Before we read this passage, let’s set the scene. It’s Holy Week. Jerusalem is packed with hundreds of thousands of Jewish worshippers. A ”crowd” is going to appear to arrest Jesus, because there has been a history of violent uprising during this week. Considering the way Jesus was greeted when he entered Jerusalem, this has the potential to be explosive. We will see that the crowd has swords and clubs. The weapons suggest Romans (swords) and the Sanhedrin’s guard (clubs). They do NOT want this to get out of hand.
While Jesus was still speaking, suddenly a crowd appeared, and the man named Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them. (Now Judas, the one who handed him over[1], knew the place too, because Jesus had met there many times with his disciples.)So Judas obtained a squad of soldiers and some officers sent by the chief priests, Pharisees and experts in the law, along with elders of the people. They came to the orchard with lanterns and torches, and armed with swords and clubs.
(Now the one who was handing him over had given them a sign, saying, “The one I kiss is the man. Arrest him and lead him away under guard.”) When Judas arrived, Jesus said to Judas, “Friend,[2] do what you are here to do.” Judas went up to Jesus immediately and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed him. But Jesus said to him, “Judas, would you hand over the Son of Man with a kiss?”
There is a lot of conversation about, “Why a kiss?” Judas could have put his arm around Jesus’ shoulder. He could have stood in front and pointed. He could have led Jesus to the arresting crowd. Instead, he kissed him.
Among all the reasons I studied this week, I am leaning most heavily toward the idea that the answer is found in Psalms 2, a coronation hymn that was sung at the inauguration of each new king in the line of David. Based on Jesus’ reception in Jerusalem, the masses of the people clearly thought that’s who he was. If you remember, it’s why Jesus wept. The crowds thought a king like David – A Zealot Messiah and King – was about to defeat Rome and usher in an earthly kingdom that would bring peace through the sword, and Jesus knew they were so tragically wrong. So, how is this coronation psalm related to Judas kissing Jesus? Here is the psalm.
Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, “Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.”
The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. He rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying, “I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain.” I will proclaim the Lord’s decree:
He said to me, “You are my son; today I have become your father. Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will break them with a rod of iron; you will dash them to pieces like pottery.
Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and celebrate his rule with trembling. Kiss his son, or he will be angry and your way will lead to your destruction, or his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
I suspect Judas may have been sending more than one signal with that kiss. I wonder if this was a coronation kiss, a signal to Jesus that he believed Jesus was about to be the earthly king in the line of David who was about to break Rome with a rod of iron. It’s a Zealot’s dream. We’ll come back to this in a bit.
Then Jesus, because he knew everything that was going to happen to him, came and asked them, “Who are you looking for?” They replied, “Jesus the Nazarene.” He told them, “I AM.” [3](Now Judas, the one who handed him over, was standing there with them.) So when Jesus said to them, “I AM,” they retreated and fell to the ground.
Then Jesus asked them again, “Who are you looking for?” And they said, “Jesus the Nazarene.” Jesus replied, “I told you that I am he. If you are looking for me, let these men go.” He said this to fulfill the word he had spoken, “I have not lost a single one of those whom you gave me.” Then they came and took hold of Jesus and arrested him.
When those who were around him saw what was about to happen, they said, “Lord, should we use our swords?” Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, pulled it out and struck the high priest’s slave, cutting off his right ear. (Now the slave’s name was Malchus.[4]) But Jesus said, “Enough of this!” And he touched the man’s ear and healed him.
Then Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back in its sheath! For all who take hold of the sword will die by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot call on my Father, and that he would send me more than twelve legions of angels right now? How then would the scriptures that say it must happen this way be fulfilled? Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?”
Then, at that moment, Jesus said to the crowd, the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders who had come out to get him, “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me like you would an outlaw? Day after day I was with you, teaching in the temple courts, yet you did not arrest me.
But this has happened so that the scriptures of the prophets would be fulfilled. This is your hour, and that of the rule of darkness!” Then the squad of soldiers with their commanding officer and the officers of the Jewish leaders arrested Jesus and tied him up. Then all the disciples left him and fled.
I need to add something from an upcoming text to round out where we are going this morning.
When Judas, who had handed him over, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. “I have sinned,” he said, “for I have handed over innocent blood.” “What is that to us?” they replied. “That’s your responsibility.” So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself. (Matthew 27:3-5)
Let’s talk about Judas so that we can talk about Jesus.
