Betrayer and Betrayal, Matthew 26:47-56

Open your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 26:47. The focus in this section is on the betrayer of Jesus—Judas, and his betrayal. The word betrayal brings up a number of ideas in our mind. It speaks of disloyalty. It speaks of treason. It is the act of betraying someone to whom we are at allegedly devoted. It is the idea of betraying our nation and our country a king, a ruler, someone in authority, someone's sovereign. When we think about traitors in history there may be different ones that come to your mind, but if you are an American probably the traitor that comes to your mind is Benedict Arnold who was a general in the Continental Army in the American war for Independence. He was a key general at the key battle. The battle there was a turning point in the American war for Independence at Saratoga, and then later because he was upset that he didn't get enough recognition and respect for that victory. He decided to go over to the British. So he was commanding and had responsibilities at a Fort at West Point long before there was a military Academy there, and he was for a price he was going to turn it over to the British. It was discovered and he was found out.

For those familiar with ancient history we also have the story of Brutus who was the nephew of Julius Caesar. He was very close to Caesar and he got involved in a conspiracy against Caesar, and despite his close friendship he betrayed Caesar and joined a conspiracy to assassinate him. He is made famous by that line in Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar where Caesar sees him coming to stab him and says Et to Brute.

During World War II one of the more famous traitors at that time was a Norwegian bureaucrat politician by the name of vehicle and Quisling. He founded a national fascist party in Norway and after the Nazis conquered Norway he was set up as the governor in a puppet government that the Nazis established. His name became synonymous with anyone who was a traitor and a collaborator with the enemy. A lot of people have heard somebody referred to as a Quisling; they don't know anything about where that term came from.

And if you're familiar with British history, one name stands out, and that's Guy Faux. Next Sunday is November 5 and in the British influence countries they will celebrate Guy Faux day. Guy Faux was a young idealistic Englishmen who, during the time of the Protestant Reformation in the late 1500s, converted back to Roman Catholicism. He left England to serve with Catholic Spanish armies in the Reformation and the 30 years war in the continent, and when he returned to England, he joined a group of conspirators who thought that they would win the day by blowing up the British Parliament building with Parliament sitting there. He was dispatch to guard the gunpowder. They brought 36 barrels of gunpowder into the basement of the House of Lords and they were going to blow it up. The plot was discovered, he was arrested and sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered. Rather than going through that torture when they put them up on the scaffold he jumped and fell to his death, committing suicide rather than going through the going through the torture. There is a British nursery rhyme to commemorate that that goes:

Remember, remember!
The fifth of November,
The Gunpowder treason and plot;
I know of no reason
Why the Gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot!

Those are some of the treasons. If you look it up on the Internet you'll see those and a number of others mentioned. But the worst traitor of all time is Judas Iscariot, for his treason is a traitorous act against the King of Kings and Lord of lords, against the sovereign creator of the universe. Yet it was a treasonous act that, to quote from another event earlier in Scripture with Joseph, that they meant for evil but God meant it for good. And as is God's capability He turned to that treasonous act into that which would lead to the death of Christ on the cross for our sins.

This arrest and betrayal of Jesus is described in Matthew 26:47-56, and in the parallel passages in Mark 14:43-52; Luke 22:47-53, and John 18:2-11. Luke and John especially provide a few insights as to what was going on that are not listed in Matthew. So we are going to walk our way through this combined account of what took place when Jesus was betrayed and arrested in the garden of Gethsemane.

As we have studied in the previous section, Jesus left the upper room, He walked along the Kidron Valley, and somewhere in there before He got to Gethsemane He prayed another prayer. He was teaching the disciples that which is recorded in John chapters 14, 15 and 16, and then somewhere in there He stopped and He prayed that which is referred to as His high priestly prayer, praying to the Father. That all takes place between the Seder Passover meal in John 13 and John 18 which is where these events begin.

Then John is silent about what happened in Gethsemane, and he goes directly to the betrayal in John 18:2.

We studied how Jesus prayed three times, the disciples could not stay awake, they couldn't watch and pray as Jesus directed them, and then at the end He addresses them. The passage we are studying begins in verse 47, "While He was still speaking, behold, Judas, one of the twelve, came up accompanied by a large crowd with swords and clubs, {who came} from the chief priests and elders of the people."

