The Betrayal
Mar 21, 2010
In our Scripture this morning the drama of Jesus’ life takes a decided turn. It was a giant leap toward the fulfillment of God’s plan for the salvation of the His creation. The key player in this giant leap is the enigmatic and erstwhile disciple by the name of Judas Iscariot. We really don’t know too much about Judas, but we all know him by the moniker “traitor,” and the descriptive “Judas who betrayed Jesus.” As Thomas has become known as ‘the Doubter,’ Judas is known as ‘the traitor.’
We do know that Judas was from Kerioth. Iscariot in Hebrew means “a man from Kerioth.” We also know that he was the treasurer of the group and as John informs us, “liked to dip into the till from time to time.” We also know that Judas was the only disciple from the region of Judea, the southern part of Israel. The other disciples were all from Galilee, up north.
Looking at the larger context of this building drama, one of the things we see is the contrast between the event that had just occurred and the event recorded in our Scripture. A woman [John tells us it was Mary, sister to Martha and Lazarus] had just opened a very expensive jar of perfume and anointed Jesus with it. This was an act of extravagant love, yet Judas, the ever practical one complained, saying, “What a waste! This perfume could have been sold and the money given to the poor.” Jesus rebuked Judas and the disciples when He defended her exhibition of love, “Leave her alone. She has done a beautiful thing to me.” Contrast Mary’s response and relationship to Jesus with that of Judas’ response and relationship to Jesus, as we shall see.
In the larger context of this story, we know that the Jewish leaders were looking for a way to get rid of Jesus. His teaching was attracting great crowds and He was more popular than they. These religious authorities were fearful that Jesus would have more influence over the masses than they. In fact on several occasions when they confronted Jesus and tried to trick him and entangle him in His own contradictions, Jesus always turned the tables and came out on top. Fearing Jesus’ popularity and nursing their own bruised egos, these religious leaders conspired to eliminate this pariah. “Better to sacrifice one than to lose the whole people,” reasoned the Chief priest.
Enter Judas who in his “finest hour” did what he became famous for—betraying Jesus. “What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?” The agreed amount was 30 pieces of silver. Why? is the obviously haunting question. Why did Judas do it? There lies in the heart of every human being the potential for the greatest of evils. The pages of history are chock full of such examples of treachery, butchery, chicanery and deceit, murder and mayhem.
But the question is still why? The answer to this question we will never really know this side of eternity. Some however have speculated. One answer to why Judas betrayed Jesus was pure disillusionment. It may be that Judas joined this “band of merry men” because he had in his own mind a preconceived idea, a certain expectation as to what Jesus was all about. We do this sort of thing all the time. The best example is that of young couples who agree to get married. Each of them has predetermined expectations in their own minds about how this marriage was going to work on a day-to-day basis. Often those expectations are vague and uncommunicated, but they shape the bride and groom’s perception of how this marriage thing was going to work. This same kind of thing happens with jobs, with ministry, with buying a car or new house, family gatherings, with churches and with pretty much everything in life.
The Jews always held a burning resentment of the Roman people and longed for the day when the glory of the Kingdom of David would be restored. They looked for a conquering Messiah who would throw off the hated dog collar of these Gentile dogs and who would lead Israel back to power and self-rule. It is very possible that Judas saw this hope in Jesus, interpreting Jesus’ teachings, healings, and miracles through the prism of political uprising and revolution—his own expectations of Jesus. When the realization dawned on Judas that Jesus was not going to lead a revolt against Rome, Judas turned against him and a resentful hatred against Jesus burned in Judas’ heart, so much so that he would turn Jesus in to those who would kill Him. Could this be possible? Can someone turn so dramatically from hope and love and loyalty to hatred, despair and anger? It has amazed me that as I pastor I sit with a young couple, snuggling close on the sofa, holding hands, google-eyeing each other and telling me how much they love each other and sharing how each completes the other. “Why do you want to spend the rest of your life with him/her?” I ask. They always response with “I love him/her and don’t want to live with anyone else.” Their love is deep and exciting and hopeful.
But too many times that same couple is in my office 5-10 years later. One on the sofa, the other on the love seat. And now it is a different story. Their love has been replaced by hatred. Resentment, pain, hurt, dashed hopes, broken promises, sexual liaisons and fractured trust, bitterness, fills the air. How fragile and how easily destroyed is love. Love can so quickly turn to hatred.
Now it may be that while Judas expected Jesus to overthrow the Romans, he didn’t really want Jesus to die. Rather what Judas was doing was to push Jesus into taking action. Judas was becoming impatient. He had seen Jesus confront the puppets of Rome, the religious leaders and heard Jesus call them “vipers, hypocrites, and white-washed tombs.” Judas no doubt cheered Jesus on with a whispered, “Yes!”
So it may be that Judas’ intentions were really pure and that he was trying to force Jesus’ hand and make Jesus act. It is amazing how the human mind works, “Surely if Jesus is confronted by the authorities with arrest and threatened with death, he will have no choice but to act and act decisively and then we can unite and ‘bring it on!’ against Rome. This is in fact the motive used to portray Judas’ character in Jesus Christ Superstar.
The sad part is that Judas in this scenario tried to make Jesus into something He wasn’t, but into somebody Judas wanted Him to be. Don’t we do that? Don’t we try to make Jesus into what we want Jesus to be or what we think Jesus should be! We pray that way, we live that way, we make decisions that way; rather than getting to know Jesus for who He is for ourselves, we shape Jesus into our own image, the way we want Him to be. Just like Judas we end up betraying Jesus ourselves and are no better off than Judas himself.
It is not Jesus who can be changed by us, but we who must be changed by Jesus. Judas’ tragedy is our tragedy because we think we know better than God. It’s called pride.
The final possible reason why Judas betrayed Jesus might be because of his own greed and avarice. Judas was all about “show me the money.” After all he was the first to complain when Mary anointed Jesus with that very, very expensive perfume. Do you think perhaps that “giving it away to the poor” was an attempt to make himself look altruistic and caring about the poor when all along he was thinking about dipping his own hand into that extra money? In fact John records in his gospel this sad fact and even called Judas ‘a thief.’ “The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. Who can know it?” If indeed this is the real motive for Judas’ action he has struck one of the most heinous bargains in history—the life of Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Today that would be worth about $600.00.
What price is a life worth? In our society kids are killed for their designer jackets, for their Michael Jordan sneakers, for their gold chains, or their fancy-dancy I-pods, for $20 in their wallets, or $80 in the cash register and sadly for many other pathetic reasons. Greed is a sin that people would kill for.
We can lift up the stature of Judas by giving him high and lofty and noble reasons for his betrayal. In fact some believe that Judas was really doing God’s will as ludicrous as that is. But it wouldn’t surprise me one bit to learn that the real reason for Judas’ betrayal of Jesus was for the money, the filthy lucre.
What is the value of the life of one man? For this man Jesus it is the salvation of the world. How can you put a price tag on that? Paul tells us, “We were bought with a price, the precious blood of Jesus Christ.” (I Corinthians 6:20)
Whatever the real reason for Judas’ betrayal, God turned the tables on Satan, on Pontius Pilate and on the Jewish religious leaders. What they meant for evil and destruction, God meant for good and for our redemption. You can’t control Jesus. You can’t fashion Jesus in your own image. You can’t use him for your own financial gain.
What you can do is give Him your life and let Him do far more with your life than you ever could.