The Wednesday of Holy Week
by Pastor Rick Thompson
The Wednesday of Holy Week is the day that Judas betrayed Jesus. Here are my reflections on Judas:
Judas followed the same Jesus as the other disciples. For three years, day in and day out, he heard the same teaching, saw the same miracles, and participated in the same ministries. He had all the same experiences and resources as all other followers, and yet he did not become what the others became. He became the opposite. Their belief grew, and his faltered. They became more confident, he more doubtful. They became more joyful, he more disillusioned. While the other disciples were becoming servants of Christ and apostles who would lead thousands, Judas became a spiteful, small, bitter lump of clay in the hands of Satan.
From the beginning, Judas wanted something different from the others. He did not take on discipleship to serve the purposes of Christ, but to serve his own. He was not a part of the fellowship because of what he could offer others, but to seek his own agenda, looking for the advantages Jesus could bring him. Judas did not seek God’s glory; he wanted his own.
Jesus knew Judas’ heart:
“You are clean, but not all of you.” For He knew the one who was betraying him. (Mark 10–11)
Judas sat and listened all through Jesus’ lesson on humility and the washing of the disciples’ feet. Jesus even washed Judas’ feet. Judas sat there, pretending to be a loyal follower, knowing that the dye had already been cast on his betrayal. He allowed the Savior to clean his dirty feet and dry them with a towel knowing he was plotting his arrest.
Jesus knew Judas would betray him and yet he reached out to him, washing his feet anyway. The measures Jesus took to win Judas even at this late hour make his love all the more astounding. The experience of having Jesus wash his feet should be enough to break any man’s heart. But not Judas. He sat there cold-hearted, determined to sell Jesus out to the executioners.
How did he get there? How does a man walk with the Savior for three years, day and night, and yet become hard and disillusioned? I believe all disillusionment begins at the altar of self. The core issue in our sinful condition is our tendency to put self at the center of all things. He had “ingrown eyeballs,” the belief that all of life is about oneself. That is what blinded Judas to the glory of Christ. While others saw miracles, Judas asked, “What’s in it for me?”
Disillusionment happens when we focus more on the “kingdom of me” than the Kingdom of God.