Treason

Everybody Has A Judas In Their Life.

Don't be surprised at who will betray you for 30 pieces of silver.

Cheryl King

THE NIGHT JUDAS BETRAYED THE LORD

The gospels do not state why Judas betrayed Jesus. Yet, we may infer at least two reasons:

• Judas did it after becoming convinced that Jesus was going to die and not reign as King (Mark 14:3-11). This dashed Judas’ hopes for political power and influence. 
• Judas did it for money (Matthew 26:14-16). Thus, his expectation of financial wealth no longer existed, so he bargained for what he could receive from the religious leaders (30 pieces of silver). 

Judas thought, “What’s the use of continuing to follow Jesus when the whole world is turning against Him and the governmental authorities may swallow me up with Him?”

Now the night of Christ’s betrayal began with the Passover feast and Judas apparently was still smarting from Jesus’ rebuke. Judas sat at the table seething and frustrated about how things looked to be coming down. At the same time, the religious leaders were meeting to discuss how they could arrest Jesus and put Him to death, but the multitudes intimidated them. Thus, they needed and discussed a private way to apprehend the Lord (Mark 14:1-2).

Count on it, Satan’s demons attended that meeting also. Once they knew of the religious leaders’ desire, they beat a path to Satan with the news. The devil had stepped out of Judas’ life for a short time. Satan then hatched a plan and imparted it to Judas’ soul while he sat at the Passover table with Jesus.

And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him (John 13:2).

This Satan apparently did without possessing Judas because it is not until after Jesus gives bread to him that Satan re-enters Judas.

As the Last Supper continues, Jesus proceeds to train His apostles, giving them a huge lesson in humility, servanthood, and forgiveness, which He illustrates by washing their feet (John 13:3-20).

When Jesus had said these things, He was troubled in spirit, and testified and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me” (John 13:21).

In John 13:22-25, the Lord’s announcement of betrayal, during the solemn Passover occasion, bewilders the apostles. Thus, Peter gets John to ask Jesus who the traitor is.

Jesus answered, It is he to whom I shall give a piece of bread when I have dipped it. And having dipped the bread, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. Now after the piece of bread, Satan entered him. Then Jesus said to him, What you do, do quickly (John 13:26-27).

This is the second time during the final week that Satan possesses Judas. Consequently, in John 13:31, Judas departs the Upper Room where the Lord and apostles were eating the Last Supper.

Now as we compare the other Gospel accounts, we see the devil next motivate Judas to tell the religious leaders that he will find a way to betray Jesus. His plan would avoid confrontation with the crowds gathered in Jerusalem for the Passover (Luke 22:6). The religious leaders promptly paid Judas for his treacherous scheme (Mark 14:10-11).

Judas figured that the Garden of Gethsemane would be an ideal place to arrest Jesus because it was outside the city’s eastern wall and away from the crowds. Satan, who anticipated the Lord’s movements, had put this plan into Judas’ head.

The traitor notified the religious leaders that he would identify Jesus with a “kiss.” Why a kiss? Because it would be nighttime and not immediately apparent to the soldiers who Christ was among his disciples!

Once the religious leaders called together the Roman soldiers (a military unit, or cohort, of 600), they tagged along themselves, and Judas led them to the place in the Garden where Jesus prayed. For this “leadership,” Judas became known as “a guide to those who arrested Jesus” (Acts 1:16).

IN THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE

And Judas, who betrayed Him, also knew the place; for Jesus often met there with His disciples. Then Judas, hawing received a detachment of troops and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, Came there with lanterns, torches, and weapons. Jesus therefore. knowing all things that would come upon Him, went forward rind said to them, Whom are you seeking? They answered Him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said to them, l am ‘He.’ And Judas, who betrayed Him, also stood with them (John 18:5-6).

This treacherous act by Judas became embedded in the minds of the apostles, so much so that Paul, when explaining the communion service says:

I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread (1 Corinthians 11:23).

Judas’ Death

THE MORNING OF THE DAY OF CHRIST’S CRUCIFIXION

Seeing that Christ was condemned to death, Judas was remorseful, admitted he betrayed innocent blood, threw the 30 pieces of silver (about $220.00) the leaders paid him into the temple, then hanged himself (Matthew 27:3-5).

The religious leaders, ever scrupulous of keeping the Law (at least the parts they liked!), did not take back the blood money, but instead purchased from a local pottery maker a field in which to bury strangers. It was renamed “the field of Blood” (Matthew 27:6-8), which fulfilled an Old Testament prophecy (Zechariah 11:13).

