Matthew 26:14-16
Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What will you give me if I betray him to you?” They paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he began to look for an opportunity to betray him.
Here is the heartbreak. To be betrayed by a friend. To be sold out by a disciple. To be so utterly disappointed and let down by someone with whom you’ve shared bread and conversation and toil and hope.
But it’s not just heartbreaking for Jesus. It’s also heartbreaking for Judas. That he could be so utterly disappointed and disillusioned that he will sell out the one he thought would be Messiah. He was zealous for his faith, for his people, for the vision of the future he imagined and desired, and so he passionately embraced the promise of God’s coming kingdom that Jesus heralded. But somewhere along the line he realized that Jesus’ kingdom and the one of which he dreamt were not the same.
Except he didn’t see them, I imagine, as different visions of the kingdom. More likely, he saw his as the true vision of the kingdom and Jesus’ as a lame excuse, perhaps even a lie. And so heartbroken and despondent, and driven only by the remaining embers of a hollow passion, he betrays his teacher and friend for thirty pieces of silver.
That’s the challenge of passion. We need it to do anything of worth in this world. We need, that is, to embrace the people and causes we love with passion. Yet of those two, I believe it’s people we must finally side with. When we put aside our passion for people and lodge it instead solely in our causes, we lose something essential and risk being misled into thinking that any cause is more important than the people that cause was meant to serve.
Prayer: Dear God, grant us a holy passion for the people you place all around us, and let all of our words and deeds be governed by your love. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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