Mark 14:1, 10-11, 17-20
“Now the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them.”
“They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over… When evening came, Jesus arrived with the Twelve. While they were reclining at the table eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me—one who is eating with me.” They were saddened, and one by one they said to him, “Surely you don’t mean me?” “It is one of the Twelve,” he replied, “one who dips bread into the bowl with me.”
The plot thickens! Talk about a Hollywood murder mystery…the Bible story can rival any scriptwriter’s imagination, except that this drama is all about the truth.
The focus shifts to the one shady character in this eternally conceived “stage production”. Strange that Jesus should have chosen Judas Iscariot as one of His closest associates, and that after a night of prayer! Did He know who this man really was?
Since Jesus never did anything without the Father’s instruction and direction, grace offered Judas the opportunity, either to have an integral part in the disciples’ participation in Jesus’ mission on earth, or to be the one to drive the story forward to its inevitable conclusion. The choice was up to him.
Imagine that! Jesus knew, from the beginning of His association with the Twelve, that there was a rotten apple in the box. Strangely enough, the other eleven were completely unsuspecting. So good was Judas at hiding his true colours that he had them completely fooled. When Jesus was about to disclose what was about to happen in the next few hours, and who would betray Him, they had no idea who among them would commit such a dastardly deed.
What shaped Judas’ final decision? We don’t know except that there are pointers to his inner workings, probably more than one of his character traits, that drew him towards his action, and his expectations that Jesus had failed to fulfil.
First, Judas loved money. It seems that, in his choice of master, he chose money.
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
Matthew 6:24 NIV
It was obvious to the rest of the gang that Judas was a thief…they knew that he periodically rifled the purse, but he always wanted more. The promise of money…lots of it…lured him on to do the dirty deed.
Second, Judas probably had political aspirations. Like his fellow disciples, he wanted Rome gone. His early experiences of Jesus perhaps fired his hope. Here was a man of power and authority like no other. Even demons fled at His command. So, what about the Romans?
Perhaps his expectations were intensely personal. As a part of the disciple band, he was close to the top. Did he aspire to a position of power and influence in this new government he anticipated? Even a staggeringly astronomical salary to go with it?
This is all conjecture but, judging by his behaviour and decisions, these suggestions are quite possible.
It seems to me that the final straw that broke the camel’s back was Jesus’ humiliation of Judas, in public, not intended to destroy him but to warn him about his greed and hypocrisy. Hidden in the variations of the story of the woman who poured out her perfume on Jesus, was Judas’ hypocritical protest and Jesus’ stinging rebuke.
“Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. “Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”
John 12:1-8 NIV
John recorded in more detail how Jesus revealed the identity of his betrayer, and the deciding moment when Judas acted.
“After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, “Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.”… Leaning back against Jesus, he (John) asked him, “Lord, who is it?” Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. So Jesus told him, “What you are about to do, do quickly.” …As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.”
John 13:21, 25-27, 30 NIV
This was not a case of “the devil made me do it.” This final decision, clinched by the devil according to John, was the end result of years of thought processes driven by greed and deception. Judas has a narrative he believed and followed, despite the truth of Jesus’ life and teachings played out before him in real time.
So, when it came to his final decision, the door to his heart was wide open for the devil to walk in and take control.
Unfortunately for Judas, the truth of what he had done only hit him after it was too late to stop the inevitable. Not even the money he had acquired could silence his screaming conscience, so, true to the predictions of Scripture, he ended it all by his ignominious death by suicide.
What does this whole saga tell us about Jesus? Never for one moment did any detail of this unfolding drama take Him by surprise. On the contrary, the story clearly show us, from its beginning, that He was fully involved in driving it forward to its predetermined conclusion.
Peter, on hindsight and by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, laid the blame for Jesus’ death squarely where it belonged…on the shoulders of everyone who was involve, not only Judas who initiated and all those who carried it out but also all sinners including you and me.
“This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.”
Acts 2:23 NIV
Planned by the Father before time and carried out by every category of humans, Jesus’ death was God’s masterpiece of mercy, crafted by His love, to rescue His crown of creation from self-destruction, and He chose to funnel the event at the appointed time, through Judas.