Judas Kiss

September 24

(Luke 22:47-48 NIV) ““While he was still speaking a crowd came up, and the man who was called Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him, {48} but Jesus asked him, "Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?””

(Matthew 27:3-10 NIV)  "When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders. {4} "I have sinned," he said, "for I have betrayed innocent blood." "What is that to us?" they replied. "That's your responsibility." {5} So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself. {6} The chief priests picked up the coins and said, "It is against the law to put this into the treasury, since it is blood money." {7} So they decided to use the money to buy the potter's field as a burial place for foreigners. {8} That is why it has been called the Field of Blood to this day. {9} Then what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: "They took the thirty silver coins, the price set on him by the people of Israel, {10} and they used them to buy the potter's field, as the Lord commanded me.""

Judas led an armed crowd to Jesus and gave Him a kiss. It was the kiss of death -- for Jesus and for Judas. For both it was a fulfillment of prophecy. Betrayal is often a hasty action. It can happen on the spur of the moment, but its ramifications can last a lifetime. We have all done it, and we have all regretted it. Judas tried to “take it back”. He tried to return the blood money given him, but the weight of sin was too heavy on his heart, and it crushed him. Sin never gets lighter or easier to bear. It grows heavier by the day. And religion won’t help. The chief priests told Judas there was nothing they could do. Only a relationship with Jesus can save us from our sin, and Judas had severed that relationship. As Judas hung himself, he had to be thinking, “Why did I kiss and then condemn an innocent man? I was so close!” But when it comes to eternity, “close” doesn’t count. -- Friar Tuck’s Word of the Day