The Kiss of Life
Luke 22:1-6
Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh, which is called the Passover. And the chief priests and scribes sought how they might kill Him; for they feared the people. Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve. And he went his way, and communed with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray Him unto them. And they were glad, and covenanted to give him money. And he promised, and sought opportunity to betray Him unto them in the absence of the multitude.
After Jesus entered into Jerusalem for the last time to celebrate the Passover, He had several encounters with the chief priests and scribes. These meetings ended badly for the priests; they were both embarrassed and put down at the same time. They also saw Jesus as a threat to their authority and position in the Temple. They did not just want to show the people Jesus was not to be listened to; they wanted to get rid of Him. The priests had already conspired to have Jesus killed at the earliest opportunity. However, the people were in support of Jesus and any show of force against Jesus would have caused the crowd to stand with Jesus and might have brought the full weight of the Roman guards down upon the Jews, something the priests did not want. They just had to wait for that perfect opportunity to present itself.
As told in our reading today, and as every Christian knows, it was Judas Iscariot who presented the opportunity for the priests to bring their conspiracy to completion. We are told Satan entered into Judas and from that Judas went to the priests and promised to betray Jesus at the first chance He would be away from the crowds. In the Gospel of Matthew we are told the priests and Judas covenanted, or bargained, for the payment of thirty pieces of silver. This is what the priests wanted; a way to quietly take Jesus out of the picture without the people gathered around Him. And the person who was going to hand Jesus over to them was one of Jesus’ own, one of the Twelve He personally picked out of all those who followed Him for special instructions and work. Judas would know exactly when Jesus was going to be alone, when they would be able to arrest Him.
During the Passover meal, Judas left to tell the priests Jesus would be away from crowds later that night in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus told His disciple what he was to do, do quickly. The other disciples did not understand what was going on, but both Jesus and Judas knew exactly what was being talked about. Jesus instituted what is now known as The Lord’s Supper during this time. Knowing what was to come, Jesus took Peter, John, and James, the three disciples He had set aside from the rest of the twelve, to the Garden of Gethsemane. It was here that Jesus asked the Father three times to have the prophesized events, to have that cup, pass. But at the each of the three prayers, Jesus ended them with “Not as I will, but as Thou wilt”. “Don’t stop this because I have asked, but because there is another way”. But there wasn’t another way. The suffering Jesus had to endure and succumb to was required for the redemption of His creation. Jesus’ reason to coming to earth, being born to a woman, experiencing life as one of His creation, to the choosing of twelve men who were set apart from every other follower, His three years of teaching and preaching the Scriptures, was coming to an end. In less than 24 hours, He would stand four different trials, one before the Sanhedrin, one before Pilate, one before Herod, and the last before Pilate again. He would be betrayed, disserted, denied, ridiculed, beaten, flogged, and crucified. He would endure the full wraith of the Father, because He had claimed the sins of all people as His own; both death and separation from the Father; hell.
After each of the three prayers, Jesus came to His disciples only to find them asleep. As Jesus was speaking to the disciples after the last prayer, when Judas came up and addressed Jesus as Rabboni, Master, and kissed Him. Judas used the terms he had always used, terms once used in love and respect; and kissed Jesus. That kiss, that token of respect and love, was used to betray the Lord over to His enemies. Judas gave Jesus a kiss of death. Judas came to the Garden with a large group of people, as many as could be assembled at such a late hour. The people in the crowd came with staves and swords in anticipation of some conflict. But Jesus surrendered Himself peacefully with only one incident; Peter cut the ear off one of the priest’s servants, a man named Malchus, which Jesus healed before being lead away.
