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The Price of Treachery and the Sovereignty of the Savior (Matthew 26:14-16) · Reformed Thinking

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Imagine you run like a really large company.
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OK, you hire a guy, you give him the corner office, hand him the
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keys to the corporate safe, and, you know, grant him full
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unrestricted access to your entire financial network.
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Right. You trust him completely.
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Yeah, and then you find out he took all that access and sold
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your entire operation to your worst competitor.
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Oh, wow. And he did it for the price of
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like a used bicycle. That is, yeah, that's.
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And that level of betrayal just makes your blood run cold.
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Yeah, we can all grasp that. I mean, autumn statistics show
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organizations lose billions of dollars globally to internal
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fraud. Oh yeah, it is a massive issue.
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It really is, especially when someone with the keys decides to
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sell you out. But what happens when the
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insider being sold is not ACEO, but the creator of the universe?
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Yeah, welcome to reformed thinking.
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Today we are taking a deep dive into an absolute chill inducing
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text. It really is.
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We've got a really fascinating stack of sources in front of us
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today, including historical commentaries from the 1st
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century, some Greek linguistic analysis, and these really
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intense theological essays. And our mission today is to take
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all these sources and investigate what might be
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honestly the darkest transaction in human history.
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Yeah, we are looking at just three short verses in the Gospel
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of Matthew, chapter 26, verses 14 through 16.
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It details Judas Iscariot selling the Son of God.
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It's just the absolute definition of diagnostic Muddy
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Waters when it comes to human nature.
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Yeah, we're examining an event that, well, it shatters that
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comfortable illusion that physical proximity to holy
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things just automatically produces a holy heart.
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Right, because Judas was right there.
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He was he carried the money bag for the disciples.
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He had complete access to the innermost circle.
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And if you know common secular individuals will betray their
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earthly employers and risk severe legal consequences for
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paper currency. Happens all the time.
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Right then, this text forces us to look at the staggering
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reality of a man commodifying the Messiah.
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The tone of our historical sources here is very analytical,
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but exceedingly solemn. Yeah, solemn is a good word for
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it. We have to reckon with the fact
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that a person can have every external advantage, witness
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miracles first hand, and still harbor a heart of complete
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treason. OK, so let's unpack this a bit.
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Yeah, let's do it. Before we look directly at the
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trader, we have to establish the room he just walked out of.
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The narrative context here is just so vital.
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The text actually places this betrayal immediately after an
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act of extravagant worship in the town of Bethany, right?
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We're looking at a house gathering.
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Jesus is reclining at a table and then a woman walks in.
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The Gospel of John identifies her as Mary, the sister of
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Lazarus. Yes, to grasp the sheer horror
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of Matthew 26.110 through 16, our sources insist, we really
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have to look at those preceding verses.
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Mary approaches Jesus with an alabaster flask.
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And this is not just some standard bottle.
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Alabaster was a beautiful translucent stone, often sealed
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incredibly tight to preserve the fragrance inside.
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And the ointment inside is genuine nard.
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Right, an aromatic amber colored essential oil imported all the
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way from the Himalayan mountains in India.
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Which means it is insanely expensive.
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Oh yeah, she shatters the neck of the flask and just pours the
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entire contents over his head. The text mentions this is worth
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about a year's wages. Yeah.
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If we translate that to modern terms, depending on the average
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salary she is pouring out like 40 or $50,000 in a matter of
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seconds. It's.
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Just gone. Right, it's gone.
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That is the scale of her devotion.
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She values Jesus infinitely. It's an act of supreme selfless
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devotion. She recognizes his worth.
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Yes, and she's preparing him for his burial.
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Even if you know the others in the room don't fully grasp the
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theological reality of what's about to occur.
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Right. But the disciples, with Judas
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acting as kind of the vocal leader of the complaint, they
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object. They do.
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They call it a massive waste. Yeah, they use this guise of
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charity, arguing the ointment could have been sold and the
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money given to the poor. But Jesus defends her.
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He publicly rebukes their pragmatic, feigned piety.
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He says her act will be memorialized wherever the Gospel
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is preached. And then boom, we hit verse 14.
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Then one of the 12, called Judas Iscariot went unto the chief
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priests. The narrative whiplash there is
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just intense. It really is.
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It's like walking out of a breathtaking sunlit cathedral
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directly into a damp dark alley where a backroom deal is taking
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place. That's a great way to put it.
