“One
Of You Will Betray Me”
Then Judas Iscariot, one
of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. They were
delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an
opportunity to hand him over.
On the first day of the
Festival of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover
lamb, Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and make
preparations for you to eat the Passover?”
So he sent two of his
disciples, telling them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water
will meet you. Follow him. Say to the owner of the house he enters, ‘The
Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my
disciples?’ He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make
preparations for us there.”
The disciples left, went
into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared
the Passover.
When evening came, Jesus
arrived with the Twelve. While they were reclining at the table eating, he
said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me—one who is eating with me.”
They were saddened, and
one by one they said to him, “Surely you don’t mean me?”
“It is one of the
Twelve,” he replied, “one who dips bread into the bowl with me. The Son of Man
will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the
Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.”
Mark
14:10-21
Have you ever wondered
why Jesus choose Judas to be one of His disciples? Even more baffling is why He
choose you and I.
When people become
painfully aware of their sin and are overcome with guilt, they cry out to Jesus
for mercy. In joyous wonder they experience the truth that God loves each one
of us, that Jesus died for you and I, and that you and are I are forgiven of
our sins.
It is incomprehensible?
And it’s true. We might even cherish our sin. We might protect it. We might
even deny our wrongdoing. All that being said, God has forgiven us and set us
free. We just need to accept His Son Jesus as our Savior.
He loves us all.
God
loves us not because of who we are, but because of who He is.
Our
Daily Bread – March 31, 2015