The life of Judas Iscariot is one of the tragedies in human history. The Bible narrates that Judas Iscariot was one of the disciples of the greatest man to ever live, Jesus Christ. And he conspired against his Master and betrayed Him to His enemies to His death on the cross. From the biblical narrative, we can easily pinpoint two factors responsible for why Judas Iscariot became a betrayer – the world’s most famous betrayer. They are:
- His weakness, which was greed for money or the love of money.
- The influence of the devil.
Judas Iscariot’s greed for money
Everyone remembers Judas Iscariot well as the one who betrayed Jesus, after which he went to hang himself, seized by remorse. His part of the story was a tragedy – none would ever want to end up like him. However, you can be sure that Judas Iscariot, at the time he was appointed to be one of the twelve disciples of Jesus, did not have such a malicious intention to betray Jesus in the first place, let alone to betray Him for money; such an evil intent might have been far from his heart.
However, all along, Judas Iscariot had something bad lurking on his inside. I mean he had a flaw or a weakness hiding inside him in the secrecy of his heart.
His weakness or flaw was a very lethal one. Its name is ‘the love of money’, also called ‘greed for money’ or ‘greed’ – any of the three will do. In time, ‘greed’ or ‘greed for money’ began to take a toll on Iscariot’s life. Judas Iscariot began to show the habit that pertains to this weakness of greed for money; that is, he began to steal from Jesus; consequently, he became a thief. It is written about him,
4 Then one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, who would betray Him, said, 5 “Why was this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” 6 This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the money-box; and he used to take what was put in it. (John 12:4-6)
At this point, everyone could see that Judas Iscariot would do anything to satisfy his greed for money. He had begun with stealing; I tell you, he would be willing to do any other evil deed provided it would bring him money.
Satan’s influence
So we’ve got it that Judas Iscariot had a weakness which was the love of money, meaning he would do anything to make money regardless of morality. This is why he cared less to steal from Jesus Christ. At this point where Judas Iscariot’s weakness of greed for money was mature and was bearing theft for fruits, the devil saw him as a vessel suitable for doing more evil.
Satan, since the day Jesus was born, had made attempts to destroy Him. And he had not stopped trying. Along the line, when Jesus went around doing His ministry, He got on the wrong side of the Jewish religious leaders – the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the High Priest, the chief priests, etc. And these people desperately sought to kill Him, but their only impediment was how to arrest Jesus.
They had often wanted to arrest him in public and have Him killed but they could not because of the crowd. Anytime Jesus appeared in public to teach, He would be surrounded by a great crowd of people – most of which are His disciples. And any attempt to arrest Jesus in public would have met the disapproval of the crowd and it would have stirred an uproar in the city, and the Jewish leaders would have had to answer for that before the Roman authorities. If Jesus had to be arrested, then it had to be in secret in the absence of the crowd. So though Jesus had many enemies, it did not guarantee His death. One more thing was needed. The enemies needed someone closer to Jesus who knew His affairs and who could inform them of His whereabouts so that they could come and arrest Him in the absence of the crowd.
Jesus had enemies who were obsessed with the intent of killing Him. Once again, the devil saw a golden opportunity to put Jesus to death and he gave it a try. All he had to do is to raise someone who would be a betrayer and an informant who would inform and lead the Jewish authorities to Jesus at the time He was not with the crowd.
Such a person to play this role was available – he was Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. Already he had proved himself to be a lover of money and was willing to do anything to get more. Satan walked into Iscariot’s life and misled him to see Jesus Christ, his own Master and Teacher, as a prize for the taking. How? That is, if only he could hand Him over to the Jewish authorities who were obsessed with the intent of killing Him, he would make more money.
According to the Bible, Satan entered into Judas Iscariot and Iscariot went away and conferred with the chief priests and Jewish officers how he might betray Jesus to them. And they were glad and paid him an amount of thirty silver pieces. So he sought an opportunity to betray Him to them in the absence of the crowd. (Luke 22:3-6)
Satan’s plan to kill Jesus worked. After the last supper, Jesus and his disciples went to the Garden of Gethsemane. There, Judas Iscariot who left during the last supper came with a crowd of armed men. To make no mistake about whom he wanted them to arrest, Judas Iscariot arranged with them that whoever he would kiss is the one they should arrest. There he walked to Jesus and kissed Him and Jesus was arrested.
I can assure you that Judas Iscariot thought he was betraying Jesus to make some huge money for himself. Little did he know that the very idea of betraying his Master and the boldness he mustered to do so were inspired by none but the devil. This is why when he came to himself and saw what he had done, he regretted it so much that he committed suicide. We see that Iscariot was a bad person alright, but betraying Jesus for money was not part of his plans until the devil got involved. It was the devil who took his greed to the betraying-for-money level.
Conclusion
Judas Iscariot did not betray Jesus because he wanted to seek revenge on Jesus, neither was it politically influenced. Rather, biblical evidence pinpoints that Judas Iscariot’s weakness of greed for money and the influence of the devil were the factors very responsible for his betrayal.