In Matthew 27:3-4 we read the following: "Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, {4} Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that." If we look we can see the attitude that many have toward those they have seduced into sin. The chief priests and elders mentioned in verse 3 are the ones who had given Judas the 30 pieces of silver in the first place. They were only interested in getting Jesus and killing Him. They didn’t care how or at what cost, and certainly didn’t care about His innocence. They didn’t care who else got hurt in the process as long as Jesus was dead at the end of it.
Judas was different, and didn’t really want Jesus dead. He was greedy and a thief who had stolen money out of the money bag that he kept for Jesus and the apostles (John 12:5-6). This greed possibly combined with some other motive that we are not told of drove Judas to betray Jesus to the Pharisees. But it is apparent from Matthew 27:1-4 that Judas did not realize that Jesus was going to be killed. When he “saw that he(Jesus) was condemned, repented himself” and he tried to take the money back. We don’t know what Judas thought they were going to do to Jesus, but he should have realized their intentions were to kill Jesus because the disciples had talked with Jesus about that very thing on earlier occasions (John 11:8,16; Matthew 16:21-22; Matthew 17:22-23).
Many people get caught up in something not realizing what the final outcome will be. Most of the criminals on death row never imagined that they would end up dying over the choices that seemed so insignificant at the time they were made. We need to learn from Judas Iscariot the importance of looking before we leap. It is true that we can’t always know what consequences may follow, but we should examine the possibilities as much as possible.
The biggest lesson we need to learn here is that those who help entangle us in sin usually couldn’t care less what happens to us. A boy gets a girl pregnant and then disappears from her life after he had enticed her by telling her how much he loved her. A group of troublemakers convinces a newcomer to do something illegal to become part of the group, but when the sirens sound it is everyone for himself. There are a dozen other scenarios of this kind that we could mention, and some probably happened to you or someone you care about. These people don’t really care about anyone but self. They are vampires who use people and suck them dry and then leave them for dead and move on to someone new. The chief priests and elders that Judas dealt with were just like that. When he came to his senses and realized that innocent Jesus was going to die because of him and tried to go back and make things right, did they care? Of course not they had gotten what they needed from him. There response says it all, “What is that to us?” What do we care? So what? That’s not our problem. You deal with it. Don’t bother us. Sound familiar?
When will we learn to quit following this kind of person and follow Jesus instead. Judas made a fatal mistake when he switched his allegiance. Don’t make the same mistake he did. It cost him his life and his soul. If only he had come back to Jesus for forgiveness instead of to those who were involved with him in the sin.
Judas was different, and didn’t really want Jesus dead. He was greedy and a thief who had stolen money out of the money bag that he kept for Jesus and the apostles (John 12:5-6). This greed possibly combined with some other motive that we are not told of drove Judas to betray Jesus to the Pharisees. But it is apparent from Matthew 27:1-4 that Judas did not realize that Jesus was going to be killed. When he “saw that he(Jesus) was condemned, repented himself” and he tried to take the money back. We don’t know what Judas thought they were going to do to Jesus, but he should have realized their intentions were to kill Jesus because the disciples had talked with Jesus about that very thing on earlier occasions (John 11:8,16; Matthew 16:21-22; Matthew 17:22-23).
Many people get caught up in something not realizing what the final outcome will be. Most of the criminals on death row never imagined that they would end up dying over the choices that seemed so insignificant at the time they were made. We need to learn from Judas Iscariot the importance of looking before we leap. It is true that we can’t always know what consequences may follow, but we should examine the possibilities as much as possible.
The biggest lesson we need to learn here is that those who help entangle us in sin usually couldn’t care less what happens to us. A boy gets a girl pregnant and then disappears from her life after he had enticed her by telling her how much he loved her. A group of troublemakers convinces a newcomer to do something illegal to become part of the group, but when the sirens sound it is everyone for himself. There are a dozen other scenarios of this kind that we could mention, and some probably happened to you or someone you care about. These people don’t really care about anyone but self. They are vampires who use people and suck them dry and then leave them for dead and move on to someone new. The chief priests and elders that Judas dealt with were just like that. When he came to his senses and realized that innocent Jesus was going to die because of him and tried to go back and make things right, did they care? Of course not they had gotten what they needed from him. There response says it all, “What is that to us?” What do we care? So what? That’s not our problem. You deal with it. Don’t bother us. Sound familiar?
When will we learn to quit following this kind of person and follow Jesus instead. Judas made a fatal mistake when he switched his allegiance. Don’t make the same mistake he did. It cost him his life and his soul. If only he had come back to Jesus for forgiveness instead of to those who were involved with him in the sin.
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