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Matthew forces the reader to confront 2 entirely different
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valuations of the Savior. And that transition is a
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deliberate literary pivot by the author.
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He uses that specific word then, right?
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It links the fragrant, costly worship of Mary directly to the
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putrid, calculated treason of Judah.
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Wow. Mary gives up her most precious
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earthly possession because she views Christ as priceless.
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And Judas looks at the identical Christ and decides to actively
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commodify him. Yes, he seeks to extract
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whatever petty cash the corrupt religious leaders are willing to
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offer. You have one disciple like
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worshipper spending lavishly and one official disciple seeking
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payment to hand him over. It's a stark contrast.
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Mary's devotion is open. She fears only the Lord and pays
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no attention to the judgement of the men in the room.
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While Judas colludes in secret with the plotters, he aligns his
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heart with murderers. But you know, we need to zoom
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out a bit to understand why these murderers are plotting in
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the first place. Yeah, the setting here is not
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just some random Tuesday. No, this is the final Passover
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week. And the historical context
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carries immense weight. It really does.
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Passover is the great memorial of Israel's deliverance from
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Egyptian bondage. For over a Millennium, families
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gathered to remember the night when the blood of a
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substitutionary spotless lamb marked the houses of God's
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people. Right, causing the Lord to
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Passover them in judgment. And Jerusalem is just swelling
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with hundreds of thousands of Jewish pilgrims for this
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specific festival. So Jesus is not moving toward
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the cross on a random calendar. Date Not at all.
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In this divinely governed setting, the true Passover Lamb
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is moving toward his sacrifice. He's inaugurating the New
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Covenant. The timing is completely
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saturated with theological significance.
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He's going to die precisely when Israel remembers redemption by
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blood, because his death accomplishes the greater eternal
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redemption that the original Passover only shadowed.
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So the lambs being slaughtered in the temple are pointing
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directly to what is about to happen outside the city gates.
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Absolutely. But while the true lamb is
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preparing for sacrifice, what are the religious elites doing?
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Yeah, the chief priests, the scribes, the Sanhedrit.
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Our sources point out they are in a state of absolute panic.
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They are terrified. The atmosphere in the city is
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electric with messianic fervor. And Jesus has been cleansing the
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temple, exposing the hypocrisy of these leaders and drawing
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massive crowds. The elites fear losing their
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ecclesiastical control and their social prestige.
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Furthermore, they fear the Roman soldiers stationed in the
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Antonia fortress. Pontius Pilate's troops are
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heavily armed and ready to brutally crush any hint of a
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riot during this crowded festival.
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So the religious elites are sitting in a boardroom going,
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this guy is terrible for our quarterly metrics.
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He's going to bring the Romans down on us.
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We have to shut this down. Yeah, they need to arrest Jesus,
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but they cannot do it in broad daylight.
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Because of the crowds. Right.
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They need an insider to do it quietly, away from the massive
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crowds of pilgrims. But here's the question that
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always gets me How did the religious leaders, the very men
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entrusted with guarding true worship, the men who should have
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recognized the Messiah from their own scrolls, become the
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buyers of treason? That points directly to the
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danger of institutional religion prioritizing control over truth.
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Wow. The chief priests were preparing
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for Passover, an intensely holy festival, yet they were entirely
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willing to buy betrayal. Their office, their ritual
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authority, their public reputation.
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Neither that restrained their malice.
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No, they didn't recoil from Judas when he approached them.
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They transacted with him. It shows that leaders can
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possess immense institutional influence and use it to oppose
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the truth. Faith has to be governed by the
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revelation of Christ, not by the prestige of human office.
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OK, that brings us to the traitor himself.
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Let's look closely at Judas Iscariot.
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Yeah, understanding the political panic of the priests
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reveals why they needed him. But to grasp the true horror of
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the text, we have to look at his identity and his privileges.
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Matthew calls him one of the 12. And Matthew places that phrase
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right before his name, then one of the 12 whose name was Judas
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Iscariot. It operates as a concessive
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horror. It does.
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It means that despite being part of the intimate Apostolic
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Circle, he still committed treason.
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Judas wasn't some outsider throwing stones from the street.
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No, He had unparalleled access. He walked beside the Incarnate
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Son of God. He heard the Sermon on the Mount
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with his own ears. He witnessed the dead being
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raised, the blind receiving site.
