The Teacher

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

THE TEACHER

Matt 26:47-50

47 While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived. With him was a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people. 48 Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: "The one I kiss is the man; arrest him." 49 Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, "Greetings, Rabbi!" and kissed him. 50 Jesus replied, "Friend, do what you came for." 

NIV

You betray me with a kiss? These might be the words Jesus said, at least from our perspective, as Luke records these are the words of Jesus, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of man with a kiss?”   It is interesting that Jesus calls Judas his comrade, which is a more directed translation of the Greek word than a friend. Although the word friend carries the sense that Jesus does not consider Judas a trader, an enemy. This would fit right into the words of Jesus about loving our enemies and not just our friends. However, here they came, a complete crowd of people, some of them were the temple guards, who had swords. There could have been some Roman soldiers, as Josephus makes mentions of that. However, most of this band were the chief priests, the elders, the temple guards, and perhaps simple some onlookers, wanting to see what all this crowd was doing leaving Jerusalem in the evening and led by one of the disciples of Jesus. We don’t know if it was dark yet, although close to it, as Jesus has told Peter before this night is over and the rooster crows that he would deny him. So we can imagine this crowd may have had torches and as they left Jerusalem traveling down and through the Kidron Valley and up the slope to the garden of Gethsemane, they would not have been missed being seen the whole way. It was no surprise at their arrival in the garden. The last time Jesus came and saw Peter, James, and John asleep again, he said, “Look, the hour is near”, which indicates he saw the crowd crossing through the Kidron Valley. Of course, Jesus being God could have seen them with his eyes closed, nevertheless, this was the physical. It is also interesting that as Judas came into the presence of Jesus, he called him teacher as he betrayed him with a kiss. What do we do with all this information? How do we glean a truth for our lives from this account? We know that all scripture is profitable for rebuking, correcting, teaching, and training in righteousness so that we will be fully equipped for every good work. Perhaps that is just that, that as Judas called him teacher, we should also see Jesus as not just our Lord and Savior, but as our teacher. We should see ourselves therefore as his disciples, his students, always being teachable, always learning from his word. This would mean we cannot get too set in our thinking, or what we believe is true. The truth is not the truth because we believe it is the truth. The truth is because Jesus said it is, and we need to always be open to seeing the truth as Jesus means the truth to be because he is our teacher.