Matthew 26:48-49: Now His betrayer had given them a sign, saying, Whomever I kiss, He is the One; seize Him. Immediately he went up to Jesus and said, Greetings, Rabbi! and kissed Him.
One wonders what the thoughts of Judas were as he led the chief priests, elders, and others with swords and clubs to the rendezvous where he was certain he would find Jesus in prayer? If deeply perturbed, as he would have been if conscience were at all active, he gave no outward evidence of it as he brazenly led the multitude to where he saw Jesus standing with the three disciples.
Judas had planned with the chief priests a prearranged sign. He tells them to seize immediately the One that he kisses. What a revelation of the deceitful, natural heart, and what it ultimately is capable of!
The original Greek uses a verb tense for "kissed" that speaks of a repeated action. In other words, his purpose was so intense that he repeatedly kissed Jesus to make sure that the chief priests had the right man. Crimes of passion often involve an excessive amount of force. In the O.J. Simpson trial one of the most damaging pieces of evidence was the massive slashing done to Nicole Brown Simpson. Would a robber have been that desirous to make sure that the wound was mortal? Judas, under the power of Satan, wanted to make sure that the wound would be mortal for Jesus.
I realize that betraying Jesus with a kiss had to be the worst kind of betrayal. Especially from someone who was one of His followers.
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