JUDAS’ SUICIDE: A MYSTERY EXPLAINED

Matthew says that Judas hanged himself (Matthew 27:5). “This establishes the fact that Judas fastened a noose around his neck and jumped from the branch to which the other end of the rope was attached.”6

In addition, Acts 1:18 reveals that “falling headlong, [Judas] burst open in the middle and all his entrails gushed out”—a considerably more dramatic picture than Matthew gives. It is terrible enough to commit suicide, but to take a fall, have your body burst open, and your inner parts gush out, is horrendous to say the least.

The question is: Do we have a contradiction in the Bible, or is it possible to harmonize Matthew and Luke? It is possible to harmonize:7

• The limb from which Judas hung was over a precipice, that is, the valley of Hinnom. In fact, to this day there are many dry trees on the brink of this canyon near the traditional site of Judas’ suicide. Thus, it could be that the weight of his body on a dry and dead limb broke the limb causing his body to plummet into the canyon and burst open. 
• Or, perhaps the rock shattering earthquake that ripped through Jerusalem at the moment Jesus “yielded up His spirit” caused the limb to break and plunged the swollen, three day old corpse into the canyon splitting it open (cp. Matthew 27:51). 
• Or, even a strong gust of wind, funneled through the canyon, could have caused the limb to break. 

Whatever, there is no contradiction in God’s Word; a contradiction here is only in the minds of those who want a discrepancy. The ultimate tragic end of the “son of perdition”—an end immeasurably more dreadful than his burst open body—is that he went to Hades, to await the second resurrection and judgment at the Great White Throne, then an eternity in Hell.

Jesus had said at the Last Supper:

Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born (Matthew 27:24).

Two Lessons

Lesson #1: The life of Judas Iscariot is an enormous tragedy. It shows what happens when one exposes himself to the truth day-after-day, but does not embrace it, use it, obey it! By application, we cannot go to church Sunday after Sunday, and even attend Bible classes during the week, thinking that our mere presence there will keep God pleased with us.

Nearly every day for three plus years Judas listened to the best Bible teacher who ever walked this planet. He heard the truth not only preached, but also saw it perfectly lived-out in the Person of Jesus Christ.

Yet, the more Judas heard, the more he possessed to reject, and the more he rejected the more his heart became hardened. His conscience became seared so that he no longer felt the critiquing ministry of the written Word and the convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit. His inner man gradually hardened to the point that it became a convenient habitation for the devil himself, leading to betrayal and finally suicide.

We must not let be lost on ourselves what happened to Judas. The corrective is diligently to put into practice what we learn from God’s Word. Do not permit your intake of the Bible to be merely an academic head-trip.

• If you learn that you may confess your sin: Keep confessing. 
• If you learn that you should pray: Keep praying. 
• If you learn that you are to witness to Christ: Keep witnessing. 
• If you learn that you should not forsake the assembling of yourselves together: Keep assembling. 
• If you learn that God gave you a spiritual gift for the common good: Use your gift to serve your fellow believers in love 

As Christians, we must become vigorous doers of the Word, not mere hearers only, lest the hardening process overtakes us and we lose opportunity for eternal reward to the glory of God.

Lesson #2: For those who are servants in various leadership positions as pastors, teachers, evangelists, elders, deacons, Sunday school teachers, and so on, there is encouragement from the tragic life of Judas—back door encouragement!

Every leader eventually experiences the disappointment and grief of someone close to him turning traitor. It may not be as dramatic as what Judas did to our Lord, but betrayal it is.

Judas violated Jesus, deceiving Him with the world’s greatest hypocritical kiss, resulting in Christ’s execution. However, in three days God turned the tables on Jesus’ enemies and raised Him from the dead. And the same God who raised the Lord Jesus out of seemingly utter, devastating treachery and defeat is still in the business of supporting and protecting us, even reversing our losses.

The devil thought he had won. The demons threw their biggest celebration party ever. The religious leaders danced home after the crucifixion and toasted their success. However, God raised Jesus from the dead!

There are other examples of the Father delivering His people from treachery and defeat. The Lord raised David from sure defeat to victory in the civil war with his treacherous son, Absalom. Why? Because David confessed his sin, repented, and his heart was still inclined to serve the Lord.

The Lord brought Jonah back from the depths of the Mediterranean Sea to minister to Nineveh. Why? Because in the belly of the great fish, Jonah repented! Although he still needed an attitude adjustment about the Assyrians, God worked through Jonah the greatest evangelistic crusade recorded in the Old Testament.

So, where are we? Though there may be a “Judas” in our church, or school, or fellowship group, God will never desert or abandon those who fear the Lord and take refuge in Him.

Therefore, let us take heart! “Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart” (Galatians 6:9). God will take care of the Judases of life; our business is to be faithful so long as He gives us breath and energy to serve.

Article from CTS Journal, volume 3, number 1 (Summer 1997), a publication of Chafer Theological Seminary, Orange, CA.