Judas went to the chief priests in order to betray Him
Mark 14:1,10-11
Now the Passover and Unleavened Bread were two days away; and the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how they might kill Him. Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went away to the chief priests in order to betray Him (“hand Him over”) to them. And when they heard this, they were glad and promised to give him money. And he began seeking how to betray Him at an opportune time.
Judas saw it more clearly than Jesus did.
He was going to have to force Jesus’ hand.
While there are a range of factors that likely influenced Judas, he was probably disappointed with Jesus. The Messiah was supposed to liberate the Jewish people from a century of Roman occupation. Judas was confused by the antagonism of the religious leaders and perhaps optimistic that if they could talk, they could work it out and join forces. He had seen Jesus do it with Nicodemus, a member of the ruling Council (John 3:1-21). This was the story Judas told himself.
But the religious leaders did not intend to work it out. They didn’t intend to find a compromise that allowed Jesus to continue to criticize the delicate religiopolitical order that they had created between the Temple, the Romans and the puppet-king Herod. The High Priest Caiaphas said, “It is expedient for you that one man should perish for the people and that the whole nation should not perish” (John 11:50). This was the story he found himself in.
On the surface it just looked like greed. Judas kept the money box, and while he argued that the perfume used to anoint Jesus might have been sold and given to the poor, in reality “He was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it” (John 12:5,6). The exchange of money was always part of the betrayal deal. “What will you pay me to hand him over?” (Matthew 26:15). The pursuit of wealth is a powerful driving force. This was the story as it appeared to others.
But there were also larger forces at work. Since the first chapters of Mark, there was a celestial tension between Jesus, the Kingdom of God and “the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). Several of the gospel accounts point to the Enemy entering and influencing Judas’ behavior (Luke 22:3, John 13:2). This was the story behind the story.
Like Judas, our lives are a tapestry of different narratives, different stories.
- We can be well meaning, but wrong.
- We can unknowingly become caught up in the schemes and machinations of men.
- We can blindly allow our personal agendas to drive our attitudes and actions.
- We can miss the kingdom of heaven and be deceived by evil.
Jesus is the golden pattern woven through the tapestry of all our life-stories.
He works things together for good. He redeems us body and soul. He delivers us from evil.
And there is a bigger story.
Jesus chose to be handed over on our behalf.
And that leaves us with a daily choice:
Will we follow Him? And what will our followership look like?
“I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.
And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and handed Himself up for me”
(Galatians 2:20).
Have a blessed Lenten weekend.
Let us encourage one another with these truths.
