So that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to him, “Lord, who is it? [who will betray you]” Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it.” So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly…” So, after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night. - John 13:25–30
I write this article on December 7th. On this date, December 7, 1941 (“Pearl Harbor Day”), Japanese dive bombers attacked the sleepy U.S. Naval Pacific Fleet, resting mostly at anchor, at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. That brazen secret attack, coming in the early morning hours with no declaration of war and no prior notice, crippled the Pacific Fleet and killed over 2,400 American servicemen and civilians. The betrayal was so great that previous U.S. domestic support for non-intervention in the building wars in Europe and Asia disappeared virtually overnight. America declared war on Japan the following day. It was “a day that will live in infamy.”
There appears to be something innate in human nature that despises betrayal. We seem to have a built-in bitterness toward anyone who would harm someone that has no reason to assume that they are about to be harmed. In the military, spies are summarily shot during wartime. During peacetime, they generally garner intense media coverage when they are found out. No one likes a person who gains affection or allegiance and then betrays it to the harm of that person or nation.
The greatest betrayal that has ever occurred in human history took place during Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples. Judas Iscariot, a disciple of Jesus and friend to eleven other men who were Christ-followers, after at least two years of travel and ministry with Jesus, betrayed him over to his eventual tormentors and murderers for the price of a slave (thirty pieces of silver). And he sealed the act, the Bible tells us, with a kiss. Yet the Scriptures do not tell us why he did it. It is likely he had lost confidence in Jesus as the Messiah—that he had hoped for more from the Messiah than teaching, miracles, humility, and service. Judas had made his decision to betray Jesus not the evening of the final Passover meal but earlier in the week, Matthew’s Gospel tells us. He went to the Jewish religious rulers and asked them, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?” They agreed on the compensation, and then Judas spent the following days looking for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to them. It surprised every one of his friends. It surprised everyone except Jesus.
Judas was not only a betrayer, but he was also a thief. In fact, it appears that the final straw that pushed him toward betrayal was an event late in Jesus’ ministry in which Jesus allowed himself to be anointed (by a woman, no less) with expensive perfume when (in Judas’ mind) it should have been sold and given to Jesus so that he could utilize the funds to care for the poor. In so doing it would allow Judas, who kept the money bag for Jesus and his band of followers and who actually cared little for the poor, access to the money for his own greedy use (see John 12:4–6). Those who will betray a friend are always mixed up in other ways as well. A willingness to betray is never their only fault.
We do not like Judas. We do not like what Japan did to our nation. We do not like Benedict Arnold, the most famous betrayer in American history (Arnold was a major general during the American Revolution who turned over the American military base at West Point to the British and then defected to their side). We do not like what they have done, and rightfully so. It is wrong to betray a friend. And that, my friends, is what I have done and so have you. We have betrayed our Savior, Jesus Christ. He made us, he died to save us even though he knows our sinful nature, and we have too often chosen others over him. It is sad and wrong. But, thanks be to God, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life has set us free from the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:1–3). Betrayers that we are, we are made clean by the very one we have betrayed. God is good! While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. You and I, even as we struggle against our sinful natures, can rejoice in that great truth today!