s suppose that it was, as some scholars think, because he thought that God would never let Jesus die, and so, if he, Judas, would just push things along, then God would have to bring the Kingdom, the hated Romans would be driven out, and poof! Everything would be all right. Let’s just suppose that Judas thought he was helping God out by what he did.

Still the issue is that you cannot use immoral means to gain a moral end. You cannot use wrong methods to accomplish right goals. Let me say it very simply: you cannot do good by doing bad! And most of all, you cannot take over from God. That’s why being stuck in frustration is sin. It leads us to take the place of God. We quit asking, "what does God want?" and we decide we already know

Frustration, stuck in frustration, makes us run ahead of God. It makes us second-guess God. It makes us try to force God into doing for us what we want, not what He wants.

Judas betrayed Jesus. His betrayal was the result of living stuck in frustration. It was not only a betrayal of his friend Jesus. It was a betrayal of God, it was a shortchanging of trust, it was a short-circuiting of faith. He just could not wait. He wanted to force the issue. He was stuck in frustration, stuck in sin.

Are you frustrated this morning? There are so many goals you’ve pushed for and you just can’t seem to get there. You just can’t seem to find a way. Are you stuck in frustration?

You have a choice. You can be Judas Iscariot, pushing so hard to have what you want to have. Pushing so hard you care neither for your fellow human beings nor for God Himself. And no matter how hard you push, you will stay stuck in frustration, you will be defeated, exhausted, and dead.

Or you can be with Jesus Christ, who gave His life as a ransom for many. You can press on for the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. You can come unstuck from frustration, pain, and sin. You can choose to follow Jesus, and then you can cry out, as He did, from that cross, "It is finished! It is finished! Hallelujah. It is finished!"

Dear friends frustration is a horrible battle we face on a regular basis. We must not accept the hidden agenda or propaganda and fall to discouragement and frustration. We get frustrated because we get tunnel visioned and don’t see God and His plans. This Lenten Season let us choose to be more like Jesus.

God Bless you.