There are four things that we will look at, maybe only three today. There are actually six different sections to go through. The arrival of the crowd in Matthew four 26:45-47, and then a review of the backdrop, what has happened already in terms of the conspiracy of the Sanhedrin, and Judas determination to betray the Lord. The third thing is the kiss of betrayal described in Matthew 26:48-49 and Mark 14:44, and then going to John the demonstration of the authority of the son of God in John 18:4-7.

So we look at the arrival of the crowd, and what took place: Jesus is with His disciples, it's quiet; it has been a time of prayer. It has been so quiet that the disciples have been falling asleep—like many people in Bible class, which I understand—and not paying attention, not watching and praying. At the conclusion of that time Jesus said to them, "Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!”

The time is now well past midnight on Thursday. It is, according to the Jewish calendar, the 14th of Nisan. The calendar that's followed by the Jews in Judea would begin at sunset. That's the 14th of Nisan, from sunset Thursday night to sunset on Friday night. The disciples would be following the Galilean calendar so that their date changes at midnight. It was the 14th until midnight, which allowed them to celebrate a Seder on the 14^th, and then the 15th is the first day of the feast of unleavened bread. That date shift has it just occurred at mid midnight for them.

Jesus has prayed to the Father. He has resolved his commitment to go to the cross and to drink the cup. The cup represents what takes place on the cross when he dies spiritually, when he says drink the cup. The cup represents judgment and goes back to the Old Testament where many times the pouring out of God's judgment on Israel, on other people, is described as the pouring out of a cup. And so Jesus is talking about the cup of judgment for sin when God the Father imputes to Him or credits to Him all the sins of the human race—all of your sins; all of my sins. All the sins of humanity are poured out on Jesus of Nazareth while He hung on the cross, specifically between 12 noon and 3pm when the skies are dark.

Then we are told in second Corinthians 5:21, that He who knew no sin was made sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

This is what He looked forward to with such sorrow, such in intense emotion: the perfectly righteous son of God, who could not look on sin, to become sin in the sense of a receiving the judicial penalty and the separation from God the Father, spiritual death during those three hours. That brought about the most incredible and hence extreme pain that you and I could imagine. It goes beyond anything that we could think; it goes beyond the horrors of the physical torture and suffering that He endured between his arrest and being crucified on the cross.

As Jesus speaks to Peter, James and John He draws their attention to what is happening. In this section He says "Behold" twice. The word in the Greek is IDOU, which means pay attention, wake up, note, look at what's happening, the hour is at hand. And then in verse 46, He says, "Rise. Let us be going." The New King James version translates it there "see", but it's the same word. He is drawing their attention to this particular event. He wants them to recognize that the betrayal of the Savior of the world is about to take place. The perfectly righteous God-Man is going to be taken into the hands of the pagan Romans as well as the anti-grace anti-Bible, legalistic religious leaders of Israel.

This is one of the most horrific demonstrations in history of the evil of religion. Remember, religion is the Devil's tool; religion is the Devil's invention. We will see something interesting going on in the text with this. It is the Devil's lie that we can somehow impress God with who we are or what we do, and that if we are sincere, if we are good, if we do the right things, God will bless us. Whereas Christianity is about a relationship with Jesus Christ based on what He did on the cross. God does all the work and we accept that on the basis of what Christ did on the cross. Biblical Christianity is not about works; it is about faith.

James tells us that faith without works is dead, but he's not talking about salvation. James is talking about the fact that if we believe that Jesus died on the cross, then to be consistent we should grow and mature and apply that which we have learned. That's what he means by works. He's not talking about saving faith when he's talking about faith without works is dead. He is talking about the faith of the Christian life coming after salvation.

We are told in verse 47, "While He was still speaking, behold, Judas, one of the twelve, came up accompanied by a large crowd with swords and clubs, {who came} from the chief priests and elders of the people."

