{"id":208,"date":"2011-03-16T19:00:08","date_gmt":"2011-03-17T03:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/?p=208"},"modified":"2017-03-29T10:09:03","modified_gmt":"2017-03-29T17:09:03","slug":"what-did-judas-see","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/16\/what-did-judas-see\/","title":{"rendered":"What did Judas see in Jesus?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matthew 26: 14-25<\/strong><\/p>\n

14 <\/sup>Then one of the Twelve\u2014the one called Judas Iscariot\u2014went to the chief priests <\/span>15 <\/sup>and asked, \u201cWhat are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?\u201d So they counted out for him thirty silver coins. <\/span>16 <\/sup>From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over<\/span>.<\/p>\n

If you are a veteran of Lenten services, then you\u2019ve met Judas.\u00a0 He\u2019s the bad guy in all of this, right?\u00a0 He sells out the Son of God for silver.\u00a0 There are other bad guys.\u00a0 Caiphas, that hypocrite in priestly robes; Pilate- that politician trying to save his own skin.\u00a0 Well they\u2019re unbelievers anyway, right?<\/p>\n

And the disciples.\u00a0 Well they caved in.\u00a0 They let the Savior down like we all have.\u00a0 And we can understand why they did.\u00a0 We\u2019ve seen it in ourselves at times.\u00a0 Their good intentions turn to cowardice and denial.\u00a0 Been there.\u00a0 Done that ourselves We too have failed Jesus in a moment of pressure and decision.<\/p>\n

But Judas.\u00a0 He\u2019s different.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t cave under pressure.\u00a0 He stole, deceived, planned, plotted and betrayed the Lord.\u00a0 For silver.\u00a0 It\u2019s a sad story, isn\u2019t it.\u00a0 We wonder why.\u00a0 WHAT DID HE SEE IN JESUS?\u00a0 Not what he should have.\u00a0 Not what he needed to.<\/p>\n

17 <\/sup>On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, \u201cWhere do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?\u201d <\/span>18 <\/sup>He replied, \u201cGo into the city to a certain man and tell him, \u2018The Teacher says: My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.\u2019 \u201d <\/span>19 <\/sup>So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover. <\/span>20 <\/sup>When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve<\/span>.\u00a0 The Passover meal was and is a special time for the Jewish people.\u00a0 It celebrated that night centuries before when the angel of death passed over the homes of God\u2019s people, sparing their firstborn sons.\u00a0 What saved them from death?\u00a0 The blood of a sacrificed lamb painted on the doorposts of their home.<\/p>\n

But this night there was another Lamb besides the roasted lamb on the table before the disciples.\u00a0 The Passover lamb whose blood had saved the firstborn from death was a shadow of this Lamb.\u00a0 He sat with his disciples, the Lamb of God who was about to shed his blood and sacrifice his life for us all.<\/p>\n

But Jesus has something else not just for these disciples but also for his disciples of all time.\u00a0 A new meal in which he comes to us\u00a0 in bits of bread and wine with his true body and blood.\u00a0 He sits down with his disciples to celebrate the Passover and then institutes a new meal we call Holy Communion.<\/p>\n

We Americans have a hard time understanding what it meant in Jesus\u2019 day to sit down with someone and eat with them.\u00a0 Folks back then didn\u2019t go to Applebees or McDonalds and sit in the midst of strangers.\u00a0 They ate at home in a close knit circle of family and friends.\u00a0 An invitation to eat was something very special, not a casual thing.\u00a0 That\u2019s why the Pharisees were scandalized when Jesus sat down to eat with prostitutes and tax-collectors.\u00a0 To this day in the Mideast, it is saying, I am your friend.\u00a0 I will never hurt you.<\/em><\/p>\n

Here Jesus sits down with those closest to him.\u00a0 Surely he should be able to count on their loyalty.\u00a0 It makes it all the more despicable that one of them had already decided to sell him out to his enemies. 21 <\/sup>And while they were eating, he said, \u201cI tell you the truth, one of you will betray me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

To sell someone out, you have to have a place of trust in the first place.\u00a0 One of YOU, Jesus says. Whose blood does not run cold to think of someone we thought was close to Christ finally show his\/her true colors.\u00a0 It knocks the wind out of us especially when it\u2019s a pastor or teacher or very involved member of God\u2019s family.\u00a0 That person joined us at the Lord\u2019s table, listened to the same sermons, heard the same Bible readings.\u00a0 But inside was a heart alien to Christ.\u00a0 It was all a mask to cover a heart willing to abandon the Lord when the time comes.<\/p>\n

22 <\/sup>They were very sad and began to say to him one after the other, \u201cSurely not I, Lord<\/span>?\u201d \u00a0For all their failings, this question speaks well of them.\u00a0 They could have acted like people in one of those crime scenes where the detective announces that the murderer is in the room.\u00a0 They look around suspiciously asking, is it you..or you?\u00a0 But no, instead they each look inside themselves afraid that they could fall, that it might be me.\u00a0 Jesus relieve my fear.<\/p>\n

