Judas Iscariot. Any follower of Jesus and reader of the Bible immediately knows Judas Iscariot. Judas, one of the twelve disciples--disciples who followed Jesus, who learned from Jesus, who loved Jesus. Supposedly. I can hear the name of Judas Iscariot and I don't remember the good things he got to experience. I only remember his betrayal.
I guess for myself when I think of Judas, I find him a lot like some are today--interested in money and what they can do to get it. Maybe that was the case, maybe not. We all have our opinions. I find the "transaction" of Judas in the gospels of Matthew (26:14-16), Mark (14:10, 11), and Luke (22:3-6). Neither of these gospels need many verses to tell the story.
Judas simply chose to go into the chief priests and scribes and asked, "What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you?" Judas made a deal with them for thirty pieces of silver ($3840). The gospel of Matthew said from that time on, Judas "sought opportunity to betray him." I wondered if Judas felt like a really big guy with this deal.
While I know that the plan was for God to give his only begotten son, I wonder at the ways it all played out. I know there are lessons for us to learn and thoughts to ponder.
I can remember a time years ago when I was at the mall. There was a teenage girl and her group handing out some sort of religious paper or announcement of an event. As I passed, there was an elderly man in front of me walking along. He stopped at the girl and asked what she had. She said in her reply something about Jesus. I almost stopped dead in my tracks as the older man asked her, "Who is Jesus? I've never heard of him." The teenage girl got a huge smile on her face and replied, "Oh, sir, let me tell you about him!" That day I realized two things...there ARE people in this world who have never heard of Jesus and I fall short on a daily basis telling others about him. I need to be like that young girl and be enthusiastic about sharing Jesus.
As for Judas, you probably already know how his life ended....I will get to that later on this week....in the meantime, consider.......
I guess for myself when I think of Judas, I find him a lot like some are today--interested in money and what they can do to get it. Maybe that was the case, maybe not. We all have our opinions. I find the "transaction" of Judas in the gospels of Matthew (26:14-16), Mark (14:10, 11), and Luke (22:3-6). Neither of these gospels need many verses to tell the story.
Judas simply chose to go into the chief priests and scribes and asked, "What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you?" Judas made a deal with them for thirty pieces of silver ($3840). The gospel of Matthew said from that time on, Judas "sought opportunity to betray him." I wondered if Judas felt like a really big guy with this deal.
While I know that the plan was for God to give his only begotten son, I wonder at the ways it all played out. I know there are lessons for us to learn and thoughts to ponder.
I can remember a time years ago when I was at the mall. There was a teenage girl and her group handing out some sort of religious paper or announcement of an event. As I passed, there was an elderly man in front of me walking along. He stopped at the girl and asked what she had. She said in her reply something about Jesus. I almost stopped dead in my tracks as the older man asked her, "Who is Jesus? I've never heard of him." The teenage girl got a huge smile on her face and replied, "Oh, sir, let me tell you about him!" That day I realized two things...there ARE people in this world who have never heard of Jesus and I fall short on a daily basis telling others about him. I need to be like that young girl and be enthusiastic about sharing Jesus.
As for Judas, you probably already know how his life ended....I will get to that later on this week....in the meantime, consider.......
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