Wednesday of the Passion Week is often called Silent Wednesday. The dominant thought is that this day was Judas’s day of arranging the betrayal of Jesus. It seems appropriate that a man who sought riches through betrayal would receive silence as his reward.

Judas Iscariot is a tragic figure. Judas is a derived from Judah which means Jehovah leads. Is there a more paradoxical name given in history? We know that Judas was from Judah (southern Israel) from the fact that his last name is a geographic reference. Judas last name is Iscariot which is a compound word made up of “ish” (man) and “Kerioth” – a city in southern Judea see Joshua 15:25). Therefore, Judas is the “man from Kerioth.” Out of the twelve disciples, Judas was the only disciple who did not come from the Galilee region. Kerioth was in Judah. Judah was known for its affluence and most likely was from an affluent culture. For this reason it makes sense that he was in charge of overseeing the treasury for the disciples (see John 12:6). All of the other disciples were somehow connected to one another prior to following Christ, a brother, friend, family member, but the connection Judas had is a mystery. How and when did he begin to follow Jesus? We simply do not know.

Judas seemed very spiritual
He healed people, he stayed with Christ when all the others left (John 6:66-71) and when Jesus spoke of betrayal at the Last Supper none of the disciples looked at Judas as the one who would betray Him (see John 13:21-25). Judas is never mentioned by anyone other than Christ and he knew who would betray Him all along (John 6:64). He was the master hypocrite.

What drove Judas to betray Christ? It seems that the root issue was money. Judas had followed Christ for three years. Judas had endured persecution, hunger, endless talks from Jesus around the fire, a life abandoned to the cause of the Kingdom of Heaven, and for what? Jesus was now speaking of leaving and death. How could Judas redeem the three years he has put in? He was a known follower of Christ and that type of reputation would follow him. Judas had hitched his wagon to Christ and now it was clear Jesus was not going to restore the powerful Kingdom of Israel and he would soon be on the run. Judas needed a nest egg fast. Judas had seen Jesus walk through the crowd when they tried to kill Him two times before when the crowd and religious leaders sought to kill Christ. So, Judas may have thought he could secretly sell Jesus out, get his money, they would try to seize Jesus and He would walk right through the crowd! It was a perfect plan! Whatever would happen, Jesus either leaves Israel or dies. Judas would at least get thirty pieces of silver to start a new life.

Judas was self-deluding
Tragically, Judas did not realize a fundamental problem with sin – it creates an alternate reality based on personal desire. When we begin to strategize how to sin, we enter the world of personal delusion. We begin to forge our own reality. We construct an imaginary world in which we will win. Eve was the first contestant in this mental game show, but everyone plays at some point in their life. The world is replete with people who thought they could get away with something, but only find themselves wondering how they could have been so stupid or, even worse, trying to figure out how to not get caught the next time! For Judas there was no next time. Judas was living in the moment. Judas got a reward for his deeds. Judas received death and silence.