Am I the only one who thinks that what Jesus did in the bible wasn't a sacrifice? I mean he was tortured and put to death but then just went up to heaven to be with his sky daddy? Yeah sounds like a huuuge sacrifice. Wouldn't a bigger better sacrifice have been him saying I as the son of God will be put to death and be taken down to hell as a payment to Satan so the rest of the people on earth will be spared from that torment after they die? That to me sounds like a sacrifice.
I think the real sacrifice is the Judas paradox. Jesus had to come to Earth and died for our sins, suffer for a few hours, and die. Were it not for Judas, Jesus would never have died for atonement of our sins. Jesus suffers physically for a few hours, Judas is in hell for almost 2000 years. In spite of this, we worship Jesus for his suffering in the role of our atonement while ignoring the greater suffering on the part of Judas (completely ignoring the fact that the entire series of events was pre-determined and Judas was nothing but a pawn in God's plan for Jesus' crucifixion).
If Ghandi and Hitler were at the same party in 1937, and I'm a racist who wants to kill Ghandi, but accidentally kills Hitler preventing the holocaust, does that make me a good person since I saved a bunch of lives?
All I'm saying is that we should factor intention when people do their actions.
Depending on translation and what Bible one reads, Judas was simply trying to provoke Jesus into action or doing as requested.
Or, in my favorite interpretation, singing out his frustrations that he doesn't know how to love him!
Every interpretation I have read basically has it that Judas was as loyal and great as all the other disciples, but after being singled out by Jesus at the feast he is possessed by god (not a demon or satan or something god does this, just like how the pharo of egypt wanted to release the jews during moses time but god hardened his heart so that more suffering could befall egypt.) to go and betray Jesus to the temple priests.
So from what I can see he was not coerced he was downright mind controlled into doing his part in the sacrifice of Jesus yet always comes out in religious classes as the bad guy because he betrayed Jesus.
Of course this all assumes the story told in the bible has any kind of actual validity. What I just mentioned I got when I was bored and reading the bible properly during a bible study where the others were arguing in circles again. Its amazing how much reading the bible properly gives one an insight into how full of crap Christianity really is.
Seriously though, Jesus was gay. The regular references to 'the disciple that Jesus loved' give it away. Not to mention how the other disciples speak to 'the disciple that Jesus loved' because they think he knows something that Jesus told him in private that he hadn't shared with them.