The Kingdom Movement

A Literary & Pastoral Study Guide to the Gospel of Matthew

The Inspiration of Matthew,

by Caravaggio

 

On the King's Errand

Devotional Reflections on Matthew's Gospel

 

The Many Uses of Jesus:  Mt.26:14 – 16  

 

26:14 Then one of the twelve, named Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests 15 and said, ‘What are you willing to give me to betray him to you?’ And they weighed out thirty pieces of silver to him. 16 From then on he began looking for a good opportunity to betray Jesus.

 

          Do we let Jesus really be Jesus? 

Matthew, unlike the other Gospel writers, focuses a great deal on Judas Iscariot to help us examine ourselves.  There is something important, perhaps uniquely poignant from the Jewish context, about Judas.  His is a gritty, ironic, and sad tale.  Judas almost certainly wanted to force Jesus to take the road of military revolt against the hated Romans.  Judas had seen Jesus’ power, Jesus’ miracles, and Jesus’ charismatic authority with people.  So Judas thought that Jesus could be made into the revolutionary hero that most Jews at the time wanted. 

Here is a very shortened timeline of Jewish revolutionary military movements during the period 163 BC – 135 AD.  It gives us the flavor of how Judas would have thought about Jesus.  Revolutionary military leaders were popping up everywhere in the Jewish struggle against the Romans:

 

  • 163 BC:  Judas Maccabeus recaptures Jerusalem and cleanses the Temple

  • 40 BC:  Hezekiah leads skirmishes and revolts, and is called ‘messiah.’

  • 3 BC:  Judas ‘the Galilean,’ son of Hezekiah, leads a revolt

  • 6 AD:  Judas ‘the Galilean’ leads a Jewish independence movement

  • 28 AD:  Pilate puts down a revolt in Jerusalem

  • 40’s AD:  Jacob and Simon, sons of Judas ‘the Galilean’ lead a rebellion

  • 66 AD:  Menahem, a son or grandson of Judas, seizes the Temple and burns the records

  • 67 – 70 AD:  John of Gischala leads revolts in the Jewish-Roman War

  • 130 – 135 AD:  Bar-Kochba leads the Jewish rebellion

 

Judas wanted Jesus to be a military ‘messiah.’  Judas thought the line between good and evil ran between Jews and Romans, not to mention between ‘good Jews’ and ‘bad Jews.’  Judas believed that he was on the ‘good’ side of that line, of course.  So he interpreted ‘messiah’ as someone who will be on his side at the expense of others.  So deeply did Judas believe that Jesus would be that kind of ‘messiah’ that, at this point, he truly did not believe that he was betraying Jesus.  ‘Surely it is not I, Rabbi?’ he asked (26:25).  He seems to be quite genuine about this denial.  How?  He must have believed he was helping Jesus be who he was supposed to be anyway.  Not until Jesus was seized, beaten, and apparently defeated did Judas finally realize what he had done.  Our self-deception can run very deep. 

Do we, like Judas, have ‘many uses’ or ‘another use’ for Jesus?  Do we just want him to get behind and rubber stamp whatever pre-conceived commitment we had before we met him?  You might have a career goal that you want Jesus to just accept and approve.  Or maybe a hatred or fear that you don’t want him to change.  Or maybe a sexual desire that you don’t want to submit to him.  Whatever the issue, it is very easy to become like Judas Iscariot.  We have a ‘plan.’  We want Jesus to carry out the ‘plan.’  When it looks like he may not do the ‘plan’ our way, we try to force his hand.  We wind up betraying him utterly.  And he winds up disappointing us.  What then?

          Let’s follow along with Jesus’ story carefully.  What we learn about him and ourselves will be revealing.  For the death of Jesus is where our ‘plan’ and his most diverge.