November 17

The Traitor

Now Judas His betrayer also knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with His disciples. Now Judas His betrayer also knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with His disciples. — John 18:2,2 BSB

Each new detail in the story of the betrayal reveals more of the darkness in Judas’s heart. After leaving the supper, he hurried to the priests and soon set out with his band of soldiers. He probably first returned to the upper room where he had left Jesus, and not finding Him there, he knew where the Master had gone. He led the soldiers to the place of prayer in Gethsemane. The way he identified Jesus to the officers shows the depth of his treachery: he approached Him as a friend, greeting Him with a kiss—a kiss given with feigned warmth and affection.

We should remember how Judas’s betrayal began with greed for money, grew into theft and deceit, and ended with the blackest crime the world has ever seen. The lesson for us is to watch for the first signs of evil in our hearts before they take root.

There is a painting in the royal gallery of Brussels that shows Judas wandering aimlessly on the night after his betrayal. He stumbles upon the workmen who had made the cross for Christ’s crucifixion the next day. A fire nearby casts light on the faces of the sleeping workmen, resting from their labor. Judas’s face is partly in shadow, but it is filled with remorse and agony as he catches sight of the cross and the tools used to make it—the very cross that his treachery helped make possible. Yet, even in his torment, he still clutches his money bag, hurrying on into the night. That image tells the story of Judas’s victory: the money bag with its thirty pieces of silver (which he could not even keep for long), carried off into the night of despair. That was all he had left.