What is Your Price of Betrayal?

"and said, What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?" And they counted out thirty pieces of silver. (Matthew 26:15).

We as Christians and even around Easter time even sinners have attended church and listen to Minister's, Preachers, and Evangelist' tell of the story of how Jesus was betrayed by one of His very own disciples and through this betrayal came the condemnation of Jesus to give the world the greatest gift we could never give ourselves, salvation.

Now what is exceptional about the story of the betrayal of Jesus is one, that it was someone close to Him that preformed the act, not just a stranger but one Judas Iscariot who was not only one of the chosen twelve but Judas was the treasurer for the group as documented in (John 12:6) "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." So it was evident that Judas was already condemned in his own heart because greed was already evident.

So with greed in his heart and with the opinions floating today among scholars possibly some anger toward Jesus as well for not leading a revolt against the Roman Empire what was the soul purpose of why Judas betrayed Jesus. If we read in the book of Jeremiah the Prophet it is evident that this act should and would have to come to pass in order for our spiritual reconciliation with the Heavenly Father. Though the betrayal is not described in detail the coming and purpose of Jesus was revealed through the major Old Testament prophets such as Jeremiah where he gives his revelation from the Heavenly Father, (Jeremiah 23:5-7) describes Jesus as "The branch of righteousness." Isaiah as well spoke of the coming condemnation of Jesus in (Isaiah 53:5) "But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed."

Jesus knew in His heart what was to come and so that His spirit was not broken it was revealed to Him who would be the one to commit the act. As before mentioned what ever the reasoning Judas found for betraying Jesus, the part that keeps many puzzled is why such a low price for betrayal. As described in Matthew 26:15 Judas handed over Jesus for a mere thirty pieces of silver, which in that era was a substantial amount of money but on the other hand not because of the fact of who Jesus was. Jesus was hunted and His death was sought throughout entire regions because of His proclamations and powers of healing. Why then did Judas not ask for a kingdom or possibly hundreds of pieces of silver? To brake down the estimated value of what it cost Judas to betray Jesus we would have to convert at today's current rate. Thirty pieces of silver (Tyrian Shekel for Judas) would have a market rate of about $1231.00 dollars in today's market. So for the cost of your 55" LCD television this is the cost of what betraying the Son of Man would run.

What is all of this leading to? Simply put today we betray Jesus for a whole lot less than thirty pieces of silver. Everyday we neglect to pray or we neglect to follow His will in our lives or we find something or some reason to keep us away from the church or fellowship with the family of Jesus we has in essence betrayed the very reason Jesus went through His pain and suffering. Each time we as Christians allow another to fall from the fold knowing that we had the power in God to help them back we have betrayed Jesus because of our pride and greed to keep our faith to ourselves rather than share it with others. If we could have seen through the eyes of Jesus at those moments where He stood betrayed and condemned before Pilate, thirty pieces of silver was the cost to save the world from sin.

So we must examine ourselves at the foot of the cross and ask are we betraying Jesus or what did it cost to sit at home or work and not witness to anyone today, or set down with our bible and meditate in the Word of God for an hour. The truth is we betray Jesus for so much less because our wants are merely our own needs rather than the need that we place on spreading the gospel of Christ. One great irony to this as it comes full circle, to betray Jesus for personal gain is rewarding for a time just a Judas found out. In the end the return was and still is death without Christ.

Reference's: The New King James Version Bible
gospel-mysteries.net Judas Iscariot
moneyconversion.com-silver