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He was sent out in public ministry.
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It is like a person sitting inside a bank vault every single
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day. Yeah, you are surrounded by
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solid gold bars, counting the riches, cataloguing the wealth,
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yet you possess absolutely none of it yourself.
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I like that analogy. Or, to use another picture, it's
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like standing next to a blazing fire while wearing a heavy
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insulated spacesuit. You have the geographical
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proximity to the heat, but the insulation prevents you from
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actually feeling any of the warmth.
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Those analogies hit the mark. They under score a massive
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theological truth that shatters a lot of comfortable
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assumptions. Which is what?
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Visible Church membership, participation in external
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rights, even having a role in ministry or access to most sound
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orthodox preaching does not equal inward regeneration by the
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Holy Spirit. And Judas had confession without
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conversion. He had ministry without mercy.
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He had knowledge without love. Proximity to the means of grace
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is not the same thing as saving union with Christ.
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That is terrifying. To sit under the best preaching
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in human history and remain completely dead in your sins.
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And there is a detail about his name that adds another layer.
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Iscariot. What does that actually mean?
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Well, our linguistic sources explain that Iscariot is widely
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understood to mean Karyath, which translates to man of
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Karyath. And Karyath was a town located
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in the southern region of Judea. So why does his hometown matter
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geographically? Because the other 11 disciples
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were from the northern region of Galilee.
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Oh, I see. They shared a regional dialect,
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cultural touchstones and a shared background.
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So Judas was likely the only Judean, the only non Galilean in
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the inner circle. Yeah, he.
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Probably had a different accent and different customs.
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I have to ask, could this subtle cultural alienation have fed a
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silent, festering pride? It's very possible.
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Like a feeling of being an outsider that Satan eventually
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exploited. He's in the innermost circle,
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but maybe he never felt like he truly belonged with the
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fisherman from the north. It is a highly plausible
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inference from the historical data.
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The geographical distinction certainly highlights his
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outsider status on a cultural level, even while possessing the
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highest insider status on an organizational level.
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That sense of alienation, combined with the rebuke he just
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received at Bethany regarding the ointment, likely fueled a
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wounded pride and a bitter resentment.
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He watched Mary pour out of fortune.
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He complained about the money and Jesus publicly corrected
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him. And that resentment culminates
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in a single chilling question. He walks up to the chief priests
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and asks, What will you give me? That question defines the very
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essence of idolatry. It does.
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He is asking what temporal earthly advantage he can secure
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by handing over the Lord. He treats Christ entirely as a
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commodity to be traded. He doesn't ask if Jesus is
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innocent. He doesn't ask if he's in danger
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of losing his soul. He asks about the payout.
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Grace receives Christ freely. Unbelief sells him cheaply.
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His question reveals the throne of his heart.
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The idol doesn't always deny Christ loudly with his lips.
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Sometimes it simply asks what advantage can be obtained by
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setting him aside. Judas measures reality by
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prophet. So he asks what they will give
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him, and the specific answer they provide reveals A
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staggering, insulting theological truth drawn straight
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from the Old Testament. They offer him 30 pieces of
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silver. 30 pieces of silver is not a random sum pulled out of
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the air. It carries immense, insulting
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historical weight. Really.
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How so? In the Mosaic Law, specifically
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in Exodus chapter 21, verse 32, 30, shekels of silver is the
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precise legal compensation a master receives if his slave is
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accidentally gored to death by a neighbor's ox.
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Wait, let me make sure I am tracking with this.
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They are intentionally pricing the Lord of Glory, the Creator
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of the cosmos, at the exact legal valuation of a dead,
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disposable slave. Yes, by agreeing to this
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specific amount, Judas and the religious establishment are
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demonstrating utter contempt. That is.
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Wow, they are liquidating him for the lowest possible
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statutory value of human property.
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It shows they view him not as a sovereign Lord, but as
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exploitable damaged goods. That is sickening, but the
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commentaries point out that it also fulfills prophecy, right?
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It does. It is a direct fulfillment of
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Zechariah Chapter 11, verses 12 and 13.
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OK, what happens there? In that prophecy, Zechariah acts
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as a faithful shepherd over a doomed flock.
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When he asks for his wages, the corrupt leaders weigh out 30
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pieces of silver. The exact same amount, yes.
