PLANNING THE BETRAYAL
‘The chief priests and scribes sought how they might kill Him … Then entered Satan into Judas … And they were glad, and covenanted to give him money.’
No part of our Lord’s history is so fully given by all the Gospel writers as this: only two of them describe the circumstances of Christ’s birth, all four dwell minutely on Christ’s death; and of all the four no one supplies us with such full and interesting details as Luke.
I. The first step in putting Christ to death was taken by the religious teachers of the Jewish nation.—High offices do not preserve the holders of them from great blindness and sin.
II. The second step towards our Lord’s crucifixion was the treachery of one of the twelve Apostles.—‘Then entered Satan into Judas Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve.’ These words are peculiarly awful. Judas Iscariot ought to be a standing beacon to the Church of Christ.
III. Observe also the enormous power of the love of money.—It was the secret of this wretched man’s fall. The love of money is one of the choicest weapons of Satan for corrupting and spoiling professors of religion. Gehazi, Ananias, and Sapphira are names which naturally occur to our minds. But of all proofs, there is none so melancholy as the one before us. For money a chosen Apostle sold the best and most loving of Masters! For money Judas Iscariot betrayed Christ!