How To Betray Jesus

Matthew 26:14-16 (NKJV)
14 Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests 15 and said, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?” And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver. 16 So from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him.

The person of Judas Iscariot has a very negative image in the mind of most people. His betrayal of Jesus earned him this right. Judas did not start his life with such desires. His beginning mission in life was not to destroy the life of Christ in every way that he could. He started small and gradually grew into the ability to commit the most heinous crime ever committed. We will examine the lives of Judas and Peter in order to see how they could make such extremely faulty decisions.

Judas followed Jesus’ words to be His disciple (a request He gives to all). Judas performed all the “right” tasks in front of others so as to appear to be “good”. He may have fooled many, but it was himself that he fooled the most. Judas may have thought that he was doing the right things by following Jesus. But in his heart he had not fully committed to the Lord. This is true today. So many people, within the church, are tares among the wheat. Many think that they are “right” with God, but they do not know Christ, truly as Savior.

Judas spent three years, along with the other disciples, observing Jesus and His ways. He did all the right things and put on the appearance of a disciple. Slowly but surely he got hardened in his ways. This resulted out of a lack of purity in his heart. It was then, when he had the opportunity to betray the Lord, he took it. He eventually got so deceived in his heart and hardened so much that he sold out the very God of heaven for mere money. He then sought every opportunity to use trickery to seize the Lord.

His ultimate response was hanging himself. He displayed a desperate attempt to rid himself of extreme guilt and fear. He knew nothing about a relationship with God, so he only could commit suicide to run from his crime.

Peter, on the other hand, denied Christ. He walked with Christ for three years, followed Christ, observed His ways and sought to know Him more. Peter’s denial was one of confusion and weakness. His response shows that he wept bitterly and had a repentant heart. He did not plan to hurt the Lord as he did. He just made a very poor decision in an awkward time because he was afraid of the reaction of others. After repentance, the Lord was able to use him again greatly. We can sin tremendously, but the Lord can use us again. We need a fully repentant heart, a heart that seeks God in every way. The Lord knows we are not perfect, but our failures many times allow God’s perfecting process to happen. All we need is a heart fully given over to the Lord and willing to follow Him always.

Thoughts, comments, objections.



Daniel A. Smith