The Kiss of Betrayal
The week of weeks. The week that changed the world - Holy week.
The man who gave it all - Jesus Christ.
This week has been a bit heavy for me this year. I know it's because my relationship with God has grown so deeply. It’s been such a beautiful blessing.
So, so many years ago, Jesus went through the most important week of all time. A week that is still so prevalent and important to us all today, because it is a stark reminder of His sacrifice and love for us. He went through so much during His life: ridicule, rejection, accusations, and blatant disrespect from unbelievers when He was only trying to save their souls.
But despite all of that, He went to the cross anyway, because it was His Father’s will for Him.
The perfect sacrifice; the perfect sacrificial lamb.
To the disciples, that week up to Thursday night must have seemed like just a slightly off / more emotionally charged kind of week than usual. It wasn’t typical that Jesus would have entered the city like He did on Palm Sunday (Matthew 21:1-11), but they knew that He had some sort of reason for it all, and most importantly they had trust.
The same sentiment applies for Holy Monday (Matthew 21:12-17) and Tuesday (21:18-23). From erratically cleansing the temple from those corrupting its holiness to cursing a fig tree - these things were a bit out of the ordinary of Jesus’ typical parables and were more action based.
The week so far was so different and busy, and the disciples had no clue what was about to happen right under their noses by one of their own Wednesday night, but Jesus did.
Jesus knew from the moment that He asked Judas to follow Him that he would betray Him.
From where the disciples stood, Judas was their friend; another astute disciple of their Messiah, Jesus Christ. Just like they all thought that they’d never betray Jesus when hard times came, they didn’t see it coming from Judas either.
Just like it’s so easy for us to sit here today and think that we would never have betrayed or denied Jesus in his time of need. None of us are as strong as we think that we are, especially without relying on Him fully.
Judas relied on his own intelligence and ideas, assuming that they were better than those of God Himself. Even though he knew Jesus personally - witnessing His power and omnipotence countless times before.
In the end, when confronted with great trouble and opposition, he was faced with a vital question that many of us run into:
What does Jesus mean to you?
Furthermore,
What is Jesus worth to you?
For Judas, he settled on a mere thirty pieces of silver.
Before you judge him for his betrayal over something so worthless when Jesus was worth it all, take time to think of a time or two where you probably betrayed someone you cared about over little to nothing.
Or better yet, think of a time that you were betrayed by another for a useless cause.
No matter which way you swing it, the “Judas” in that situation probably felt awful. Or at least, I sure hope that they did.
My point is, that betrayal hurts; it’s an awful thing to endure, or to do to another. But even so, Jesus died for you, and them anyway.
Betrayal is scandalous and painful - it will never not be. But forgiveness is a gift; one that you should joyfully extend to others once you’ve tasted the freedom that comes with receiving your own.
God’s grace could be considered ‘scandalous’ in its own way because of just how accepting and loving it is, despite all of our many flaws and wickedness in times just like that. We’ve all been at fault in some way or another, but Jesus loves us anyway, and invites us to repent and follow Him just the same.
He would have forgiven Judas, too. If only he had chosen to repent.
That’s all that we have to do. Understand our shortcomings, and that Jesus has none. Beg for His forgiveness, and know that He will lovingly answer your call.
Jesus will always meet you where you are - whether that the depths of betrayal, or the deep of the earthly hell you’ve dug for yourself,
but He loves you way too much to let you stay that way.
Allow Him to bring you new life through Him and His endless mercy and grace, and start all over again by living for the better, living for Him.
Let this week be a reminder that the kiss of betrayal doesn’t have to be a sting that endures forever. You can always make the choice to let yourself be forgiven, forgive others, and forgive yourself, too.
Until next week,
— E. Byers, author of The Grassy Laine
