Wednesday's Holy Week Video - Betrayal:
And here's a little devotional video from RightNow Media for the kids and parents for today: God Protects His People
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The suffering of our Lord is recorded in all four gospels (Mt. 26, Mk. 16, Lk. 22, Jn. 18). This is painful reading as you walk with Jesus thru this awful time. Think with me of the experience of BETRAYAL today.
It is the breaking of a trust. We won’t focus on Peter’s betrayal today… just Judas’s. He betrayed a friend. He pretended to be with Him, but in truth he was against him. As one wrote: “I trusted you, but now your words mean nothing because your actions spoke the truth.” What is wrong with our inward nature that allows us to be capable of words and deeds that cause so much pain in others? Is there a dark power that lurks in the shadows of our lives?
Think with me through the following word pictures from the Gospel accounts:
- A FRIEND who was one of the 12. But he was a phony friend… a make-believe friend, who showed his real self. One of you will betray me, Jesus had said. In response there is that soul searching question: Is it I? Are we capable of similar behavior?
- A KISS of friendship and affection turns out to be the sign of identifying the target. It looks good, but it is a slap in the face.
- A bag of MONEY. There is a temporary reward for betrayal- 30 pieces of silver. What a trivial amount for such an evil act.
- A REPUTATION. From then on, he is known and described as the ‘betrayer’. What a way to walk through life with that description.
- An EVIL ALLIANCE. We read in Luke 22:3 that Satan entered into him. We dabble with sin and it has so much power to control and destroy us. Judas also conferred with people who had already decided to put Jesus to death. It seems that evil never operates alone. The evil one has friends in high places to kill and destroy.
- The PRICE of betrayal is great for Jesus in His trial, beatings, suffering and death. For Judas there is the euphoria of the silver, but after he possesses it, it becomes repulsive and meaningless. It is replaced with bitter weeping, great remorse and the decision of hopelessness that leads to suicide. Betrayal is very expensive.
I think it would be a good exercise to spend some time in introspection of our own lives and behavior. We look at Judas and say: There but for the grace of God go I. In humility I pray that my love and loyalty to our Lord would be deep and strong. I will not deny or betray Him or His ways. No reward or threat will lead to my betraying Him. As one martyr said long ago… He has been so faithful to me all these years, I will not deny Him now.
It might also be good to refresh our commitment to each other… we will love and support each other in the days to come. Our families and friends will experience our love and loyalty, not our betrayal.
To those of us who have memories of our own sins of betrayal, may I remind you of the two trees in the gospel account. One tree is the tree of failure and has a hangman’s noose. It is the Judas tree. Evil wins twice. Once in the deed and the second in despair and death. The other tree does not have a noose, it has a crossbeam. It is the Jesus tree. It is the tree of hope. It is the old rugged cross. “And I love that old cross, where the dearest and best, for a world of lost sinners was slain.” We confess our failures and receive forgiveness and new life. Thank you Lord that in the midst of BETRAYAL You bring us a miracle of amazing grace.
