Beginning of a Judas Kiss

     Last night things were very slow at work, and that gave me some time to pop out the kindle and spend some extra time in God's word. I began reading through Matthew chapter 26 and something popped out at me. In Matthew 26 we see a woman with a very expensive bottle of perfume, and I do mean VERY EXPENSIVE, pour it all out on Jesus. We see a beautiful picture of pure worship. We see a beautiful picture of pure ministry. This woman was giving all there was to her name to worship Jesus!
     As the disciples looked on at this situation, they became very pharasitic<---- made up word :). They started to rebuke her under their breath. I can imagine they were saying things to each other like

"Oh she's crazy!"

"That is very expensive perfume! Why would she do that!?"

we know they said "She could've sold it and gave that money to the poor."

     But what they didn't get was that this was an act of worship! They didn't quite at this moment understand giving their all, simply because Jesus is worthy. They had walked with Him and talked with Him for so long, but didn't quite understand this act of passion. So Jesus rebuked them. He explained to them that the poor would be with them later, but He would not. Jesus was getting ready to go to the cross, and here this woman is still saying "YOU ARE WORTHY OF MY PRAISE!" 

     Not with her voice, no, but with her actions.

     When Judas saw this I can imagine something terrible happened in him. He simply gave up on Jesus. The life that Jesus called them too was "too hard" or "too crazy" for them. He felt inside that Jesus needed to go. So he went and it gets me even how we asked the question. "How much will you give me if I give Jesus over to you?"

WOAH!!!! 

Judas hadn't even put any worth in Christ......

Think about that question!

He wasn't even willing to haggle!

THEY GAVE HIM 30 PIECES OF SILVER!!!!!

COME ON!!!!!

now yes we are well aware that this had to happen

for Jesus to go to the cross

this was prophesied, but lets really think about how this went down

in the heart of Judas

     Judas was a disciple. He had seen Christ do great things, and he even did great things in Jesus name, such as cast out demons and many other things that many will say LORD LORD about (Matthew 7:22-23), but there was still a disconnect. A disconnect with the heart of Judas and who Jesus is. I imagine that Jesus wanted super power Jesus, who only did miracles, and used His powers to gain earthly status, but such was not the case. Jesus wasn't who Judas wanted Him to be, and eventually that got to Judas. Judas had yet to accept Christ as who He truly is. Not just some earthly king here to overthrow the government, and free the jews, but the Lord of all here to overthrow the powers of sin, break chains, and restore us back to God. Judas didn't get that. He wanted action and he wanted it now, and when it finally clicked for Judas that Jesus wasn't who he thought He'd be, Judas walked out with his heart.

     Judas was with Christ all that time and yet he still had a misplaced belief of who Christ is. Once his belief fell through, he found Christ as worthless, and thus began the beginning of the Judas kiss.

Oh but how often do we see this in todays culture

many grow up in the church believing things about Christ that are wrong

yet they wont go and spend time in His word to truly know Him

after all it is the preachers job to tell us about Jesus

Many parents don't spend time teaching their children about Christ

after all that is AWANA's job

that's the youth pastors job

that's the life group leader, or sunday school teachers job

Lack of being in God's word

leads us to a misplaced belief in who He is

when our beliefs fall through

for the most part we tend to want to walk away

two things

1. If you have walked away because Christ isn't who you thought that He was

I challenge you to read the gospels and see who He IS

2. If you have a belief in who Christ is, but you KNOW YOU DON'T SPEND TIME IN THE WORD, GET THERE FAST!!! Don't end up finding out that you never knew Christ!

YOU DON'T WANT THAT!!