I would suggest that\u2019s a healthy fear.\u00a0 Think of Judas.\u00a0 The Bible says nothing of the way his parents or society treated him.\u00a0 It simply says he was a pilfering thief that stole some money from his friends.\u00a0 Maybe that was the place where Judas cracked open the door to Satan.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that how Satan works?\u00a0 There may have been a time when Judas would have laughed at the idea that he would betray Jesus.\u00a0 But Satan is content to come at us in small ways.\u00a0 Maybe with little peeks at the computer screen, maybe as we excuse ourselves from worship.\u00a0 What is it for you?\u00a0 Little ways that he uses to push the door open to our hearts a little wider all the time.\u00a0 Then the day comes when that door is wide open. \u00a0And Jesus.\u00a0 Who cares about him?\u00a0 He looks different than he once did, like he did to Judas.\u00a0 Surely not I Lord.\u00a0 Yes it is I Lord.\u00a0 Forgive me.\u00a0 Help me.\u00a0 Save me.\u00a0 And he does.<\/p>\n

Jesus does not identify his betrayer by name.\u00a0 23 <\/sup>Jesus replied, \u201cThe one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. <\/span>24 <\/sup>The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! \u00a0It would be better for him if he had not been born.<\/span>\u201d \u00a0They all eat from the same dish.\u00a0 This makes it all the worse.\u00a0 He sits at the same table, saw Jesus up close and personal for three years.\u00a0 Jesus knows what is in Judas heart.\u00a0 It was foretold in Scripture, but Jesus is clear.\u00a0 To betray the Lord in unbelief is a terrible thing.\u00a0 But Jesus warning falls on deaf ears.\u00a0 Satan already owns the turf of his heart.\u00a0 And anyone who does not believe in hell should listen to Jesus\u2019 words. better for him if he had not been born.<\/span>\u201d<\/p>\n

Was there a pregnant pause, a give away moment of silence.\u00a0 If there was no one seemed to notice.\u00a0 Finally Judas says: \u00a0\u201cSurely not I, Rabbi?\u201d<\/span>.\u00a0 Remember how the others had asked:\u00a0 Surely, not I, Lord?\u00a0 Was Lord too hard for him to say?\u00a0 Too hard for one about to betray him for 30 silver coins.\u00a0 \u201cSurely not I, Rabbi?<\/span><\/p>\n

Maybe Jesus said it with a whisper but this gospel reports that Jesus said, Yes it is you.<\/span> Jesus gives the piece of bread to Judas.\u00a0 And Satan now calls his heart his home.\u00a0 The gospel of John simply reports:\u00a0 And he went out.\u00a0 And it was night.<\/span> Yes night in the soul of Judas Iscariot.<\/p>\n

So what did Judas see in Jesus<\/strong>?\u00a0 Not what he should have.\u00a0 Not what he needed to.\u00a0 He saw some awesome things with his eyes.\u00a0 Jesus calm a violent storm with just his voice.\u00a0 He saw Jesus restore crippled limbs and give baby soft skin to leprous, disfigured faces.\u00a0 He saw Jesus halt a funeral by giving a widow back her son.\u00a0 He saw Jesus evict demons from people whose lives they were destroying.\u00a0 Judas saw all this with his eyes, but not with his heart. At least not now.<\/p>\n

What did Judas hear?\u00a0 The same sermons the others did.\u00a0 He heard the parables that one about the seed of the word that was choked out by the thorns.\u00a0 He heard that one about the prodigal son wrapped in the arms of his forgiving Father.\u00a0 He heard Jesus say to people struggling with dark secrets:\u00a0 Take heart son, your sins are forgiven.\u00a0 He heard it with his ears.\u00a0 But not with his heart.\u00a0 Surely he must have seen Jesus differently at one time.\u00a0 But something had changed.\u00a0 What once comforted, strengthened and even thrilled him, is no longer enough\u2026now even a disappointment.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0His heart is on earthly things.<\/p>\n

Two people can sit in the same church for years.\u00a0 They can go to the same confirmation classes, say the same prayers and creeds.\u00a0 They can listen to the same sermons, see what Jesus did in his Word, hear the things he said.\u00a0 One wanders and turns away.\u00a0 The other stays.\u00a0 One see all his life differently because of Christ, even the dark times with a faint glow of a glory to come.\u00a0 The other sees nothing.<\/p>\n

By nature, we are no better than Judas.\u00a0 By grace, we can see Jesus as we do.\u00a0 That from this table he would go to suffer and die for us all, even Judas.\u00a0 That from this table he would offer us a supper of forgiveness and life.<\/p>\n

How blessed we are to have a place at his table.\u00a0 How blessed we are to see him as we do.\u00a0 To look across the table at him who created us all. \u00a0\u00a0 And from there to follow him to his cross where we see a love that would not give up on us.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matthew 26: 14-25 14 Then one of the Twelve\u2014the one called Judas Iscariot\u2014went to the chief priests 15 and asked, \u201cWhat are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?\u201d So they counted out for him thirty silver coins. 16 From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over. If you are a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lent","category-sermon"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":844,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions\/844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}