Practical Proverbial, from Matthew, 18 September 2025. Today's topic: Betrayer
His Word, Our Journey
Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!” Matthew 26:45-46 (NIV).
In Gethsemane, the last time Jesus returns to Peter, James, and John, the passion has begun. Where He sought them out previously, coming back to indirectly teach them, this time He comes back to submit to His Father’s will. That will is to submit to betrayal.
Jesus owns the moment: “the hour has come.” In unfolding His will, the Father gave His Son a gift: the realization that He would fulfill His purpose in real time. Some of us spend our entire lives wondering what our purpose is. Jesus knew what His purpose was, and He declared, in that real time and in that moment, that the hour had come for Him to complete that purpose. What’s more, He didn’t shrink from it, or try to shirk it. Instead, Jesus commanded His followers to get up (“Rise!”) and confront it (“Let us go!”). They were going to confront their opponents. Little did the disciples know that, within a few hours, their eyes would behold the worst horror possible.
Notice that Jesus doesn’t say, “here comes Judas Iscariot.” Instead, He says Judas is a sinner (because he led a group of “sinners” out to arrest Jesus) and “my betrayer.” That last word stings even more than “sinner”. Betrayal is personal, and Jesus acknowledges this by saying Judas was “my betrayer.” Judas has moved beyond the rank of student, follower, or disciple. Instead, he has become something more personal, more traitorous. And he became that to Jesus, in the most personal way possible.
Let’s be real: we are betrayers. You and I betray Jesus with every sin we, too, commit. Each one is a betrayal and violation of the faith and love we confess for Him as well as the command He gave to us to love each other. Yet let’s keep it real by also saying that Judas did something unique. He personally gave Jesus the God-man to His enemies so they might kill Him. Judas knew Jesus was God and he chose the thirty pieces of silver anyway.
I’ve always felt sorry for Judas for that. He must have been empty inside, and I wouldn’t wish that emptiness on anyone, even Judas. But it makes me feel sad for us as well. Again, we betray Jesus, and we feel the emptiness that comes with accepting all the sins we’ve done, and we feel some of the hurt they cause Christ and others. But not the way Judas did. His Good Friday was unique. Little did he know how what he’d set in motion was something Jesus would do for him as well.
For more, read Mark 14:41-42, Luke 22:45-47, Matthew 26:47
Lord Jesus, you died to save us all. Forgive me and help me repent!