Jesus was Betrayed

Jesus was Betrayed
- A Good Friday Meditation on the Word

“But behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table. For the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed.” (Lk 22:21-22).

It was the last supper of Jesus with his 12 disciples. The picture of being hailed as king on that particular “Palm” Sunday was still vivid in His mind. But He knew He will soon be left alone scaling up that Mount of Death – Calvary. His disciples will soon forsake Him. At last, only John was found standing by His dear mom’s side.

What broke His heart most was the betrayal by Judas. David had prophesied about this, “Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.” (Ps 41:9). No, Jesus did not put a curse on Judas. When He said “woe to that man”, it could be any man, and Judas had a choice, he needed not be that “man”.

It was not the cross that brought Him pain but rather a friend’s betrayal that had inflicted Him much. He showed concern about Judas’ salvation. Nevertheless Judas had never made a U-turn.

In real life, some of us have also suffered betrayal by someone. Such thing will be more prominent in the last days. Paul said, “But understand this, that in the last days, there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lover of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying the power. Avoid such people.” (2 Tim 3:1-5).

The above characters are related to one another. Why is a person being treacherous? Because he or she a lover of self, a lover of money, and is proud and arrogant. Don’t ever think that Paul was talking to the unbelievers. No, he was talking to people in the House of God. People of such description are to be seen everywhere, and the Church is of no exception.

We have seen enough saints making vain promises. They broke promises when material gains propped up along the way, thus friendship was sacrificed! In the last days, integrity is becoming less weighty than gold. Saints of God manifested an absolute character flaw. As a result, the Church was made a mockery by the world.

It was painful for the Lord to be betrayed. A Bible commentator has suggested that Jesus was probably died of heart failure. Jesus, being painful over people’s hardness of hearts, bore all their burdens alone. He was forgiving about the wicked deeds of them all, including that of Judas. That probably speaks why Jesus gave up the ghost sooner than the two robbers. There was no forensic technology at that time, so no one will know the cause of His death. No matter how, sooner or later, Jesus would die being nailed. Even if He died of heart failure, He died on the cross. There is no doubt about that.

Finally, the gist of my story of meditation is that living a life of character flaw is impossible to please God. If we have gone astray, let us make a U-turn now. If someone has hurt you, forgive him or her.