Luke 22:1-6 - Significant Deal - March 24, 2021

From the time it premiered in 1963, Let’s Make a Deal has been one of the most popular game shows on television. Contestants dressed in flamboyant costumes and host Monty Hall (and today Wayne Brady) asked them to choose between a prize they could see and one that was hidden behind a door or under a box. At times, contestants would make great deals, trading the prize they could see for something far more valuable. Other times, the deals they made weren’t so good. They would trade a great prize for something worth nothing, a prize known as a “zonk.” [1] Like most of you, I don’t have the time or desire to watch daytime game shows – so if any part of that description is inaccurate, blame Wikipedia. Why bring it up? Because “let’s make a deal” is essentially what Judas said to the chief priests and officers of the temple guard in our text this evening. It’s the sad and shameful account of Judas making a deal to betray Jesus to his enemies; a deal that turned out to be far more significant than Judas could have ever imagined.

We believe our text takes place at some point on Wednesday of Holy Week. By now, the chief priests and experts in the law were hell-bent on finding a way to arrest and kill Jesus. Why? For a variety of reasons – reasons that are pretty typical motivators for those in power to want to get rid of their rivals: because he was a threat to their power and prestige; because he threatened their control of the people; because he had made them look bad in public on several occasions. Finally, and probably most importantly, because he was not speaking and behaving in the way they thought the Messiah should speak and behave. He wasn’t concerned about their nit-picky, manmade rules regarding the Sabbath and ritual washings (Mark 7:1-23). He hung out with and even ate with all the wrong kinds of people, including tax collectors and prostitutes (Mark 2:16). Rather than emphasize obedience and sacrifice as the way to get right with God, Jesus proclaimed a message of God’s grace and mercy (Matthew 9:13) – and it got under their skin. But the last straw was Jesus’ miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-44). This miracle led to a meeting of the Sanhedrin in which they concluded: what are we going to do, because this man is doing many miraculous signs? If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him. Then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation (John 11:47-48) – which led to Caiaphas’ unwitting prophecy: you know nothing at all. You do not even consider that it is better for us that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish (John 11:49-50).

In their minds, Jesus was dangerous. He had become far too popular with the people. They had witnessed what had happened on Palm Sunday when Jesus entered Jerusalem and the crowds gathered to shout blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! (Luke 19:38) Jesus was so popular that the Pharisees said to one another, “You see? You are accomplishing nothing. Look! The world has gone after him” (John 12:19). It was Jesus’ popularity that prevented the chief priests and teachers of the law from carrying out their plan to arrest and kill him prior to this. They feared a violent backlash if they tried to take Jesus away publicly. They needed help with their evil scheme – a way to get rid of Jesus quietly and discreetly.

So it was a dream come true when Judas came to them out of the blue and offered to betray Jesus to them. Satan had entered Judas (Luke 22:3) and led him to meet with the chief priests to hatch a plan to do away with Jesus once and for all. Their scheme would come to fruition within 24 hours. On Maundy Thursday, as Jesus was celebrating the Passover and instituting the Lord’s Supper Judas left the Upper Room to alert the chief priests that the final piece of their plan was about to fall into place (John 13:30). He would lead the temple guard to Jesus as he and his disciples were worshiping and praying in the darkness of the Garden of Gethsemane, away from the crowds in the city. And then, in the ultimate act of betrayal, Judas would walk right up to Jesus and identify him to the soldiers with a kiss (Luke 22:47-48). All for thirty pieces of silver (Matthew 26:15).

As shocking as this all is, the truth is that it was not the first time Judas had betrayed Jesus – or his fellow disciples, for that matter. In John 12, when Jesus was eating at the house of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, Mary anointed Jesus’ feet with very expensive perfume. Judas objected to this act of faith and worship. He claimed that the perfume should have been sold and the proceeds given to the poor. John exposed his real motivation: he did not say this because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief. He held the money box and used to steal what was put into it (John 12:6). Long before Judas made a deal to lead the temple guards to arrest Jesus, he had already made a far more significant deal with his own conscience. He had made a deal that instead of fearing, loving and trusting in Jesus as his Savior he would manipulate his relationship with Jesus to serve his own greedy heart. Judas is a cautionary tale of how sin, when coddled rather than confessed, when toyed with rather than put to death in repentance, continually mutates and grows. Judas is a living example of what James later wrote: when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death (James 1:15) – death for Jesus and eternal death for Judas (Acts 1:25).

