Judas, betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss
The traitor’s kiss
I. A TRAITOR AMONG THE DISCIPLES. Many of them were weak in faith and carnal in apprehension, but only one a traitor.
II. THE CHARACTERISTIC OF HIS TREASON. Betrayed Lord into cruel hands of foes. Professed followers of Christ may betray Him to the scorn of the world, giving the sceptic arguments for his infidelity, and the worldly excuses for rejection of Christ.
III. THE MANNER OF THE BETRAYAL. A kiss.
1. It was the accepted token of affection.
2. It was here prostituted to the basest of uses.
3. It was received with lamblike meekness by Him who knew it meant treachery.
IV. THEY BETRAY THE SON OF MAN WITH A KISS WHO--
1. Compliment and deny Him with the same lips,
2. Profess to be united with Him at His table, and then act as lovers and servants of the world.
3. Exalt His humanity to the skies, and deny His rightful divinity and the efficacy of the atonement. (Homiletic Review.)
Christ betrayed by Judas
I. BY WHOM CHRIST WAS BETRAYED. “Judas, one of the twelve.” Not an occasional disciple who had fastened himself upon the Lord’s company, not one of the seventy who had been sent forth by two and two; one of the called, the chosen; one singled out from the great mass of mankind for the office of a foundation-stone in the Church of God.
II. Let us consider SOME OF THE AGGRAVATIONS OF THIS PERFIDIOUS CONDUCT ON THE PART OF JUDAS. Judas was not only equal with the rest of the apostles, but he was allowed to carry the bag, which would certainly appear to invest him with a sort of official superiority.
III. THE ENDS FOR WHICH CHRIST’S BETRAYAL WAS PERMITTED. That it was of mere permission we know. God has abundance of snares for taking the wise in their own craftiness; He has ten thousand accidents at command by which to mar a well-concerted plot. Yea, even after the capture had been effected, twelve legions of angels waited the bidding of Christ to rescue Him from the traitor’s power. But God will not avail Himself of these means.
IV. Let us now consider some of the MORAL LESSONS which seem to be conveyed to us by this history.
1. We see how needful it is that we, each one of us, look well to the state of our own hearts. Here is a man who knew the truth, who had preached the truth, who had wrought miracles for the sake of the truth; and yet became a castaway. Now, why was this? He “held the truth in unrighteousness.” The man who has been a hypocrite in religion is very rarely recovered; he deceives others, but yet more fatally does he deceive himself.
2. Again: the history teaches us how little security against our falling away, there is in the possession of eminent spiritual advantages. “Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve.”
3. Again: we learn from this history how insensible and unperceived is the progress of the downward course in sin. When a man once enters on the way of transgression, he can never tell where he shall stop. Neither wickedness nor holiness attain to their full stature all at once. We cannot suppose that Judas had the remotest thought of his treachery when he first accepted the invitation to become one of the apostles.
4. The enslaving power of the love of this present world. (D. Moore, M. A.)
The treason of Judas
1. Hence in the first place we learn, that the greatest professors had need be jealous of their own hearts, and look well to the grounds and principles of their professions.
2. Learn hence also, that eminent knowledge and profession puts a special and eminent aggravation upon sin. To sin against clear light is to sin with a high hand. It is that which makes a sad waste of the conscience.
3. Learn hence, in the third place, that unprincipled professors will sooner or later become shameful apostates.
4. Moreover in this example of Judas you may read this truth--that men and women are never in more imminent danger than when they meet with temptations exactly suited to their master-lusts, to their own iniquity. O pray, pray, that ye may be kept from a violent suitable temptation. Satan knows that when a man is tried here, he falls by the root.
5. Hence, in like manner, we are instructed, that no man knows where he shall stop when he first engages himself in a way of sin.
6. Did Judas sell Christ for money? What a potent conqueror is the love of this world! How many hath it cast down wounded? What great professors have been dragged at its chariot-wheels as its captives? Pliny tells us that the mermaids delight to be in green meadows, into which they draw men by their enchanting voices; but saith he, there always lie heaps of dead men’s bones by them. A lively emblem of a bewitching world! Good had it been for many professors of religion if they had never known what the riches, and honours, and pleasures of this world meant.
7. Did Judas fancy so much happiness in a little money, that he would sell Christ to get it? Learn, then, that which men promise themselves much pleasure and contentment in, in the way of sin, may prove the greatest curse and misery to thorn that ever befel them in the world.
8. Was there one, and but one, of the twelve that proved a Judas, a traitor to Christ? Learn thence, that it is a most unreasonable thing to be prejudiced at religion, and the sincere professors of it, because some that profess it prove naught and vile.
