Scripture

And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I?

~Matthew 26:22, KJV

Quote

There is a Judas living in everyone of us in the person of the old sin nature.

~John W. Lawrence

When Jesus said, “One of you will betray me,” the disciples looked at each other in shock. They were utterly bewildered, they did not know what He was talking about or who the betrayer might be. John Lawrence gives five reasons they did not know who would betray Jesus. Most of these come from the Jewish historian Alfred Edersheim. I am not sure Edersheim is right but what he says in very interesting.

[1] Judas was a clever hypocrite. He was a very good actor as are most hypocrites. After all the Greek word for hypocrite means “play actor,” or the one who wears two faces. In the Hellenistic world actors were not lauded and one person usually had to play several parts. They simply went back stage and changed mask.

[2] Judas was the treasurer. They new that Jesus knew people inside out so they never suspected that He would put a thief in charge of the money.

[3] Jesus never treated Judas differently. Do you think I would be nice to a betrayer. I’m sure everyone in the group would be able to see my displeasure with the offender. Jesus was good to Judas right up to the very end.

[4] You may have problems with number four, according to Edersheim, Judas was sitting in the seat of honor, next to Jesus on the left. John was sitting on the right. Seating was a big deal in the Jewish world and Judas was sitting in the seat of highest honor. I would think that would be John on the right, but even so, Judas was right beside Jesus.

[5] Jesus gave the sop to Judas and this was the custom for the master of the dinner to do to the most honored guest.

So as you can see, detecting Judas as the betrayer was not that easy and this explained why no one other than Jesus had a clue. We do know this, Jesus puts the finger on Judas and Judas knows that Jesus knows. This forces Judas to act quickly and this is probably what changed the plans of the chief priest and the so called council. This is the only change they made in their plan. They had said previously that they didn’t want to do it during passover. In hindsight, we can see Jesus directing the event. He knew He was to die as the Passover Lamb.

Extra

We give thanks for another wonderful LORD’s day. Josh baptized four young men yesterday. They were saved at the Scott Dawson rally. It was a wonderful service. Then last night I was at First Baptist Austinville in an ordination service. Bro. Wally, Rex and myself were on program. Rex lead the praise and worship and it was wonderful. He and I sang the Revelation song at the end. People were so stunned they didn’t want to leave. It was a great time of worship and I needed it. June went to DBC and heard the man talk about intervention work in the sex trafficking tragedy. She could’t stop talking about it. She even brought it up at breakfast.

It was cool this morning PTL. I know we need rain but the cool weather helps my feelings. I love it, thank You Jesus!

Have a good day and thanks for reading the blog.

One other thing, the congregation was singing with Rex also. They have good acoustics and it sounded very good.