Articles
Betrayer
Betrayer
“Et tu, Brute?”
Jesus hand-selected the twelve disciples, His close group of followers who would be His ambassadors, record keepers, friends, and one would be his betrayer.
The name Judas was a common name at the time, and even one of Jesus’ own brothers was named Judas. The disciples are extremely specific in their writings as to who this Judas was, though. The apostle Judas is often followed by his epithet or byname, “Iscariot” which means “the man from Kerioth,” a city of Moab located in the south of Judea. This is to distinguish him from any other for the same reason, any time the disciples are all listed, he is listed last. Judas Iscariot was the one who would betray Jesus.
Everyone has their internal battles where temptation has a stronger hold over them than other things. Judas’ was money as shown in the house of Lazarus, Mary, and Martha from John 12:3-6:
Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it.
Whether or not the disciples knew of Judas’ treachery at this point is unknown, but it was made known to them at some point to be put into scripture. Judas’ weakness was money, and he had been put in charge of the treasury of the disciples. He should have made this an opportunity to be right with the handling of the money, but he chose instead to indulge himself.
Satan made this weakness a tool to be used when Judas came to the chief priests in Matthew 26:14-16:
Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.
His love for money overshadowed his loyalty to his Lord and the thirty pieces of silver as prophesied in Zechariah 11:12-13 would be the worst decision of Judas’ life. As Jesus said in Matthew 26:24, “It would have been better for [Judas] if he had not been born.”
The silver haunted Judas much like in Poe’s short story of the Tell Tale Heart. The man in the story had killed an innocent old man who frightened him because of the man’s eye being cloudy and “vulture-like.” Eventually, the old man is buried under the beams of the man’s house and the guilt of the man is so terrible it is manifested as hearing the man’s heart beating loudly under the floorboards. The man is driven to madness.
Judas fared no better. In Matthew 27:3-5 Judas is overcome with so much guilt, he tries to take back the money, and throws it into the temple, and in his extreme distress, hangs himself.
Dante places Judas in a special place in the lowest level of hell being gnawed on by Satan for all eternity. In our very language, the name “Judas” is synonymous with treachery. His story still has benefit to us, though. It was his love of money which brought him to betray Christ. Any time we give in to the devil’s temptation we do the same, betraying the blood of Christ as He died for us and our sins. Would we be so flippant with His immense gift as to throw it away for something so inane as a worldly desire which is only for a fleeting time? Is it worth an eternity of guilt wishing we could just return thirty pieces of silver?
Lance Byers
1/25/2024
- Betrayer_01-25-25.pdf (49.60 kB)