I want you to think just a little bit about this scene. Judas is identified as one of the 12. Each of the Gospel writers just refers to him as one of the twelve. They don't call them any horrible names, they don't vent their anger at Judas for what he did, and even though at this point he is betraying the Lord, they still identify him as one of the twelve. I think the reason they do that is because it brings out the grace of God: that he is still treated as one of the group, is still treated with kindness and generosity, and he is not treated with anger and animosity and vindictiveness.

He comes with a great multitude. I will see what's involved in that in just a minute as we go to the John 18:2 passage, but look, they're coming after Jesus who has eleven men with Him, fishermen, a former tax collector, a few others. They are not, outside of the two swords that Jesus told them to bring, their really not armed, and yet they have this large multitude coming with swords and clubs. What are they afraid of? They are afraid of God, and that's what's being exhibited here. They've had a couple of times before when they sought to grab Jesus and He just sort of disappeared into the into the thin air. But they come with authority, with chief priests and with the elders of the people.

Mark tells us again—notice he called Judas one of the twelve—he comes with the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. The point of this repetition is that they come with the local authorities. Not just the Roman authorities which we will see in John 18, but also the temple police, the chief priests, the representatives of all the different groups in the Sanhedrin, the chief priests and scribes and the elders. And then were told by Luke that Judas will come out from the group and he goes before them, draws near to Jesus to kiss him. That's a pretty much of a summary statement; other things are going on there.

Now to John chapter 18. After Jesus has crossed the Kidron Valley, after He has prayed the high priestly prayer of John 17, John tells us when Jesus had spoken these words, the high priestly prayer, He went out with His disciples over the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which He and his disciples entered. Then he just skips over Jesus taking Peter and James and John aside, Jesus three prayers. He skips over all of that and he just says, "And Judas who betrayed him." That's the other way we see Judas described, very simply. Two or three times he is simply described as the one who betrayed Jesus. There are no insults, he's not called any names, he's just simply identified as either one of the twelve or he's identified as the one who betrayed Jesus.

There is one time when our Lord referred to him in John 17 as the son of perdition. Again, not an insult but the description that he is bound for eternal judgment. The noun perdition there is the same word that is translated "perishing" in John 3:16, so that tells us of his eternal destiny. He was clearly not a believer. He was a traitor against God. Judas knew of this place, and it was a quiet place, he knew that this was where Jesus would be, and so he brings this crowd with him.

One thing I want to point out as we start this is that this is an event that is taking place at night. We know that they're coming with lanterns and torches, again indicating nighttime, and this indicates the first of what Arnold Fruchtenbaum identifies as twenty-two legal regulations that are broken in the process of Jesus' arrest and trial. Religious authorities were prohibited by their laws from arresting anyone as a result of a bribe, and that was exactly what had happened; they had bribed Judas and he had betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. So this violated their own law.

When they come in verse three they come with a detachment of troops. These are the Roman troops that are sent with them. The Greek word is SPEIRA, which refers to a call of Roman cohort. A Roman core cohort was the 10th part of the Legion, which was approximately 600 men. Or, if they were an auxiliary unit it would be between 500 and may be as high as 1000. So let's just say they had five or 600 men with them. They have these Roman soldiers along with the Temple Mount police, along with the chief priests and Pharisees who make up the Sanhedrin.

Now this was a another problem that was a violation of their rule of law: that they use were there were not to be any criminal proceedings after sunset. and the purpose was to avoid nighttime. We live in is such an electric lit world that we do not really understand what nighttime was like in the ancient world where there were very few lights. There were just lamps and porches, and that's it. It was not illuminated like it is now so many things took place under the cover of darkness. To prevent these kinds of conspiracies they could not have any criminal proceedings during the night. Also, there may have been another legal problem here. To get a cohort read of Roman soldiers released to the Jews they would have already had gone to Pilate. That is why when Jesus is taken a Pilate for His first trial Pilate was already awake. It's three or four in the morning and he is already up; he's already awake. He knows what's going on because they've already awakened him in order to get him to release a Roman cohort to go with them to arrest Jesus.

So as they come there are 500-600 Roman soldiers. There may be as many as 100 to three or 400 others that make up this crowd, so obviously they have the numerical advantage, anywhere from seven or 800 to 12; and yet they are overly armed for the process. Though Jesus is faced with his huge mob, what we will see is He has courage, He has committed to the Lord's plan for his life, and He is the one who takes the initiative and walks out toward them. As the writer of Hebrews points out, for the joy set before Him He endured the cross. He understood God's plan for His life and He marched toward it.

