betrayer

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

BETRAYER

Mark 14:10-11

10 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. 11 They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over.

NIV

Before we get in the Passover meal, we need to deal just with Judas for a moment. We know what is going to happen because we have read this narrative many times and it is not news to us of his betrayal of Jesus. We know how and where it is going to happen and we will get to that portion of the gospel in due time. However, before us is this question of why did he decide to go to the chief priest and betray Jesus. Mark does not give us as full of an account of this betrayal as Matthew does. What we know is that Judas bargained with them and asked how much they would pay him to betray Jesus. The price of thirty pieces of silver has some history with the Jewish people. First according to the law if a slave is accidentally killed, or as in Exodus 21, if a bull accidentally gores a slave, the owner of the bull must pay thirty shekels of silver to the owner of the slave. We also know that Zechariah was paid thirty pieces of silver for which we would have to go into great detail and it would take way too long, but the point is the Lord told him to “throw it the potter”, the handsome price at which they price me. All this was to fit together as the chief priests came up with that price that which they were willing to put a price on Jesus. But the question still bewilders us as to why did Judas do this betrayal. We know he was the holder of the treasury of the Lord and his disciples. Judas was the money keeper and we know that at times he helped himself to some of the cash. We are not sure why and what he did with it, but the point being he was still a thief all the while either pretending to be a disciple of Jesus or just could not help himself from sinning because the temptation was too much for him. But then why and who elected him to be the keeper of the money? It had to be Jesus would made Judas the money keeper. We know all the teaching of Jesus about where our treasure is, there also is our heart. Jesus surely was putting his money where his mouth was, in a sense, giving Judas the money. What do we learn from this? First, we also know that this had to be so that Jesus would be betrayed, so he would go to the cross, as this was the full reason for his coming to earth so that he could be the sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sin. We have dealt with the idea of betraying Jesus and that if by some of our attitudes and or behaviors, in some sense do we betray Jesus. Specifically in this concept about money. Have we put too much trust in money, and not enough trust in Jesus? Sure, we trust him for our salvation, but how much do we trust him for all aspects of our life. Let us make sure we allow nothing gets us distracted from following Jesus.