Judas The Nationalist turned Betrayer

​Judas Iscariot, the traitor, was the son of Simon who lived in Kerioth of Judah. He was the only Judean of the 12 and was considered to being the closest to Jesus outside of those who saw the transfiguration. He was the group’s treasurer and one of the more outspoken. Judas’ downfall was that of greed. This led to his being a covetous man and at times pilfered from the common purse. The cause of his betrayal is considered to be greed and the false hope of an audience to the Roman Prefect which would lead to a more civilized end to the occupation or at least would lessen the Roman grip on the religious aspects of Judean life.
 Jesus was given to the Pharisees for 30 pieces of silver. This was the recompense price for a gored slave. That was about 5 weeks of wages in Jesus time which today the silver would be about $600.00. So our Lord and Savior was given for recompense of $600.
The betrayer could have been any of the twelve; but since Judas still cared more for the world and was greedy for money, he was the most logical choice. His lust for money and desire for a material change in the current society drove him into the darkness which made the Plan possible. One thing we must remember here. It wasn’t Judas who truly put Jesus on the cross, it was and is our sins.
What can we learn for him?
1.       Do not devalue our relationship with Christ.
Judas took what he could from the treasury of the Sanhedrin to hand Jesus over. He put a price on a life that has more value than he would ever know. When we care more for the world and less for the Father, we are placing an unwarranted discount on our love and trust in Christ. There is no price that we could pay that equals what God has done for us. He gives us His grace freely, and His Mercy through blood. All we have to do is accept, believe, have faith, and trust in God that we are going to share in the inheritance thanks to Jesus. Of course we still are bound to obeying the 10 Commandments and living a Christ-like life. When we are disobedient and lose faith, we devalue our relationship with Jesus.
 
2.       It is better to listen closely than to just hear things because ears are deceiving.      
Judas did not hear the right things because he truly did not listen. There are six recorded times between Matthew, Mark, and Luke, where Jesus is recorded saying, “He who has ears to hear, let him”, in one fashion or another. Hearing is an audible function that is used to translate sound vibrations into words. When God speaks to us, the vibrations react with our very souls and cause us to listen and act in an obedient manner. Listening is the response to hearing and acting in obedience is the response to listening properly. When we do not hear things correctly, the message gets misinterpreted in our minds. That is the Adversary tugging at us so we lose sight of God’s intentions.
Reading Scripture involves hearing then listening in order to be obedient to God’s Word. Paying attention to that still small voice that resonates through our heart when we are in the right frame of mind is God speaking to us through the Holy Spirit. What we do with it is determined by how well we listen and how strong is our faith that it is God.
 
We can learn a lot from a betrayal, these are just the tip of the iceberg. This ends the discussion on the 12 Apostles. Next month we begin to look at life lessons from Paul and his teammates.