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The Lord then tells Zechariah with heavy irony to throw this
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lordly price at which I was priced by them, to the Potter.
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Matthew's original Jewish audience would have immediately
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heard the echo of Zechariah. They would have recognized the
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sickening insult of the sum and the sheer blindness of the
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establishment. Heaven declares Jesus to be the
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beloved Son, the one in whom the Father is well pleased.
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Meanwhile, the corrupt earthly rulers quite literally count out
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slave wages on a scale. It shows the absolute terrifying
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blindness of the unregenerate heart.
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It proves that natural man, dead in sin, utterly despises the
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Savior and will readily trade eternal glory for the most
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pathetic temporal trinkets the world has to offer.
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Here is where the Greek linguistic analysis from our
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source stack it really fascinating.
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Oh absolutely. The transaction is agreed upon,
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but the Greek text reveals the calculated, chilling way the sin
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takes root in the human will. Let's look at the grammar of
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treason. There is a specific word used
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for betrayal here. Yes.
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The Greek verb used in verse 15 is paraju from the root parody
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dumi. In English Bibles, it is often
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translated as deliver, over or betray.
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Now, I have seen that word used in judicial context before, like
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handing A prisoner over to an executioner.
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Is Judas essentially acting as a prosecuting attorney here rather
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than just a friend walking away? You hit the nail on the head.
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Matthew could have used a word for abandoning, leaving, or
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forsaking. But he didn't.
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No Para did. Jimmy Carrey is a far more
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sinister, active and judicial weight.
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It is used throughout the Greek translation of the Old Testament
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and the New Testament to describe the act of handing
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someone over to authorities for judicial punishment, torture, or
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death. So Judas isn't merely abandoning
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his post. He's not just turning his back
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and walking away, He's taking active judicial initiative to
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supply the Lord of Life directly to his bloodthirsty
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executioners. He says.
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I will deliver him to you. The grammar highlights his
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personal willing initiative. And the action of the priests is
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described with equal precision. The text says they weighed out
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to him 30 pieces of silver. The Greek verb used there is
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estozan, right? Correct.
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The sources make a big deal out of this being an aerist active
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indicative. Hold on, that is a massive
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mouthful for those of us who aren't Greek scholars.
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What does that actually mean? You were basically saying this
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wasn't just a vague ongoing vibe, this was a definitive
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completed action in history, right?
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Yes, the aerist tense in Greek often points to a simple
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completed action in the past. The bargain was struck, the
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silver was weighed, the deal was finalized.
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OK, got it. But even more vitally, as sozan
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is a direct, deliberate lexical echo of the Septuagint.
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The ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament.
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Yes, in Zechariah 11.12 the prophet says they weighed out as
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Stozan as my wages. 30 pieces of silver.
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The linguistic precision here highlights the sheer accuracy of
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Scripture. It is like a lot clicking into
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place. The bargain is struck.
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But then verse 16 describes what happens next.
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And this is the part that just keeps me awake at night.
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What's up? It says.
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And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him.
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The Greek word for opportunity there is eukaryan.
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Yes, Eukaryan is a compound word derived from you meaning good or
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well, and Kairos meaning time or season.
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So it means a well timed opportune strategic moment.
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Precisely. So it's not just about
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chronological time ticking by on a clock.
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That would be a different Greek word, like chronos, right?
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Yes, Judas was not just waiting for Tuesday to turn into
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Wednesday. He was actively looking for a
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tactical window. Right, because the religious
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leaders already stated they couldn't arrest Jesus during the
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feast because of the crowds. So Judas's specific paid task
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was to find the Eukaryan, the isolated location and the exact
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moment where Jesus could be apprehended without sparking a
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riot. Think about how chilling this
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is. Judas strikes this deal, puts
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the silver in his pouch, and then goes back to the disciples.
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He goes back to eating meals with Jesus.
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He smiles, he participates in the fellowship, he probably
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joins in the prayers, and all the while he is silently casing
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the joint. Yeah, he is scanning the
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horizon, calculating the logistics, looking for the
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perfect moment to strike. Sin does not just happen by
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accident, it builds a strategy. That is a brilliant way to put
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it. The verb used for sought is in
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the imperfect tense, meaning it was a continuous ongoing action.
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So it wasn't a sudden fit of passion.
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No, it was a settled, persistent pursuit.
