Judas

Just as a note up-front, yes I know in my previous post I used greed twice and left out wrath. I'll fix it soon.
As for the content, I've been reading about some film-maker, who says that in all his films, he tries to keep out any antagonist, because he believes there is no one person who is completely responsible for a major conflict and his or her death is the sole solution to it. I know this is an opinion I have talked about before, but when I read that opinion, I started wondering about if other stories follow that principle. So far, none the literature I've read in school has proven to have a realistic antagonist, nor have many of the books and movies I read or watch for pleasure. The I thought about it in terms of the bible.
If you asked most christians who the antagonist of the bible was, the knee-jerk reaction is to respond satan. But since I don't believe in satan in the first place, and he isn't really an antagonist that can be over-come (As long as it holds true that no humans, be Jesus sides, are sinless). So, as far as the Christ story goes, most people consider Judas the big-bad guy. And since I can't think of anyone else like that, let's go with him.
In case you're not familiar with the story of Judas (Or are victim to the rumors about him, such as he used the first ever gun to kill himself), more or less his story goes like this: He was one of the disciples, starting with high hopes of the son of god crushing the evil romans underfoot. He became the sort of treasurer of the disciples and sometimes took more that his own share for himself. Later, when it became apparent Jesus  was not the expected military leader, he sold him out to the romans, and Jesus was crucified. Later, Judas killed himself out of remorse.
 Now, that is very different from the traditional antagonist story. For one thing, he seems to see Jesus as the sort of traditional hero, the one who fights people so evil they aren't really people, but monsters. For one thing, those kind of people don't exist, and Jesus sees that. So, after his vision is crushed, yes he sells Jesus out to the romans, and yes he gets payed for it. But now his vision is changed, seeing Jesus as the person who isn't a person.
But the thing is, the antagonist never has remorse in most stories. That's what separates the bible from books and movies, it has people who are really people, each one of them. Judas knows he did a wrong, and takes it out on himself.
If Judas had resisted his urge to commit suicide, would Jesus condemn him? Hurt him? At the very least lecture him? I say probably not, unless Jesus was some sort of hypocrite or else dying changed him a lot. Remember the story of the parodical son? Yes, this is a fair bit more than wasting your savings, but since Judas felt remorse more painful than any cross of torture Jesus suffered, Jesus would have welcomed him and save him, even if the Other disciples might  loath and despise him.
Speaking of which, have you ever wondered: what if Jesus has already come back, in some third world country or distant land. What if he's out there now with his own group of followers, waiting for us to hear.