Flashback Episode — Lessons from a Betrayer: Matthew 26:1-5, 14-16

As we make our way through the week of the crucifixion, I am amazed at how Jesus knew exactly what was going to happen to Him, and the time frame that it would happen. While it’s easy to dismiss this knowledge by saying that Jesus is God and He knows everything, part of me wonders if His knowledge was because of His divinity, or perhaps instead it was because of His study into prophecy or His close relationship with the Father.

Whatever the source of Jesus’ knowledge about His life, it would seem that His timetable took precedence even over the plans of the religious leaders who would hand Him over to death.

Our passage for this episode draws out this contrast, and it shows how Jesus predicted what would happen while the religious leaders plotted a different timeframe for their plan. Matthew points this out in his gospel at the beginning of chapter 26. Starting in verse 1 and reading from the New Century Version, Matthew tells us that:

¹ After Jesus finished saying all these things, he told his followers, ² “You know that the day after tomorrow is the day of the Passover Feast. On that day the Son of Man will be given to his enemies to be crucified.”

³ Then the leading priests and the elders had a meeting at the palace of the high priest, named Caiaphas. ⁴ At the meeting, they planned to set a trap to arrest Jesus and kill him. ⁵ But they said, “We must not do it during the feast, because the people might cause a riot.”

Here in these verses we see a contrast. On one hand, Jesus predicted the exact day of His arrest as the Passover feast day and the method He would be killed as crucifixion – which was a form of death reserved for Roman use.

In contrast, the religious leaders set up a meeting to discuss setting a trap for Jesus, but they all agreed that it would be best to not arrest Him during the feast because the people might cause a riot.

This passage points out two contrasting plans. We have Jesus sharing God’s timetable and His prediction, and we have the religious leaders plotting something different.

While I don’t know what would have happened had Judas Iscariot not chosen to betray Jesus, the religious leaders’ plan changes several verses later when an unlikely ally joins their cause. Jumping down to verse 14, we read:

¹⁴ Then one of the twelve apostles, Judas Iscariot, went to talk to the leading priests. ¹⁵ He said, “What will you pay me for giving Jesus to you?” And they gave him thirty silver coins. ¹⁶ After that, Judas watched for the best time to turn Jesus in.

In this unlikely ally, the religious leaders now would follow Judas’ lead. On one hand, this gave Judas an incredible opportunity to help keep Jesus one step ahead of the ultimate traps of the religious leaders, but that wasn’t what was truly in Judas Iscariot’s heart.

Judas chose to betray Jesus after Jesus praises Mary for her sacrificial use of some expensive perfume and it bothered Judas that so much money was spent on Jesus like that. John clues us into Judas Iscariot not being upset because of the perfume itself, but because he was the keeper of the disciples’ money and he would often help himself to it.

The supposed waste of perfume was a stab against Judas’ greed because he only saw it as being something valuable that he could steal a portion of.

When Jesus praised Mary and challenged Judas on this point, Judas made up his mind to betray Jesus. In this event, we see Judas react in a childish and emotional way, because if He cannot get a portion of the value of the perfume, he will take a lesser amount of money in order to teach Jesus a lesson.

Regardless of all the times Jesus predicted His death, His crucifixion, and even the exact time this would happen, Judas still believed that Jesus wouldn’t go through with death. In his mind, Judas was willing to sell Jesus out to teach Jesus a lesson, but that was because Judas believed Jesus would simply outsmart His way out of arrest and death one more time.

When Jesus didn’t and followed the path straight to the cross, Judas realized that he was solely responsible – and the guilt led him to commit suicide.

But in reality, while Judas Iscariot holds some of the responsibility for Jesus’ death, if Judas had not rebelled against Jesus because he got his feelings hurt, something else would have happened to bring about Jesus’ arrest. This is because Jesus didn’t die at the hand of Judas Iscariot, or even at the hand of the religious leaders. Even though Roman soldiers attached Him to the cross, that detail did not kill Jesus either.

Jesus’ death came because He took on the sins of the entire human race – everyone who came before Him and everyone who would come afterwards. This means that Adam’s sin, Noah’s sin, Abraham’s sin, Moses’ sin, the Israelites’ sin, the disciples’ sin, the Crusaders’ sin, and even the sin of the evil dictators throughout history all placed Jesus on that cross. Your sin and my sin are also included.

The cross is much bigger than one person betraying Jesus, or even a group of religious leaders plotting His death. In this passage we discover that God’s plan always plays out regardless of our plans. This is because God has all the information and we do not. It is also because God is all powerful and we are not.

In our own lives, we can take Jesus’ sacrifice and either let it define who we are, or we can ignore it as a sad event from the past. If we ignore it, the only hope we have is in ourselves and in our own ability. However, if we let Jesus’ sacrifice define us, we realize that it was only through Jesus’ death that we are able to gain a new life with God – a life that starts today and extends into eternity.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always open by challenging you in one way or another, intentionally seek God first in your life and chose to let Jesus’ sacrifice define you. This means putting your hope, faith, and trust in what Jesus did for you on the cross. Let the powerful news of His death for you impact your heart and your life.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do, keep these events fresh in your mind by regularly and prayerfully reading about Jesus’ crucifixion week from the gospel record. When we keep Jesus’ death and resurrection fresh in our minds, it helps reframe our daily lives and challenges into being something not nearly as significant in God’s big picture. Focusing on Jesus helps eliminate worry from our lives and it brings peace into our hearts.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or deviate away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!