Is it a sin to view Judas as a sympathetic figure? If there is any man in history to embody the forms of despair and self-torment, it is Judas and those are feelings which all flesh and blood beings experience--even Christ can lose hope and anguish. If we can say mankind resembles the image of his creator, we can also say, to an extent, that man resembles the epitome of his own sin and despair which is Judas. The crucifixion is a beautiful image, but it cannot be so without first being horrifying. Equally so, there cannot be a saviour without there first being a sin or a betrayal to first necessitate that salvation.