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He lived in the company of Incarnate holiness while
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inwardly nurturing a plot of treason.
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So Judas cases the drone finds the perfect window and strikes.
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But that level of calculated independent evil raises a
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massive question. I.
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Think I know where you're going with this?
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We just saw how God ordained the exact price of 30 pieces of
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silver centuries earlier in Zechariah.
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If the script was already written, how can Jesus be acting
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on his own? Are we looking at a puppet or
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willing trader? This brings us to a heavy
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theological concept called compatibilism.
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Let's break compatibilism down clearly.
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It is the biblical teaching that two things are true at the exact
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same time. God is entirely sovereign over
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all events, and human beings are entirely responsible for their
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willful actions. The text puts human depravity on
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full display. Judas is acting out of his own
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totally depraved, covetous will. Right.
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God does not force evil into his heart.
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Judas chooses to sin because his unregenerate heart genuinely
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loves money more than it loves the Messiah.
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He acts freely according to his nature.
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He isn't fighting against his own desires, he is leaning into
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them. Yes.
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But concurrently we see the meticulous sovereignty of God.
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The exact payment of 30 pieces of silver perfectly fulfills the
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eternal divine decree. God eternally ordained the
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betrayal to secure the path to the cross, but He did so without
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doing any violence to the will of the creature.
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Let me push back on this, or at least play devil's advocate for
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a moment, because the theological essays we reviewed
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send a lot of time addressing opposing views.
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Sure, how can we refute a system like Arminianism using this
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specific text? Because someone might listen to
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this and say, well, God just possesses incredible foresight.
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He looked down the corridors of time, saw that Judas was going
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to be greedy and simply reacted to it, making it part of his
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plan after the fact. That perspective fundamentally
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misunderstands the text and the broader biblical narrative.
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How so? If God is merely reacting to
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autonomous human choices, he is not sovereign.
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He is just a very good guesser. But Acts 2.23 states explicitly
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that Jesus was delivered up according to the definite plan
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and foreknowledge of God. The 30 pieces of silver was not
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a random amount God foresaw and adapted to.
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It was the specific prophetic price designated centuries prior
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to fulfill the scriptures. So this proves God is entirely
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sovereign over the meticulous details of history.
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He planned the betrayal as the mechanism for redemption.
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Yet the human actors, Judas and the priests acted maliciously
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and are entirely culpable for their treason.
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God's Providence rules over the evil without God becoming the
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author of the evil. Spot on.
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It is a staggering reality. God weaves the darkest rebellion
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of men into the very instrument of their salvation, and yet the
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rebel remains guilty because the rebel meant it for evil.
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Yeah, it's like an author writing a play where a villain
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does terrible things. The author writes the script, so
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the author is sovereign over the story.
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But inside the story, the villain does those terrible
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things because he actually wants to.
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Both are true. It's the same dynamic we see
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with Joseph in the book of Genesis.
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His brothers throw him in a pit and sell him.
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They meant it for evil, but God meant it for good to bring about
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the saving of many lives. OK, we cannot lead Judas in the
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1st century. His devastating choice forces
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you, the listener, to confront the modern idols hiding in the
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pews today. This is not just an ancient
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history lesson, it is a mirror. The first illusion this text
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destroys is the illusion of external religion.
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We have to address sacramentalism.
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To put it simply, sacramentalism is the idea that participating
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in external church rituals inherently infuses a person with
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saving grace, almost like a magic spell.
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Right. The idea that the ACT itself
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saves you, regardless of the state of your heart.
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You get baptized, you take communion and boom, you are
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secure. Judas obliterates that theology
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completely. He really does.
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Eat the Passover meal. He sat under the most perfect
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Orthodox preaching in the history of the world.
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He was physically washed by Christ.
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Yet he went to hell. Outward religion take you the
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elements of communion, getting baptized, having your name on a
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church membership role. These things, without inward
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regeneration by the Holy Spirit, form a paved road to
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destruction. It also takes a sledgehammer to
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the modern prosperity gospel. Oh, for sure.
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You think about Judas's question.
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What will you give me? That is the foundational premise
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of the prosperity movement. It turns Jesus into a cosmic
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vending machine. Yes, it treats him as a means to
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acquire wealth, health, influence, or comfort.
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The prosperity gospel trains the soul to evaluate the Savior
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based entirely on personal, temporal benefit.
