Betrayed

Judas Iscariot is known as the disciple who betrayed Jesus! As I was studying more about Judas, I realized in several passages in the New Testament, that he was not only known as gaining money in the betrayal of Jesus around the time just before Jesus’ crucifixion but also “he was a thief and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it.” So he helped himself as he pleased!

Judas also questioned why the woman who spread oil on Jesus’ feet, used this oil that cost so much. He questioned why this money wasn’t used to feed the poor! He had an ulterior motive though! He did not care about feeding the poor, he wanted it for himself! He appears to be greedy and selfish!

Jesus knew what Judas was going to do though, even calling Him the devil. John 13:27 even says that “Satan entered into him.” He told him to go ahead and do what he was going to do though! As much as Jesus foreknew what was going to happen, I wonder why Jesus still chose Judas to be one of His 12 disciples. Peter denied Him, Peter, James and John fell asleep when He needed them in His difficult time in the garden. Now, Judas betrayed Him for thirty pieces of silver. They don’t seem like the kind of followers I envisioned that Jesus had.

The rest of the story of Judas betraying Jesus goes like this:

• Judas asked the chief priests what they would give him if he delivered Jesus to them
• At that point, he sought an opportunity to betray Him!
• Jesus said to Judas” would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?”
• Judas led the men who would take Jesus away, towards Him and gave Him a kiss! How deceitful and hateful!
• Jesus identified to His disciples, the one who would betray Him

Prophesy was fulfilled from Jeremiah that said ” And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of Him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel.”

Matthew 27:9

Judas realized what he did, tried to give his money back but could not give it back because it was used as blood money. He took the money instead, bought a field ( known as Akeldama, the Field of Blood) and hung himself!

I’m sure that there was a lot of guilt there!

The Love of money is the root of all evil!

Judas Loved money! We can see it through many of these verses. His Love of money drove his decisions, especially to betray our Savior Jesus and send Him to the cross!

“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other, you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.”

Matthew 6:24 (NIV)

Being blessed financially isn’t wrong, having the ability to make good choices with money we have isn’t wrong. It is when we allow money to drive our decisions, good or bad, that we become enslaved to money and serve the wrong master!

We can betray the Lord ourselves, when we choose money, people, time or anything that takes our mind off of Him and we make a higher priority than Him! Take a few minutes to think about what might be distracting you from your relationship with Jesus and quiet the noise in your life so you can focus on Him.