We have all felt the hurt of betrayal. Everyone in Jesus' life betrayed Him, not just Judas
Four Categories of Betrayers
- Unknowing Betrayers - God created us in His image, yet in Gen. 3 Adam and Eve betrayed God and sin entered the world and so ever since, we are all betrayers (Roman 3:10b-12 None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, no not one. Rom. 3:23 "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.")
- Blind Betrayers - Mark 14:1-2 Chief priests and scribes were the prominent, influential people of that time. They were to teach the Tanak and the Torah. Remember, there are more than 350 prophecies in the Tanak about Jesus as Messiah, so the scribes and religious leaders should have been the first to recognize Jesus but they don't. (They had already tried to "cancel" Jesus and since they couldn't, so they tried to eliminate Him) Even though they are blind to who Jesus is, they are not unknowing, they are consciously trying to kill Him and hand Him over to the Romans, whether they knew he was Messiah or not, that's still a betrayal.
- Unrepentant Betrayers - Mark 14:10-11 They wanted to wait until the Passover celebration was over so they wouldn't have a riot on their hands. An opportunity came up however to do it during the Passover so they went ahead and handed Him over during the festivities. Judas presented himself to them to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.
- vs. 17-21 Jesus was not surprised by the betrayal. The other disciples did not register this because Judas was so well respected.
- (John 13 - Jesus washes the feet of the disciples before the Passover meal together. He serves the people he knows will betray Him.)
- vs. 43-46 - Judas goes through with the betrayal even though Jesus calls him out on it. Later, Judas admits his wrongdoing; he doesn't actually repent.
- Repentant Betrayers - Mark 14:26-31 Jesus is telling them that tonight is the night of his death and says they will all abandon Him. Peter refuses that, so Jesus tells Peter that he will actually deny Him 3 times before the rooster crowed. In his shame, Peter went back to fishing but the resurrected Christ appeared on the shore (John 21:7b) and Peter jumped into the sea to swim toward Christ. If he was still filled with shame, he wouldn't have done this. He would've turned the other way. But he is so eager to get to Jesus because he is repentant and Jesus asks him 3 times, "do you love me?" Peter responds "yes" three times.
Since we are all betrayers, are we going to be blind, unrepentant, or repentant betrayers? While we were still enemies of God, Christ died for us. He is not hurt and wounded by our betrayal. When we sin/betrayal, where do we turn? To beating ourselves up or ignoring the shame and filling the void with substances, food, entertainment? Or, do we turn to Jesus and jump out of the boat and swim to Him?