Now the next thing we see is back in Matthew chapter 26 where we are reminded of the backdrop, and that is the conspiracy of the Sanhedrin. This is going to violate their law as well because the they are not to be involved in a conspiracy, they are not to be involved in the arrest; and yet that is what's going to take place. They determined two days before Passover that they were going to murder Jesus. This is seen in 26:3-5, "Then the chief priests and the elders of the people were gathered together in the court of the high priest, named Caiaphas." So they have implicated a Caiaphas as well in this conspiracy. "… and they plotted together to seize Jesus by stealth and kill Him. But they were saying, “Not during the festival, otherwise a riot might occur among the people.”

They plotted to take Jesus by trickery, not by law, by trickery. They were going to trump up charges against Him and kill Him, but they want to make sure it's not during the feast. They don't want to get the crowds upset so they wanted time. That's after the feast when people have gone home. But as usual, God has the ability to override human decisions and to accomplish His will.

Judas is soon mentioned in Matthew 26 as the one God will use to move up their plan. Judas is mentioned starting in verse 14 as the one who will betray Him, and will come to the chief priests.

Judas is an interesting individual. When Jesus begins to identify him as the one who will betray Him at the Passover meal, when He announces that He's going identify him, all the other disciples are looking at each other. Nobody suspected Judas. Nobody thought it would be him. As far as his external behavior was concerned, he looked like the other 11 disciples. He was not the one they would have suspected at all, which makes it rather interesting.

Jesus clearly identifies him as an unbeliever. I mentioned this verse earlier, where Jesus calls him the son of perdition. Further, as we look at what takes place in Matthew, after the Pharisees have determined that they're going to murder Jesus the next thing were told about Judas is that Judas went to the chief priests. We will learn that Luke tells us what motivates him, but he'd already made that decision on his own. He goes to the chief priests and asks, "What are you willing to give me if I deliver him to you?" They counted out to him 30 pieces of silver. In the law 30 pieces of silver was the price of the slave. So he is going to betray Jesus for the price of the slave, and we are told in verse 16, "From that time, he sought an opportunity to betray him".

This is two days before Passover. This is on Tuesday roughly, and he's looking for an opportunity to betray Jesus. They don't want Jesus betrayed until after the feast is over, which is another eight or nine days. But something happens and that is that Judas becomes Satan possessed. We are told in Luke 22:3 in conjunction with the same events that, "Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve."

There is a lot of discussion as to what Iscariot means. One view is that it's a small village. We don't really know where it was. There's one that's listed in Moab that has a similar name, and that he would be from that village and that's what this name means. There's also the view that there were assassins who were known as Sicarri because they used a siccari type dagger to commit assassinations, and maybe he was part of that group. But that's just really pulling ideas out of out of thin air. No one really knows why he is surnamed Iscariot, but is one of the twelve. The important thing here is this verb when it says Satan entered Judas. This is the same word that is typically used, to describe demon possession in a number of other passages.

The basic word it is ERCHOMAI. That's the key word. It has prefixes that can be attached to it. EIS means to go into, so EISERCHMAI means to enter into something. EX is the preposition to come out, and it means to come out of something. So when Jesus cast out demons, the word that is used is either EKBALLO, to cast out, and then when He has cast out a demon we will be told that the demon came out of someone, EXERCHOMAI. So every time you have EISERCHOMAI and EXERCHOMAI used in these passages of demon possession it tells us that the demon goes into somebody—or goes into the pigs—or comes out of somebody. It's a technical term that helps us understand what demon possession is.

There's a lot of debate over that because some people want to scare Christians into thinking that that you can be demon possessed. And I remember when I was in college and the "Exorcist" movie came out the first one, and going with a friend of mine with whom I am still close friends and we grew up together in church, we had more fun watching everybody get scared and squirm because they had no knowledge of demonology or satanology, and so they were scared that this could happen to them. And since we understood the Bible a little bit we knew that this was not something to be afraid of. But that's what this means. It is demon or Satan possession.

