Matthew 26:14-25

Matthew 26:14-16 Judas betrays Jesus

Why do you think Judas offers to betray Jesus?

There are three ways that scholars commonly attempt to explain Judas’s betrayal:

• Judas might have been greedy.  The Gospel of John supports this idea in John 12:6, where John says that Judas kept the money for Jesus and his companions and used to steal from it.  This explanation is supported by the fact that in Matthew 26:15 Judas asks the chief priests how much money they would give him if he betrayed Jesus to them.

• Judas might have been disillusioned because Jesus was not showing any evidence that he was going to rise up against the Romans and establish an independent Jewish nation.

• Judas might have believed deeply in the cause he thought Jesus stood for and felt that Jesus was moving too slowly.  He might have thought he was forcing Jesus’s hand in order to speed up the inauguration of the kingdom.

What is the significance of 30 pieces of silver?

Exodus 21:32 indicates that 30 shekels of silver was the value of a slave in ancient Israel – the amount of compensation that had to be paid if a man’s ox gored another man’s slave.  The weights of various coins were not very standardized, but the shekel and the “silver pieces” in Judas’s time were close enough that it is reasonable to hear hints of Exodus 21:32 in Matthew 26:15.

A story in Zechariah 11:7-13 about a rejected shepherd suggests that 30 shekels is 30 days’ wages, and the silver pieces Judas accepted may have had the value of 30 days’ wages.  However, depending on the coin that was used, it may have been worth four times that much, or 120 days’ wages: a third of a year’s wages, which is comparable to $8,000 to $16,000 today (The New Oxford Annotated Bible, Matthew 26:14 footnote, p. 1785).

Judas is betraying Jesus for less than half of the cost of the ointment the woman used to anoint Jesus in the previous passage (Matt. 26:6-13).

Why do you think Judas decided to betray Jesus?  Do you think he really wanted to see Jesus killed?  Explain.

If we put the best face on Judas’s actions, he thought he knew better than Jesus how to bring God’s kingdom into its glory.  How do people in our day try to force a greater manifestation of God’s kingdom?

How does Judas contrast with the woman who anointed Jesus?

How is Judas different than the other disciples?

How might you sometimes be at risk of trying to force God’s hand rather than waiting for God’s timing and method of working in our lives?

Matthew 26:17-19 Preparation for the Passover meal

In this passage, Jesus prepares to celebrate his final Passover meal with his disciples.  He has probably eaten the sacrificial Passover lamb in Jerusalem every year since he was a child (Luke 2:41 tells us that his parents went to Jerusalem every year for the Passover).

What do you know about the Jewish celebration of the Passover?  What were they commemorating and how did they commemorate it?

Passover is the annual Jewish feast celebrating the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt.  It is also known as the feast of Unleavened Bread, because the Israelites were told to prepare unleavened bread to take on their exodus out of Egypt, because they would not have time for bread to rise as they left.  Passover as the night when the Jews put the blood of a lamb on the lintels of their doors so that the angel of death would “pass over” their households when the death of the firstborns convinced Pharaoh to stop standing against God and allow the Israelites to leave Egypt.

Passover is celebrated on the 15th of Nissan (the Jewish month that, based on the lunar cycle, falls during our March/April).  The “first day” referred to here is the day of preparation, the 14th of Nissan.  At sundown, the 15th of Nissan would begin.  The Passover meal was eaten on the first night of a week-long celebration of the salvation from slavery that God provided by bringing the Israelites out of Egypt.

What preparations do Jesus and his disciples make for the Passover meal?

It appears that Jesus had spoken with someone in advance about using his house to have the Passover meal.  This is one of those little clues that remind us that the Bible gives us only a selected sample of everything Jesus did and said (see John 21:25, which suggests that if all the stories were told, the world could not hold all the books that would be written).

Do you suppose there are things in your life that Jesus is also preparing in advance for?

If the disciples had not done what Jesus directed them to do, the Passover meal might not have been as orderly: there might have been last-minute scrambling, etc.  What does this tell you about the importance of listening for God’s guidance and following his direction?

Matthew 26:20-25 Jesus acknowledges that he will be betrayed by an insider

What does Jesus say he knows?