9. Did Judas, one of the twelve, do so? Learn thence, that a drop of grace is better than a sea of gifts. Gifts have some excellency in them, but the way of grace is the more excellent way (1 Corinthians 12:31). Gifts, as one saith, are dead graces, but graces are living gifts. There is many a learned head in hell. These are not the things that accompany salvation. It is better for thee to feel one Divine impression from God upon thy heart than to have ten thousand fine notions floating in thy head. Judas was a man of parts, but what good did they do him?
10. Did the devil win the consent of Judas to such a design as this? Could he get no other but the hand of an apostle to assist him? Learn hence, that the policy of Satan lies much in the choice of his instruments he works by.
No bird, saith one, like a living bird to tempt others into the net. Austin told an ingenious young scholar the devil coveted him for an ornament. He knows he hath a foul cause to manage, and therefore will get the fairest hand he can to manage it with the less suspicion.
11. Did Judas, one of the twelve, do this? Then, certainly, Christians may approve and join with such men on earth whose faces they shall never see in heaven.
12. Did Judas, one of the twelve, a man so obliged, raised, and honoured by Christ, do this? Cease then from man, be not too confident, but beware of men. “Trust ye not in a friend, put no confidence in a guide, keep the door of thy lips from her that lieth in thy bosom” (Micah 7:5). (J. Flavel.)
The betrayal
I. LET US TARRY AWHILE, AND SEE OUR LORD UNGRATEFULLY AND DASTARDLY BETRAYED.
1. It is appointed that He must die, but how shall He fall into the hands of His adversaries? Shall they capture Him in conflict? It must not be, lest He appear an unwilling victim. Shall He flee before His foes until He can hide no longer? It is not meet that a sacrifice should be hunted to death. Shall He offer Himself to the foe? That were to excuse His murderers, or be a party to their crime. Shall He be taken accidentally or unawares? That would withdraw from His cup the necessary bitterness which made it wormwood mingled with gall.
(1) One reason for the appointment of the betrayal lay in the fact that it was ordained that man’s sin should reach its culminating point in His death.
(2) Beyond a doubt, however, the main reason for this was that Christ might offer a perfect atonement for sin. We may usually read the sin in the punishment. Man betrayed his God. Therefore must Jesus find man a traitor to Him. There must be the counterpart of the sin in the suffering which He endured. You and I have often betrayed Christ. It seemed most fitting, then, that He who bore the chastisement of sin should be reminded of its ingratitude and treachery by the things which He suffered.
(3) Besides, brethren, that cup must be bitter to the last degree which is to be the equivalent for the wrath of God.
(4) Moreover, we feel persuaded that by thus suffering at the hand of a traitor the Lord became a faithful High Priest, able to sympathize with us when we fall under the like affliction.
2. Now let us look at the treason itself. You perceive how black it was.
(1) Judas was Christ’s servant, what if I call him His confidential servant.
(2) Judas was more than this: he was a friend, a trusted friend.
(3) The world looked upon Judas as a colleague of our Lord’s.
(4) Our Lord would look upon Judas as a representative man, the portraiture of many thousands who in after ages have imitated his crime.
3. Observe the manner in which Christ met this affliction.
(1) His calmness.
(2) His gentleness.
II. Grant me your attention while we make an estimate of the man by whom the Son of Man was betrayed--JUDAS THE BETRAYER.
1. I would call your attention, dear friends, to his position and public character.
(1) Judas was a preacher; nay, he was a foremost preacher, “he obtained part of this ministry,” said the Apostle Peter.
(2) Judas took a very high degree officially. He had the distinguished honour of being entrusted with the Master’s financial concerns, and this, after all, was no small degree to which to attain. The Lord, who knows how to use all sorts of gifts, perceived what gift the man had.
(3) You will observe that the character of Judas was openly an admirable one. I find not that he committed himself in any way. Not the slightest speck defiled his moral character so far as others could perceive. He was no boaster, like Peter.
2. But I call your attention to his real nature and sin. Judas was a man with a conscience. He could not afford to do without it. He was no Sadducee who could fling religion overboard; he had strong religious tendencies. But then it was a conscience that did not sit regularly on the throne; it reigned by fits and starts. Conscience was not the leading element. Avarice predominated over conscience.
3. The warning which Judas received, and the way in which he persevered.
4. The act itself. He sought out his own temptation. He did not wait for the devil to come to him; he went after the devil. He went to the chief priests and said, “ What will ye give me?” Alas! some people’s religion is grounded on that one question.