What happens with Judas is that a couple of days before the betrayal, the Passover, Satan enters into Judas, and that stimulates him as he goes to betray the Lord for the 30 pieces of silver.

When you get to the Passover meal description in John 13:2 at the end of the supper the devil, we are told, having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon son, to betray him. That refers back to the Luke 22 passage, that's related to demon our satanic possession.

Now as Jesus is washing the feet of the disciples, Peter says, "You're not going to wash my feet", and Jesus makes a point that if you don't let me wash your feet, you won't have an inheritance with me in the kingdom. That's what the word "part" means, it's a term for a share in inheritance. Then Jesus says to Peter, "He who is bathed". That's a full bath. The term LOUO means completely cleansed "… needs only to wash his feet". A complete bath indicates that total cleansing we have at salvation. What this is depicting is the need for ongoing cleansing in terms of confession of sin; not a complete washing that happens at salvation but just washing your feet, as it were. This is what the priests in the Old Testament did when they were anointed. They had a complete body wash and then when they entered the temple they didn't ever have to have that complete ritual body wash again. They would just go in to the laver and wash their hands and wash their feet.

Two different words are used in the Greek for a full wash versus a small wash, and that's what we have here. And when Jesus says this He says, He says, "He was bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean, and you are clean, but not all of you. Now what he is saying is you, Peter, are clean but not all of you disciples, because there is one that is not, the rest are clean. That is, the rest are saved but there's one that's not.

And here John clarifies for us what this means in verse 11, he says, "For He knew who would betray him. Therefore he said you are all not clean." He makes it clear, the one who is not clean is Judas who is going to betray Him; again indicating Judas was not a believer.

Then in verse 18 Jesus says, “I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen; but {it is} that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘HE WHO EATS MY BREAD HAS LIFTED UP HIS HEEL AGAINST ME.’

And so in John 13:18 there is this reference to this prophecy that comes from Zechariah, that He would be betrayed by a friend. Jesus alludes to that and He is making it clear that this is the one who will betray Him. But the response of the disciples was, "Who is it?" They looked at one another perplexed about whom He spoke. So it is clear that Judas was Satan possessed; Judas was not a believer. Judas is the son of perdition, destined to spend eternity in the lake of fire.

Now what happens is that as they are there at that Seder meal and Jesus is identifying Judas as the betrayer, Judas says, "Oh, my plot's been exposed, were in trouble. I need to deliver him now, otherwise he'll have time to escape." This is how the plot gets moved up. Judas then left the meal and went to Caiaphas, the chief priests and said, "If we don't take him now, then He's going to get away." That moved up the timeline. They are going to have to take Him now in the midst of the feast. They go to Pilate because they're afraid that they don't have enough men, so they're going to get a cohort of Roman troops to go capture this one man.

Then they have Judas with them. Judas knows that this is where Jesus goes with His disciples. It's a quiet place. It's away from the crowds in the city so they can safely quietly capture him at the garden of Gethsemane—"Let's hurry up and go now". This is why there is confusion. This is why they're violating all of these laws, because it's a last-minute change of plans and everything seems to be falling apart.

In Luke 22:52, we are told, "Then Jesus said to the chief priests and officers of the temple and elders who had come against Him, 'Have you come out with swords and clubs as you would against a robber?" That's the captains/officers of the temple police and the elders. John tells us Pharisees were also there. And this again is a violation of their law. Judges and Sanhedrin members were not allowed to participate in the arrest of a criminal. They were supposed to stay neutral. Participation in the arrest would indicate a lack of objectivity. We are told that they came out armed to the teeth and ready to attack.

Then we have the next episode, which is the kiss of betrayal. Now this is really interesting, something we slip by just a little too quickly. It is described in Matthew 26:48-49 and in Mark 14:44.

Matthew 26:48 ^NASB "Now he who was betraying Him gave them a sign, saying, 'Whomever I kiss, He is the one; seize Him.”

Immediately He goes to Jesus and says greetings Rabbi and kissed him. Mark tells us in Mark 14:44, 45 "Now he who was betraying Him had given them a signal, saying, 'Whomever I kiss, He is the one; seize Him and lead Him away under guard'. After coming, Judas immediately went to Him, saying, 'Rabbi!' and kissed Him."

