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Passage: Luke 22:1-6 (The Message)

The Feast of Unleavened Bread, also called Passover, drew near. The high priests and religion scholars were looking for a way to do away with Jesus but, fearful of the people, they were also looking for a way to cover their tracks.

That’s when Satan entered Judas, the one called Iscariot. He was one of the Twelve. Leaving the others, he conferred with the high priests and the Temple guards about how he might betray Jesus to them. They couldn’t believe their good luck and agreed to pay him well. He gave them his word and started looking for a way to betray Jesus, but out of sight of the crowd.

Reflection

It is amazing what money can do to someone. Money can make someone amazingly happy, thankful, generous or it can make someone greedy, selfish and willing to harm others to get it.

Usually, in the hands or the heart of human being, money does the latter.

We should be clear that money itself is not wrong. But money seems to weild a kind of power over us.

Certianly money weilded a kind of powe of Judas Iscariot. I am not sure that I had seen that before in the Gospel story. Yes, I knew that Judas had betrayed Jesus for "30 pieces of silver" but I did not see that money was his main (and only) tmotivation.

We read in the Gospel of John that Judas was the "keeper of the money bag [and] he used to help himself to what was put into it" (John 12:6). So money had a hold on Judas. Judy kept the money and he woul help himself to the money. He liked, even loved money. He could not get enough of money and so he would take more and more of what was not his.

And this love of money drives Judas to do the unthinkable: to betray the Son of God into the hands of his enemies. The Gospel Story suggests that Judas did not realize the full implications of what his betrayal would lead to. I don't think that he knew his betrayal would lead to Jesus' death.

But that does not matter. Judas loved money more than he loved his neighbour. He loved money more than He loved his Rabbi. He loved money more than He loved Jesus the Messiah.

May that not be true for us.