5. We conclude with the repentance of Judas. He did repent; but it was the repentance that worketh death. The man who repents of consequences does not repent. The ruffian repents of the gallows but not of the murders and that is no repentance at all. Human law, of course, must measure sin by consequences, but God’s law does not. There is a pointsman on a railway who neglects his duty; there is a collision on the line, and people are killed; well, it is manslaughter to this man through his carelessness. But that pointsman, perhaps, many times before had neglected his duty, but no accident came of it, and then he walked home and said, “Well, I have done no wrong.” Now the wrong, mark you, is never to be measured by the accident, but by the thing itself, and if you have committed an offence and you have escaped undetected it is lust as vile in God’s eye; if you have done wrong and Providence has prevented the natural result of the wrong, the honour of that is with God, but you are as guilty as if your sin had been carried out to its fullest consequences, and the whole world set ablaze. Never measure sin by consequences, but repent of them as they are in themselves. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Treachery to Christ
I. Observe, THE PERSON ADDRESSED--Judas. One on whom the Saviour had conferred many benefits, and who had made an open profession of His name. Betrayest thou!
II. Observe, the PERSON SPEAKING--Jesus. The title which Jesus here assumes, in calling Himself the Son of Man, may teach us the following things--
1. That He is really and properly Man, as well as truly Divine.
2. The phrase, Son of Man, seems intended to denote the meanness of Christ’s origin, and the poverty of His outward condition.
3. Christ’s assumption of this character may teach us to consider Him as the Saviour of all nations; or of all that ever will be saved, out of every kindred, tongue, and people: He is not the Son of this or that particular people, but the Son of Man, and the Saviour of all them that believe, by whatever name they may be distinguished.
4. The term Son of Man seems to have been prefigured and foretold as a title which belonged to the expected Messiah.
III. THE QUESTION WHICH JESUS PUTS TO THE TRAITOR: “Betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss?” Improvement:
1. We have here a loud call to be jealous of our own hearts, and to exercise a holy watchfulness over them. More especially, if we regard our immortal interests, let us carefully avoid the following things--
(1) Self-confidence. The fear of falling is a good security against it.
(2) The secret indulgence of any sin: this was the ruin of Judas.
(3) Beware of a profession without principle, the form of godliness without the power. Those who have no root in themselves will soon wither away.
2. We see how far a person may go in the way to heaven, and yet fall short of it.
3. Let us admire and adore the infinite wisdom of God, who brought so much real good out of so much aggravated evil. (B. Beddome, M. A.)
He touched his ear, and healed him
Jesus the Restorer
Jesus wrought a miracle to repair the mischief which Peter had done. Thus, by one act, in one moment, Christ made Himself the repairer of the breach. The evil, which His follower had done, was cancelled; and, through the kind interposition of a special act, the injured man was none the worse--but rather the better--and the harm, of which a Christian had been the occasion, was neutralized by his Master. I do not know what we should any of us do if we might not hope that this is still one of the blessed offices of Christ. We go through life meaning to do good; but oh! how often--through some ignorance, or indiscretion, or self-will-doing exactly the reverse! Happy is it for us if we might believe that Christ comes after us to undo the harm--nay, that by one of His gracious transformations, He comes afterwards to turn to benefit the very thing which we have done hurtingly. In the retrospect of life there was, it may be, a long period before you knew God--when your influence was all on the wrong side; your example and your words were always for the world, and sometimes for what was positively sinful! How many a bad and well-nigh deadly “wound” must you have been making during those years upon the minds of those among whom your remarks and your actions were being flung about with such utter carelessness! How many a young companion, years back, may have learnt then to carry with him a life-long scar through some idle word of yours. Through the infinite patience, and the abounding grace of our God and Saviour, you have become a Christian; and you now love the Lord Jesus Christ as you love nothing else in earth or heaven; and, at this moment, you could not have a bitterer thought than to think that you had ever done anything to keep a soul from Jesus; or to give a moment’s pain to one of His little ones. Now, may you take it as one of the wonderful provisions of your new state--as one of the blessings into which you have been admitted--that the Christ, whom you now call yours, will prevent the consequences of what you did in those days of sinful blindness--that He will restore what you destroyed, that fins bloom to that delicate conscience, it may be, of one of your early friends; that He will rectify the ill--that He will “touch” with His own virtue the afflicted part, and that He will “heal” all that “wound.” Why may we not believe all this? Was not that the spirit of the Man, that night, when He stood upon the Mount of Olives? And is He not the same Restorer now? Do not think because man made your trouble, therefore God will not deal with the trouble. It rests with you. If you bring a sin to Christ believingly, He will take away that sin. If you bring a sorrow to Christ believingly, He will take away that sorrow. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)