Judas has an interesting history in church lore. There have been sharply different opinions about him in terms of his motivation in both Jewish and Christian history. Let’s start with the question of whether or not he was ever truly a follower of Jesus.
Judas left all to follow Jesus (Luke 14:33).
He picked up his cross (Luke 14:27)
He loved Jesus more than his own family (Luke 14:26)
Judas cast out devils, healed, and preached (Matthew 10:1-27).
John 3:22 notes "After this, Jesus and his disciples went into the region of Judea, where he spent some time with them baptizing." Surely, Jesus would have baptized his disciples if they are baptizing others.
Jesus said that Judas’ name was written in the Lamb’s book of life (Luke 10:20).
Jesus said that Judas was one of His sheep who’s Father was God and whose Spirit would speak through him (Matthew 10).
Judas would have a throne in Heaven upon which he would judge Israel (Matthew 19:28; Luke 22:30).[5]
When Peter said, “WE believe and are sure that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” (Matthew 16:16) that “we” included Judas.
Judas checks all the boxes for someone who genuinely followed Jesus, at least in the terms that we discuss when we talk about what it looks like to become and be a follower of Jesus.
A firm belief that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God sent to save humanity by conquering evil and forgiving sins.
A declaration of this belief (in this case, through Peter’s words of what “we” said about Jesus)
A baptism in the name of Jesus
A choice of Jesus over all others
An evangelistic fervor
A demonstration of the power of God through the Spirit of God
An identification of sheep, with his name in the Book of Life.
I feel pretty good saying Judas was a genuine follower of Jesus. Here’s a trickier question: What was the spiritual fate of Judas after he handed Jesus over to death?
PERSPECTIVE ONE
Judas betrayed Jesus because he did not believe or trust that Jesus really was the Christ, the Son of the Living God, the long -awaited Messiah. His betrayal showed his rejection of Jesus. In this scenario, Judas wanted Jesus arrested and killed because Jesus was now a blasphemer, claiming to be God when he was not. Judas’ kiss, then, was mockery of Jesus. Maybe even calling him Rabbi was a pointed message: “That’s all you are.”
Judas is the super villain in this perspective, one “Satan entered” to make Judas an adversary and accuser to commit murderous sin. His later anguish happens when he is overwhelmed with guilt for the sin he committed when he realized he was wrong. The follow-up question would almost always be, “Could Judas be in heaven?” Or even, “Would it even have been possible for Judas to have been forgiven and saved?”
PERSPECTIVE TWO
Judas believed in Jesus, just the wrong way. He was a Zealot; he believed Jesus really was the Messiah meant to usher in a Zealot Kingdom of God. He is getting the ball rolling by handing Jesus over. It’s holy week; Jerusalem is packed with hundreds of thousands of Jewish worshippers. This was the time. In this scenario, his kiss was sincere, perhaps even loving. Satan entered into him, but Satan’s work was deception about Jesus’ mission and the urging to do a thing that would end up getting Jesus killed, which Satan was all for.
Judas’ remorse is a result of realizing Jesus waas going to let himself be killed rather than ascend to a throne. (“When he saw that he was condemned, he was seized with remorse”). That wasn’t what he envisioned happening at all. When he realized his terrible mistake, he could not live with himself. In this view, when Jesus on the cross said, “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they do,” this may well have included Judas.
So, two very different views of Judas. Both have been present in the history of Judaism and Christianity. If nothing else, wrestling with this opens up opportunity for discussion about true discipleship, the nature of forgiveness and redemption, the reality of what kind of Messiah Jesus actually is, etc.
But there’s more that has been part of this discussion.
The Apostles' Creed states that Jesus "descended into hell" (a reference to Ephesians 4:9). The very Peter who betrayed Jesus in a different later wrote that the "gospel was preached even to those who are now dead." (1 Peter 4:6). Huh. That would mean Judas saw Christus Victor in the flesh. Meanwhile, there are other verses that reference what Jesus did on Silent Saturday.
“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits— to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.” (1 Peter 3:18-20
"How can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house." (Matthew 12:29)
“When Jesus ascended up on high, He led captive all that had captured us!” (Ephesians 4:8)
Depending on how you read these passages – and there’s room to rearrange the details – you encounter the question that people have disagreed about for a couple centuries: did Jesus preach to just the righteous dead or everybody? Did Jesus free just the righteous who responded or did he free everybody? Just how thorough was the plundering when he bound the strong man?