Let me point out a couple of things that are going on here. First of all, there is debate as to the order of events. There are two things that are going on. In the synoptic Gospels, you have Judas come with the crowd, and then Judas goes to Jesus and kisses Him. The Gospel of John doesn't mention the kiss. They don't mention the kiss they have Jesus going to the crowd and asking, "Who are you looking for?" They say, Jesus of Nazareth, and He says, "I AM" which is the name of God. And He says it probably in a divine voice that just knocks them down. That's not mentioned in the Synoptics. So which comes first?

There is a debate over this. Which comes first? I think that the emphasis in the Synoptics is what is brought out by the new King James translation: "As soon as He had come, immediately". It doesn't say that in the Greek, it just says immediately. The writers are bringing that out. What we see in these descriptions is the appearance that as soon as they arrived the first thing that happens is Judas will separate himself from the crowd, and he goes up to Jesus, and there's this private exchange between Judas and Jesus. Judas greets him as a rabbi. This was very common courtesy between disciples and their rabbi, and this is the nature of this kiss. It was designed to be something that expressed great honor and respect for the Rabbi. The intensified word used for the kiss is the same word use of the woman who was identified in Luke 7:36, who anoints Jesus feet and kisses them. It is that kind of intense, close relationship that is brought out here. But what Judas is doing here is turning it into something profane by using it as the way to betray Jesus and to point Him out.

There are two words used here for kiss. When he talks to the, the chief priests and the Roman soldiers, he says, "Whomever I kiss, He's the one", he uses a normal word for kiss, PHILEO, which is from the noun meaning a close friend and intimacy, something like something of that order. But when it says he greeted him and kissed him, the Synoptics both use the word KATAPHILEO, which is an intensified form indicating a very close intimate, and some say it indicates that he kissed him more than once. He is indicating this respect, but he is turning it on its ear.

And what we have here is an interesting scene. On the one hand we have Jesus, the eternal Son of God, undiminished deity, the creator of the heavens and the earth, the creator of the angels, the ultimate authority in the universe, and not just Judas is confronting him, but He is being identified here by Satan. Satan has entered into Judas. I never heard anybody bring this out before.

This is why I think this is an intimate moment here, that it's not Judas as part of the crowd because Judas indwelt by Satan is confronting the God of the universe, against whom he has rebelled, and he's using this kiss, twisting it on its ear, and for Satan it's gotcha.

And this is how Jesus responds. I think this has to be read with great irony. I will paraphrase this: He says, "Judas, do you really think you can betray the Son of Man with a kiss? He's pointing out, "You just think you got the upper hand but you really don't".

You see, we are told that Judas has been entered into by Satan.

I want to go back as I close to Isaiah chapter 14 where we have the description of the fall of Satan. He is identified in the King James because of the Latin word used in the Vulgate, referring to light as Lucifer, and so we refer to him as Lucifer. Actually in the Hebrew it's Hillel ben Shahar, the bright one, the son of the morning. And this indictment is brought against him in verse 12: "How you are fallen from heaven O Lucifer, son of the morning. How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations. For you have said …" and then we have the five "I wills" of Satan.

This is the Satan who is in indwelling Judas who has come up to kiss Jesus to identify him to the Roman troops. He is the one who said, "I will ascend to heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, that is, to take authority over all the Angels. I will be like the most high."

That's the dynamic that's happening here. We have the confrontation between Satan and God in the persons of Judas and Jesus. Satan thinks it's a gotcha moment and Jesus says, "You just think it is, but it's not because God is in control".

Satan meant it for evil but God means it for good. What happens immediately after this is Jesus goes to the crowd, and when He asks, "Who are you looking for?" and they say Jesus of Nazareth, He says EGO EIMI. That's one of seven times in the Gospel of John. EGO EIMI is the Greek for Yahweh, and when your text says, "I AM he" and puts he in italics because it's not there they fall down in subservience. They fall down on their faces, and I think He when he says that it is a blast from God that knocks these arrogant soldiers down on their faces in the appearance of submission to the God of the universe.

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