NOTES for Mat 26:14-25
14 Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, |
15 And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. |
16 And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him. |
17 Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the passover? |
18 And he said, Go into the city to such a man, and say unto him, The Master saith, My time is at hand; I will keep the passover at thy house with my disciples. |
19 And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them; and they made ready the passover. |
20 Now when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve. |
21 And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. |
22 And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I? |
23 And he answered and said, He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. |
24 The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born. |
25 Then Judas, which betrayed him, answered and said, Master, is it I? He said unto him, Thou hast said. |
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In today's passage from the Gospel according to Matthew, two things are striking. First, Judas Iscariot, having decided to betray Jesus, came to the chief priests without knowing what reward they would give him. He was driven not only by a desire for money, or more precisely for some definite sum, but also by something else.
Who knows what it was? A rejection of Christ's teaching and the understanding that his own heart was closed to the Teacher? Perhaps annoyance that the Messiah did not want to seize power by force, and therefore that Judas himself could not fight while supporting Him? We can only wonder, but one thing is clear: at that moment everything had gathered into one great lump that needed only the slightest push... And the considerable sum, thirty pieces of silver (later a plot of land was bought with them; see Matt 27:3-7), plays the role of that push.
And the second thing that is surprising in the account of the Last Supper is that Jesus says almost directly who will betray Him. It would seem that anyone could have followed whose hand was in the dish at that moment and tried to stop the evildoer. And Judas himself, realizing that Jesus knew everything, could have stopped. But the lump is no longer simply rolling; it is flying down the mountain, carrying out what was written by the prophets.
Readings for 28 May 2025
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