Upon learning that Jesus was to be crucified, Judas attempted to return the money he had been given back to the priests, who refused to take it as it was blood money. He then threw the money at the priests and went and hung himself. There are some that believe this action showed the depth of Judas’ remorse and his betrayal was forgiven by God. But it might also be said that Judas was not repentant of his betrayal and he did not want to live with the shame of the one who betrayed God and hung himself without receiving forgiveness. He could also have been afraid of the retribution other eleven disciples, and the hundreds who followed Jesus, might have laid upon him, again without being sorry for the betrayal, and hung himself, again without receiving forgiveness. It doesn’t seem likely that Judas repented of his actions, not the way the devil so easily entered into him. This is not Scriptural, but I believe Judas is the only of the original disciples spending eternity in hell. But then, most of us do not have a problem with this; he did, after all, sell out our Lord for thirty pieces of silver.
And now I will ask this question; what is your price? What would you sell our Lord for? My former pastor asked this question when he gave his sermon of Judas; I had been going to that church for about a year and I knew even at that time the answer was not going to be a “Good Jeff, you wouldn’t do such a thing! Pat yourself on the back!” The Pastor continued and said “Suppose you’re driving down the road and someone cuts you off and you say a little curse. You just sold the Lord and for less than thirty pieces of silver!” Judas got thirty pieces of silver, we take the opportunity to use His name in vain; not really that much of a difference.
Yet, of the original twelve, it is only Judas that is loathed by Christians. If we look at the actions of the disciples, ten of those remaining abandoned Jesus when He was arrested, only Peter drew a sword to defend Jesus; but he, just hours later, denied even knowing who Jesus was. Even Paul, who replaced Judas as one of the Twelve, had Christians arrested, perhaps even executed, before his conversion. Does all the good he did as an Apostle cleanse the blood from his hands? So why is it that Judas holds that unique place of disgust with all Christians?
Perhaps it is because we see a bit of ourselves in Judas. What Judas did was a very despicable act and I’m not saying that any of us have that level of evil within us. But Judas was a sinner, just like us; he was an enemy of God, just like us (as told to us by Paul in 1st Corinthians 1:21 “And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works”); he was influenced by the devil to sin, just as we are, and he needed the Savior, just like we all do. Our sinful nature causes us to do wicked acts, to sin against the Lord. But we are so loved by God that through Jesus’ sinless life and sacrificial death we can be forgiven of our sins. Paul tells us in Romans 5:10, “For if, while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life”. Because we have been forgiven by God and reconciled to Him by Him, we, all who believe and trust in God are saved, made clean once again, by God. We will have a restored and forgiven life in God now and a new life with God once this life is over. When we look at Judas, we do see someone who was in the very position we were once in, but he rejected Jesus which allowed the devil to enter into him and influence his thoughts and actions. Judas was not so much different than us and perhaps that is why he is so reviled; not just because of his actions, but because we see that part of ourselves we dislike so much in him.
Lastly, I have read from a few sources and heard from a few people Judas wanted to force Jesus to show who He truly was to the Jews and Romans; to begin the revolt against Rome and have Judea become free from foreign rule. Making Judas in that sense a tragic hero. By turning Jesus over to His enemies, Jesus was supposed to have ended what was happening to Him and declare Judea free, and what power on earth could have stopped Jesus from doing just that? If that was the case why did he take money; why did Judas bargain for his payment of betrayal? Plus, we know the devil had entered into Judas; would the devil have Judas do something that would have ended up with the people idolizing and worshipping Jesus more than He already was? This does not seem the end the devil would have wanted. No, Judas’ motivation for betrayal was greed, a greed he had in life and the devil exploited when Judas lost faith. And Jesus was not to free people from a foreign rule, but from the rule of sin and death.
As the last week of Jesus’ life began, some events were put into motion; the conspiracy of the priests to have Jesus killed; the Passover celebration of the Jews; Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem and hailed as king; His cleansing the Temple of thieves; His final teachings and instructions to His disciples; and His betrayal. But all of these events led to one place; Mount Calvary and the Passion of Christ. They all led to the prophesied ending of His birth. They all led to our redemption. Jesus took Judas’ kiss of death and turned it into the kiss of life. Amen.