This event is referred to in church history as the Harrowing as Hell (technically, the Harrowing of Hades). In life, Jesus plundered Satan’s kingdom (think exorcisms); in his death, Jesus plundered the very heart of Satan’s realm. Like Samson, he did more damage in his death than he did in his life. [6]Colossians 2:15 notes,
“He disarmed the rulers and authorities. He made a public example of them[7], by conquering them in his cross.” (Colossians 2:15)
Eastern teachers such as Clement, Origen, Cyril and John of Damascus said that Christ in Hades preached the gospel to evangelize all the unbelieving dead. Weser, theologians such as Augustine and Tertullian spoke of Christ descending to the lower regions to unite specifically faithful patriarchs and prophets to himself.[8]
The early Christian Church understood that the power of the death of Christ worked backwards in time as well as forwards in time, offering Salvation to all who had ever lived and all who were yet to be born.[9]
The Eastern teachers proposed that Jesus emptied Hades; the Western teachers taught that those already inclined toward righteousness responded. Either way, all heard Jesus proclaim who he was and had a choice to respond to this revelation denied them because they were born too soon.
Next question: Was Judas, who was already there – rescued? Or put another way, did Jesus’ death make possible a life eternal for even Judas? Was Judas inclined toward righteousness (Scenario B above) or not (Scenario A)?
Depending on how you understand the Harrowing of Hell, you will have different conclusions. I want to point out something that remains relevant no matter where you land. Jesus was on mission to offer a salvation that could save even Judas. Jesus had already told his disciples what God was like as expressed through Jesus.
“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home.
Jesus had insisted throughout his ministry that this was true.
“And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I shall lose none of those He has given Me, but raise them up at the last day.” (John 6:39)
“ I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.” (John 10:28)
“I have not lost a single one of those whom you gave me.” (John 18:9)[10]
Judas forgot that Jesus will search for the one lost sheep until he finds them. Jesus does not give up on his sheep, and he already declared Judas a sheep of his. After Judas handed him over, that rescue mission started almost immediately on the cross, an act of cruciform love in which Jesus took the weight of either Judas’ betraying sin or terrible misunderstanding of Jesus, or both. Whatever evil that was in Judas and whatever evil he did or caused to happen, Jesus took all of that upon himself - and overcame it. Here’s Paul explaining this in 2 Corinthians 5:
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”
This sounds like trouble for Judas. Let’s keep reading. I’m going to skip to verse 17, but I encourage you to read the whole chapter later.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.
And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Judas had a mission field awaiting him in which he could have told of the unbelievable, grace-filled love of Jesus. That was Peter’s testimony, and he publicly denied that he was a follower of Jesus. That was Paul’s testimony, and he killed followers of Jesus. That could have been the testimony of Judas
Rember, the apostle John establish.ed that “Jesus loved them until the end” (John 13:1). Jesus never stopped loving Judas. Jesus was always the father in the story of the Prodigal Son, eager to run and embrace his lost and wandering child. He never stopped being the Great Physician, there to heal all the sick. He established himself as the true Passover Lamb, showing that neither physical or spiritual death would have the last word. The transformative power of cruciform love never stops being offered to those who would have the love of Jesus write their story.
Within days after Judas handed over Jesus, Jesus made a way for him to be reconciled to God and to become the righteousness of God. Then, Jesus would rise and go to the disciples, calling back into his service all of them hid, who denied that they knew him, who were convinced he was a failed Messiah. He called them all back and restored them, because nothing can separate us from the cruciform love of God. Then, he sent the promised Holy Spirit, because nothing will separate us from the cruciform presence of God. Then, his church will permeate the world, because the cruciform mission of God will salt and light the world. In His death and resurrection, Jesus broke the back of evil. Nothing from Satan’s realm can have dominion over us.
This does not mean I am right, but I admit that I want to believe that Jesus revealed himself in all his cruciform power and love to Judas in Hades and triumphantly marched him out of the devil’s domain and into the Kingdom. It’s hard to imagine a more thorough conquering of the rulers and authorities. The Bible does not clarify what happened, of course. I hope it’s okay that I want to believe that is true.
