him was a crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief
priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders. Now the betrayer had
arranged a signal with them: “The one I kiss is the man; arrest Him
and lead Him away under guard.” Going at once to Jesus, Judas said,
“Rabbi!” and kissed Him. The men seized Jesus and arrested Him.
Then one of those standing near drew his sword and struck the
servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear. (Mark 14: 43-47)
This past year a person whom I thought was my closest friend
abandoned me and actually turned against me in several ways for
reasons I still do not know. It hurt, deeply. I can only imagine that
Jesus felt the same. That Judas, who was so close to Him, would turn
so completely around from one of the many teachings of Jesus; it
just does not make sense. We speculate that Judas did this for greed
as he was given a bag of money for his betrayal, but was it worth it?
With my friend I truly wonder how I could have ever considered her a
real friend and wonder if Jesus felt this way about Judas. Or was this
a lesson that Jesus wanted to teach us all as well? Jesus mentions
earlier that He knows someone will betray Him; did He use this to
teach us the ultimate lesson of forgiveness? I think so, and I believe
that Jesus has an extraordinarily foresight and forgiveness for us all
which, in turn, tells us that we need to be forgiving of others.
In perspective we are usually not being betrayed to the point of being
sent to death. It is my belief Jesus sacrificed His life to teach us many
lessons about life. Why do you think Jesus sacrificed Himself?
Jennifer Bortnick
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