SELLING OUT

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him over to you?”

So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver. From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand Him over.

Matthew 26:14-16

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.

Mark 14:10-11

Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve. And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus. They were delighted and agreed to give him money. He consented, and watched for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to them when no crowd was present.

Luke 22:3-6

…the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.

John 13:2

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

“Leave her alone. 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.”

This was Jesus’ rebuking response when Judas raised a complaint about Mary anointing Jesus with expensive perfume.

You’ll remember in yesterday’s devotion, Never a Waste, that Jesus was a guest of honor at the home of Simon the Leper. He was joined by His twelve chosen disciples as well as Jesus’ dear friend (and recently resurrected) Lazarus and his two sisters, Martha and Mary. While Jesus was reclining at the dinner table, Mary came to Him, weeping and washing His feet with her tears before drying them with her hair. She then took an alabaster jar full of nard and poured the perfume over Jesus’ head and feet.

To the disciples present, particularly Judas, it seemed like a squandering of a resource that could have been cashed in to help the poor. But the scriptures reveal to us in John’s account that Judas was just using the “help the poor” argument to mask his real concern with what happened. Look again at these words which expose Judas’ ulterior motive for speaking out:

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. John 12:4-6

Judas had been stealing from the money bag that Jesus and the other eleven had trusted him with. And so if he had his way, he would cash in the expensive perfume and then take a portion of the proceeds for himself. In fact, it’s possible that the poor wouldn’t receive any part of the money or maybe just a token amount as Judas tried to cover his tracks.

But note that Jesus was onto Judas and knew his heart, thus the strong rebuke that had to be embarrassing to Judas as it was doled out in front of everyone present at the dinner.

Now, Judas could have done two things.

First, he could have accepted the correction of Jesus and changed course, possibly even seeing the wrongs of his attitude and actually apologizing and commending Mary for what she had done.

Or Judas could have just taken what Jesus said personally, holding a grudge, and continuing to spiral into greater sinfulness.

In the first instance, he would follow the direction of Jesus. In the second, Satan would be his guide.

Well, as we see in today’s passage, the latter happened as Judas sought to eliminate Jesus altogether through selling Him out to the Jewish authorities who were looking to eliminate Him just as much.

We know Satan was at the forefront of Judas’ actions because Luke and John’s accounts say so. And when Satan is in control, evil follows.

In this case, we find the devil leading Judas to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard who were looking for a way to first arrest and then execute Jesus sometime right after the Passover had ended. They were afraid to do it any sooner because Jesus had quite a following and there would be up to 100,000 people in Jerusalem for the festival. Taking custody of Jesus and then making the arrangements to kill Him would have to happen after the celebration ended and people departed the city to head home.

Still, there was wicked planning needed to hatch the plot at just the right time and Judas makes himself available to be a part of that plan. In fact, he was the one who made the offer first:

One of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him over to you?”

In response to the question, we read where the chief priests counted out thirty pieces of silver. Now, one Judas agreed to betray Jesus for the equivalency of 30 days of work. That’s it. That’s all it took to sell out his Master and I’m sure the chief priests were more than willing to pay that to get rid of the man who they viewed as their number one adversary.

And so the stage was set for what would start Jesus’ road to Calvary’s cross and for his part, Judas kept a watchful eye for the right opportunity when no crowd was present so he could betray Jesus and hand Him over to the Jewish religious authorities.

I’m sure it was a big day for Satan as he too thought he had gotten over on Jesus. But all He did was play into God’s overall big plan for salvation, a plan where Jesus would ultimately snatch victory from the jaws of defeat while Satan would be the one vanquished.

In the end, good would triumph over evil.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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