I’d like us to learn something from Judas. Judas not only misunderstood who Jesus was in terms of his physical impact as the Messiah, Judas did not understand just how loving Jesus was. He seems to have despaired of recovering from what he did. Friends, never despair at the love of Jesus. Don’t underestimate the power of cruciform love. Paul unpacks it in Romans 8.
If the Spirit of God is leading you, then take comfort in knowing you are His children… The Spirit you have received adopts you and welcomes you into God’s own family. That’s why we call out to Him, “Abba! Father!” as we would address a loving daddy…If we are God’s children, that means we are His heirs along with the Anointed, set to inherit everything that is His.
If we share His sufferings, we know that we will ultimately share in His glory. Now I’m sure of this: the sufferings we endure now are not even worth comparing to the glory that is coming and will be revealed in us. For all of creation is waiting, yearning for the time when the children of God will be revealed…
And there is more; it’s not just creation—all of us are groaning together too. Though we have already tasted the firstfruits of the Spirit, we are longing for the total redemption of our bodies that comes when our adoption as children of God is complete— for we have been saved in this hope and for this future…
We are confident that God is able to orchestrate everything to work toward something good and beautiful when we love Him and accept His invitation to live according to His plan… So what should we say about all of this? If God is on our side, then tell me: whom should we fear?
If He did not spare His own Son, but handed Him over on our account, then don’t you think that He will graciously give us all things with Him… Jesus the Anointed died, but more importantly, conquered death when He was raised to sit at the right hand of God, where He pleads on our behalf.
So who can separate us? What can come between us and the love of God’s Anointed? Can troubles, hardships, persecution, hunger, poverty, danger, or even death? The answer is, absolutely nothing… But no matter what comes, we will always taste victory through Him who loved us.
For I have every confidence that nothing—not death, life, heavenly messengers, dark spirits, the present, the future, spiritual powers, height, depth, nor any created thing—can come between us and the love of God revealed in the Anointed, Jesus our Lord.
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[1] I am choosing translations that use “handed him over” instead of betrayed. As best I can tell, it’s a better translation. It does not imply intent; it simply addresses actions. The only time the original word is used outside of the Gethsemene accounts is in Acts 22:4, which is translated overwhelmingly this way: “I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering (betraying) into prisons both men and women.” Here, it is clearly a handing over.
[2] Commentaries are really mixed concerning whether or not this is to be read at face value (Judas is a “friend, a companion or acquaintance”) or if it’s an ironic title highlighting the Judas is not what he claimed to be. This word occurs only three times in the New Testament. The other two places are Matthew 22:12 and Matthew 20:13. You can read how ‘friend’ is used there and see what you think.
[3] “The use of "εἰμί" in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) often translates the Hebrew verb "הָיָה" (hayah), which is used in God's self-revelation to Moses as "I AM" (Exodus 3:14). This connection underscores the theological depth of "εἰμί" in expressing divine existence and presence.” (Strong’s Lexicon) “he "I am formula (Gk egō eimi)" harks back to God's only name, "Yahweh" (OT/3068, "the lord") – meaning "He who always was, is, and will be." (HELPS Word Studies)
[4] John recorded this detail. Most people assume this was John’s way of letting people know how they could double-check this account. Ask Malchus what happened.
[5] Did he mean Judas, or would that 12th throne be for Matthias (who takes Judas’ place as recorded in the book of Acts). Opinions vary.
[6] https://prodigalprof.com/creed-or-chaos/19-he-descended-into-hell/
[7] That public example seems to reference what Roman conquerors would do when they returned from battle, parading their captives down the middle of the town.
[8] https://billmuehlenberg.com/2018/03/27/he-descended-into-hell/
[9] https://prodigalprof.com/creed-or-chaos/19-he-descended-into-hell/
[10] Then there is this: “I protected them by the power of the name you gave me. I guarded them so that not one was lost, except the one headed for destruction, as the Scriptures foretold.” (John 17:12) I suspect this refers to Judas “disqualifying himself from the race” (as Paul warned about) and then literally ending his life. In the reading of Judas as terribly misguided Zealot who actually did believe Jesus was the Messiah who needed a push to ascend to his throne, no one snatched him out of Jesus’ hand. God gave Jesus that sheep. Jesus never let go.