The Betrayer

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

THE BETRAYER

Matt 26:14-16

14 Then one of the Twelve — the one called Judas Iscariot — went to the chief priests 15 and asked, "What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?" So they counted out for him thirty silver coins. 16 From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over.

NIV

It has always been interesting to ponder why Judas did what he did and whether Jesus chose him because he would be the betrayer. When we consider Judas, we have several facts that give us a look into his character. First, he was given the task of being the keeper of the purse, or we would say is the treasurer of the church. We know from accounts that he was a thief. We do not know what he did with the money that he embezzled, or simply stole from the purse. It is obvious there were people who supported the ministry of this troop of men. We know some were women, such as Lydia who appears to have had a business selling purple cloth. However, the money came into the purse, and Judas found some sly way to relieve some of it for his own purpose. The question we have is what he did with the money he stole. If he was also with Jesus, and the other eleven when did he have time to use his stolen money for his own pleasure. From what Matthew tells us here, he went and made a deal with the chief priests to betray Jesus. From other accounts and from Matthew’s account we know it was for thirty pieces of silver. So, we are left with the thought that Judas decided to serve money rather than God because he certainly heard Jesus say that we cannot serve both God and money, that we will love the one and despise the other, therefore we would have to conclude that Judas despised Jesus and that is why he betrayed him. We know that some would suggest that Judas did this because he felt that Jesus would not get to the cross and fulfill the scripture unless he took charge of the situation. But that just does not fit his character. Then there is the idea of whether Jesus knew from the beginning about Judas, and that is the reason he called him so that he would be the one to make sure Jesus did fulfill the scripture. Jesus knew he had to go to the cross, it was the reason he came, so he needed a way for the chief priests and the elders to have him arrested and turned over to the Romans to be crucified. If Judas had not betrayed him, how was he going to get crucified? Judas was a bad man all the while he was with Jesus. This leads us to believe that is it possible for men to be bad while appearing to serve Jesus. What we desire is that we are not one of them. But how do we define a bad man? Certainly, we would not betray Jesus. Surely, we would not want to serve money over Jesus or try to serve both. We also know there is a difference between our personality and our character. Judas must have put on a façade for the benefit of all the others, which would have been his personality, but our character is who we are when we are alone, and Judas had a character of thievery and betrayal. So we look inside and examine our character and make adjustments to flaws as revealed by the Spirit. We would never ever what to betray Jesus in any way.