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But Christ is not a product or a platform.
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Whenever we compromise our obedience for a career
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advancement, social standing, or financial gain, we are echoing
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Judas's question. We are asking the world, what
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will you give me to set Christ aside?
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And beyond the prosperity gospel, there is also the subtle
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danger of pure pragmatism in the church.
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Let's talk about that. Pragmatism asks only one
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question, right? What works?
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Yes, it ignores righteousness in favor of results.
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The chief priests were pragmatists.
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They needed a quiet arrest to avoid a riot, so they bought a
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traitor. And Judas was a pragmatist.
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He saw a lucrative financial opportunity and took it.
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When the Church adopts pragmatism, like softening the
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demands of the gospel to attract crowds or ignoring sin to
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maintain institutional peace, it walks in the footsteps of the
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Sanhedrin. Looking at the sociological
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essays in our source stack, the author's drawn interesting
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parallel to modern cultural debates.
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Yeah, their argument, and to be clear, we are just untacking
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their perspective from the text here, not taking sides, is that
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looking for the root of human evil purely in external systems
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misses the mark. Right frameworks that locate
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humanity's primary problem in oppressive societal structures
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or cultural conditioning run into a brick wall with Judas.
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The source material argues that Judas proves the root problem is
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internal. It's the deceitful, desperately
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sick human heart, as Jeremiah 17.9 describes.
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Judas was in the perfect societal microstructure.
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He spent three years walking with Jesus, experiencing perfect
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justice, perfect truth, and perfect love.
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He was not oppressed by his immediate community, yet out of
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that perfect environment, his heart produced the ultimate
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evil. The sources contend that no
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amount of social engineering or political reform could have
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cured Judas. The only remedy is that
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regenerating work of the Holy Spirit changing the human heart.
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That brings us to a highly personal application, the call
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to kill sin. Yeah, we saw how Judas's sin
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progressed from an inward, silent desire to an outward,
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calculated strategy. It didn't happen overnight.
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Hidden sin is never static. It studies schedules.
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It learns how to appear respectable.
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It waits for darkness. That is why the Puritan instinct
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is so vital here. Be killing sin or sin will be
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killing you. We must drag our hidden
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affections into the light before God.
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We have to examine what we truly love.
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We have covered so much heavy ground today in this deep dive
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the anatomy of apostasy, the terrifying reality of
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unregenerate religion, the calculated grammar of treason,
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and the meticulous sovereignty of God.
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We really have. But I want to ask you to locate
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the Gospel hope within this incredibly dark passage.
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Where is the light in Matthew 26.1416?
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The light is found in the breathtaking Christological
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connection. We mentioned Joseph earlier.
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Let's look closer to Genesis 37. OK?
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Joseph, the beloved son, was hated by his brethren.
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They conspired against him, stripped him, and sold him to
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Gentile merchants for 20 pieces of silver, right?
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He descended into the pit and was taken to a foreign land, but
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God utilized that specific wicked treason to position
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Joseph at the right hand of Pharaoh, where he eventually
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saved his covenant people from total starvation.
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Jesus is the true and better Joseph.
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He is Christ was betrayed and sold by his own brethren.
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He was handed over to the Gentile Romans.
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He descended into the grave. But Christ actively, willingly
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allowed himself to be priced as a common slave.
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He submitted to this betrayal so that he could buy rebellious,
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treacherous sinners out of their slavery with his infinitely
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precious blood. The greatest reason in history
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was utilized by God to accomplish the greatest triumph
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of grace. The cross was not an accident
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caused by a traitor. It was the appointed sacrifice.
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Jesus received the betrayal without becoming bitter, endured
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the injustice without becoming unjust, and face death without
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ceasing to be Lord. The dark backdrop of Judas's
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treachery only makes the glory of Christ's redeeming obedience
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blaze with greater brilliance. That is the hope we rest in.
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He was sold for silver so we could be redeemed by blood.
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As we wrap up this deep dive, I want to leave you, the listener,
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with a final provocative thought.
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We have spent this time looking at a man who traded the Son of
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God for 30 pieces of silver. But if the enemy approached you
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today to buy your loyalty, he wouldn't offer you silver.
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He would offer you the one earthly thing your heart craves
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most. What is the currency you are
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most tempted to trade for your soul?
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And how can you lay it down today at the feet of the only
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king who bought you with his blood?