‘One of You is About to Betray Me’

So said Jesus to His disciples during the last supper. So says Jesus to us many times during the course of our lives….

We are not told that Judas betrayed his Master because he hated Him or quarreled with Him. We are told that he had an excessive affiliation for money. It was his love of money that opened the doorway for the devil to make him a willing participant.

We learn that we don’t have to dislike a person to betray them, we just have to be motivated by a desire or lust that satan can manipulate. Our enemy has not changed that proven trick, he will always exploit our weaknesses-especially those that we seem to relish, those that we make no effort to fight.

We all profess our love for Jesus, and yet we cling to weaknesses that open the doorway for satan to coerce us into betraying Jesus. For that is what our deliberate sins are, a betrayal of the expectations that Jesus has of us as children of God and co-heirs with HIm.

Like Judas did at the last supper, we have probably found ourselves spending time with Jesus in the tabernacle, and yet our minds are plotting our next uncharitable or disobedient act. We may be known companions of Jesus, but He wants more than our company. He wants us to be His followers, owing allegiance to Him and striving to be like Him.

May we learn to have frank conversations with Jesus about our faults and beg Him to help us overcome them with His perfecting strength, so that we do not become fodder for our enemies. This is what He died for, to redeem us from the punishment of sin and the power that sin has over us.

If there was ever a time to come clean with Jesus, it is during this period, when the world has been brought to its knees and man has no confidence as to what tomorrow holds. All we know, all we can say with certainty, is “He’s got the whole world in His hands.”

On this Good Friday, may we nail every sin and weakness, every hard-to-forgive hurt and pain, to the Cross of Jesus. May He who has broken EVERY chain, bind us to His heart, envelope us with His mercy, and quicken us with His Spirit. Amen.