JUDAS

Judas kissed Jesus.

He kissed him and then handed him over to the enemy.

It was a bitter kiss. A kiss with no affection, only deceit. It was a kiss to identify the Son of God to the authorities because He had done such an excellent job of identifying himself with us that they could not pick Him out of a crowd.

Judas kissed Jesus, like an actor playing a role with a coworker that he despises. Judas kissed Jesus, like a wire-tapped mob informant betraying the head of the family. He had turned states’ evidence against a known troublemaker. It was the kiss of a cheating spouse pretending to be in a happy marriage. Judas kissed the Son of God on the face and then walked back into the night and left Him to die.

Who does that?

Judas had seen it all: healings, Hell being cast out, even resurrections. He had heard all the teachings. Judas had seen and performed countless miracles. He had cast out demons. He had baptized people into the Kingdom of Heaven. But he rejected it all and betrayed the Son of Man with a kiss.

I guess seeing isn’t believing. No one has ever had more evidence than Judas.

He looked the very sunshine of the universe in the face and found it wanting. How? Why?

It all started so well: the calling, the following, the teaching, the crowds. It was an intoxicating atmosphere. Judas was the only non-Galilean of the twelve. Was he proud of that? Did he consider himself more sophisticated than those northern rubes? Perhaps they saw him that way; they had put him in charge of the money. He would collect it, count it, hold it, and distribute it. He was trusted to be more responsible, more professional.

He was riding the wave of the Messiah; things will only get better. The kingdom was arriving. They would all be on top soon, and he would be among them. He might be the minister of finance for the king of the world, which sounded good, easy, comfortable.

Judas kissed Jesus.

But then Jesus started losing the script. His demands became unreasonable. He told them to deny themselves, to take up their cross and follow Him. A cross? Was He asking them to die? He told them that they had to love Him more than their parents, or their wife and kids, or even their own life. He walked and talked as if there were no one more important than He was. Not even God.

Just the other day they were at Bethany, at Simon’s house, relaxing, and Mary walked in and dumped expensive ointment all over Him. It was worth more than Judas had ever seen. Such waste. So he and a few others began to chastise her about how much benefit this expense could have brought to the poor. Judas had stopped caring about the poor but he had a point. Jesus should have rebuked her, the silly woman. But he didn’t, he defended her. He told them they would always have poor people to bless but they would not always have Him. He had always taught them that ministering to the poor was like ministering to God. And now this.

Who does Jesus think He is?

That was it. Jesus was a waste of time. He asks too much. He has gone too far. Jesus had become a dry well. Judas was out, there was nothing in this for him. He did not sign up for this. He might as well make a profit on his way out.

Judas kissed Jesus.

He had pulled the pin on the grenade that would kill the Son of God. He just needed it to detonate and end this nonsense. He had set fire to eternity.

Earlier in the evening Jesus had washed his feet. Judas had looked down at the face that he would kiss one last time as it knelt before him. He watched as the Son of God gently took each foot and scrubbed it like a house servant was expected to do. Another weak gesture from an empty king who was not what Judas wanted. Jesus looked up, one last glance into the eyes he was soon to betray. Judas looked away.

“I have betrayed innocent blood!” he would later cry. But it was worse than that. He had betrayed righteous blood, holy blood. Was this remorse? It was too late. It was meaningless. There was no going back. He had burned his own ships. The grenade had blown up in his hands. The only eternity he had set on fire was his own.

Judas kissed Jesus.

Jesus said it would have been better for Judas if he had never been born. That’s a strange thing for God to say. Isn’t He in charge of things like that? Then why let Judas be born? It makes me wonder, why was I not Judas? Why am I me?

I could have been Judas.

How many times have I kissed the face of God in public, only to walk off stage and stab Him in the back?

How many times have I witnessed the miraculous, only to let it bounce off my heart of stone?

How many times have I heard His words ringing in my soul, only to let them fall to the ground, to ignore them, lest they change me.

How many times have I shouted at Heaven “you have gone too far. You ask too much of me. I didn’t sign up for this!”

How many times has He washed the filth of this world from my feet, only to see me go back out and wade hip deep in it. Again.

How close am I to being Judas? How close are any of us?

I do not trust me. I do not put any faith in me.

Judas kissed Jesus.

But Jesus doesn’t need our public displays of affection. He doesn’t need our “sinner’s prayer.” He doesn’t need our profession of faith from years ago, that is now dust. He doesn’t need us to walk an aisle, or raise our hands, or kiss a statue. He doesn’t need our money or our prayers or our incense or our time. He doesn’t need our love, our adoration, or our worship.

He’s God. He doesn’t need anything.

But he wants you. All of you. Body. Soul. Spirit. Mind. All of it.

The command to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength is not given for His benefit, but for ours. It is given to keep us near to Him. It is given to keep us clean, to keep us pure, to keep us sincere. It is given because without Him we die; we disappear into the long night.

It is given to keep us from being Judas.

Why am I not Judas? Because we are who we are. And we all must come before the judgement seat one day.

We all must stand before the One who was betrayed. I wonder, what will Judas say?

What will I say?

What will you say?

Judas kissed Jesus, and it meant nothing.

But it changed everything. Forever.

“Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.” Proverbs 27