Spy Wednesday
Spy Wednesday
The Payout for a Thief
“What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. Matthew 26:15
The worth of Jesus to Judas can be measured in the payout received. Thirty pieces of silver - the payout given to an owner whose slave was killed in an accident (Exodus 21:32). Judas is receiving the payout. But who really is the slave?
Spy Wednesday is the day typically marked in Passion Week for Judas’ free-willed decision to turn Jesus over to the religious authorities. But Judas’ decision to turn Jesus over for money couldn’t have been one which came quickly to him. It was brewing. It was stewing in Judas.
Every time Jesus declared words like “laying down one’s own life in order to gain it” or “giving all that you have to the poor” or “bearing fruit in keeping with repentance,” Judas’ stomach was probably injected with indignant acid. “How long must I endure this teaching of meekness and mourning and hungering and thirsting? Judas, known in John’s gospel as a “thief,” (John 12:6) was waiting for Jesus’ big break in which the payout of his association with a miracle-man-made-King would finally arrive.
But on this Wednesday, in Jerusalem, as the religious leaders circle around Jesus’ head like birds of prey, Judas sniffs the clues that his investment of time and energy in feigning to follow Jesus may not yield the profit he once hoped. There’s talk of a mob riot. There’s talk of a crucifixion.
By that point, there’s not a chance he can make any money off of Jesus’ notoriety. He needs to move quickly. He needs to act now before his shares in the Jesus movement bring him nothing more than a bad rap and a tarnished name.
Jesus had said early on in His ministry “you cannot serve God and money.” Judas maybe convinced himself it was possible to do both. But Judas was a slave to mammon, to anything which would give him status. A slave whose decision it was to choose to be mastered by never-enough mammon rather than mastered by the fully-sufficient Master.
Jesus had said "you with either love one master and despise the other." And Judas had reached his tipping point with Jesus. No more of this charade. You’re not giving me what I want from you so I’m out. Thirty pieces of silver given as a mocking reward by the religious leaders to say “here’s what Jesus is worth to us…and also to you, Judas. A piece of property.”
On this Spy Wednesday, we need to see the divided Judas heart that still can reside in all of us. When the “returns” we once expected from a life of following Jesus are diminishing. When we’re feeling more loss than gain. The test for us is what we’ll do when not if this happens? Trade him in or trust in Him? Follow Him or forfeit Him? Are we struggling to give up status for the sake of Christ? We need only look to our Master, the betrayed one, who says He was willing to serve His Father, His master fully, and give up His status, and His own life, for us. To know our value to Him informs His value to us.
Thoughts for Reflection
What losses have you experienced as a result of following after Christ?
How does Jesus’ inclusion of Judas as a disciple make you uncomfortable?
In what ways does “status” affect your decisions as you follow after Christ?