Why do you think he is saying this, rather than keeping it to himself?

How do the disciples feel about the possibility that someone might betray Jesus?

Why would they ask, “Surely, not I?”  Wouldn’t they know they are not going to betray him?

Could they be clueless about just how big the betrayal is that Jesus is talking about, and think that Jesus is referring to some more minor way they might “betray” him due to foolishness or pettiness?

Are there ways that we might “betray” Jesus in small ways, not by a dramatic denunciation but by our own mundane sinfulness?  How might that be?

What title for Jesus do the apostles use in v. 22?

What title for Jesus does Judas use in v. 25?

“Rabbi” is an Aramaic word meaning “teacher” or “master” that was used as a title of honor for teachers.  The Jews of Jesus’s time spoke Aramaic, a language related to Hebrew.  Matthew is writing his Gospel in Greek, so he almost always translates into Greek what the people would have said in Aramaic.  Everywhere else, he uses the Greek word for teacher where Jews would have said “rabbi.”  But not here.  Here, Matthew preserves the fact that Judas called Jesus “rabbi.”

What does it tell you about their relationship when a person calls someone else “Lord”?

Does “Teacher” have the same connotation?  Are our teachers seen as our lords?

Does the fact that Judas uses the word for teacher, when the disciples usually refer to Jesus as Lord, give us a hint as to Judas’s attitude toward Jesus?  Explain.

In what ways do you see Jesus as “Lord”?

In verse 25, when Judas says, “Surely, not I?”, Jesus replies, “You have said so” rather than a simple “Yes.”  Why might Jesus have phrased it this way?

Jesus’s choice of words is significant here.  If Jesus had said, “Yes,” rather than “You have said so,” it would have suggested that Judas was locked into a path of betrayal and no longer had any choice.  By saying to Judas, you have said so, Jesus leaves room for Judas to decide to say otherwise, to change his mind, to retreat from the path he has started down.  This shows that Jesus, to the end, loves Judas and is holding out hope that Judas will do the right thing.

Note: The fact that Jesus’s death fulfills Scripture does not mean that Judas was forced to betray Jesus.  Judas is not a puppet.  Jesus ultimately would have died on a Roman cross even if Judas had changed his mind and not helped the Jewish leaders.  God did not need Judas to be evil in order to accomplish his work of salvation.

In Matthew 26:24, Jesus says, “It would have been better for him if he had not been born.”  Some people find this troubling because it seems harsh.  However, it is not as harsh as verse 25:41: “Depart from me, you accursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”  Jesus does not actually say that Judas is going to hell.  Judas’s final judgment remains to be seen.  He could still repent.

Does God ever give up on the possibility that you, or any other person, might repent and move away from a path of sin or evil?

How can you keep an open mind about others’ potential to turn around?

Take a step back and consider this:

In these passages, we see the normal routines of life going on – the ordinary preparation for an annual celebration – while the wheels are turning that will lead to Jesus’s crucifixion.

And Jesus knows what is going on!

How do you think Jesus handled the stress and inner turmoil that comes with knowing that bad things are happening?

We face this same problem sometimes.  Bad things may be happening in our lives, not necessarily life-or-death situations like Jesus is facing, but serious, potentially life-altering circumstances.  Perhaps we are waiting for medical test results that could indicate we have a serious illness or disease.  Perhaps we are watching an adult child or other loved one struggle with drugs or other serious impairments.  Perhaps a business we are deeply involved in is failing.  Perhaps a government is trying to find us and deport us even though we have never done anything wrong other than cross a border to find safety from a life-threatening situation.

How do you deal with stress when bad things are happening around you or you are waiting for potentially bad news?

Where do you turn for help in those difficult times?

Do you see Jesus as someone who has gone through that kind of stress and can help you get through it?  What could you do to reach out to him and draw strength from him?

Jesus appears to have enjoyed spending time with his disciples.  Other than going away to spend time in prayer with his Father, we never see him trying to avoid the disciples.  Human beings are social creatures.  Jesus was God, but he was also human, and as a human, he may have found encouragement in spending time with those he loved.

Who around you might be experiencing the stress of living in a bad situation or waiting for potentially bad news?  How could you be a help to them?