But Judas isn’t alone. I’ve betrayed Jesus and so have you. I’ve manipulated my relationship with Jesus to serve my own interests, and so have you. How? Jesus gives each of us 168 hours of life every week, how many of those have I spent serving myself rather than serving God by serving others? Jesus has given me every ounce of my talent and every cent of my money – how much of that capital do I use serving myself rather than God and others? Jesus has given me the good news of his victory over sin, death and the devil for sinners – all sinners – and how often don’t I keep that life-saving message to myself rather than communicating it to unbelieving family and friends? How many times have I used my attendance at worship and Bible class or my offerings and service as a justification to continue practicing my pet sins, thinking, “Jesus will forgive me on Sunday, so it’s ok to sin today.” How often do I expect that my relationship with Jesus should make my life here and now better, sometimes demanding it in my prayers, rather than understanding that following Jesus now means taking up a cross and following him to the glory of heaven only after this life is over? Judas is certainly not alone in his betrayal of Jesus. We’ve all made deals with our consciences to betray Jesus. Judas had his price, and so do we.

But here’s perhaps the most surprising part: God would use Judas’ betrayal and the subsequent events to make a payment that Judas could never have imagined. Not a payment of silver coins but the payment of the holy, precious blood (1 Peter 1:18-19) and innocent suffering and death of Jesus that would serve as the payment for all sin of all people of all time (1 John 2:2). While Judas – and we – have betrayed Jesus for a moment of pleasure, a few dollars, or the illusion of freedom – Jesus would never betray us; and he would never betray his Father. In fact, Jesus would instead be forsaken by his own Father so that his Father would never forsake us to the horrors of hell (Matthew 27:46). He would voluntarily shed his blood and offer his life as the ransom price for our souls (Matthew 20:28; 1 Peter 1:18-19). And, just as he predicted, he would rise again three days later to prove our forgiveness, our justification – to declare once and for all that we are no longer guilty of betraying our God and Savior (Romans 4:25; Hebrews 10:12).

We betray Jesus on a daily basis – but there has never been a day, nor will there ever be a day – on which Jesus will betray us. Jesus has promised to be with us always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). Jesus has promised to never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). At this very moment, Jesus is standing before his Father’s throne in heaven, interceding for us, arguing for our innocence and righteousness based on his merits (1 Timothy 2:5-6). Even now Jesus is ruling everything in this world for our benefit – for the good of the church – so that we might remain in the faith and that many more would come to faith (Ephesians 1:22). And, one day, just as he promised, he will return to deliver you and me and all believers out of this world of sorrow to himself in heaven (Matthew 24:29-31). That’s the significant and amazing deal that Jesus has made with us – inked in the blood he shed on the cross, sealed by his resurrection from the dead, delivered to us in Word and Sacrament. I’d say that’s a pretty good deal!

Judas didn’t really know what he was doing when he met with the chief priests and officers of the temple guard to concoct a plan to betray Jesus. He thought he was simply going to make some easy money. By God’s grace, we do. We know that this deal was of significant help to the devil and the chief priests in their goal of doing away with Jesus. We know that this deal reveals the deals we make in our own lives to betray Jesus. We know that God used this deal to bring about the greatest good of all: the death of his own Son for the salvation of traitorous sinners like you and like me. It might be entertaining to watch people dressed in goofy outfits make a deal on a game show – but it’s vital that we understand that there has never been a more significant deal made in human history than the one made between Judas, the chief priests and the devil – because this deal leads directly to our salvation. Thank God for orchestrating this deal. Amen.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let's_Make_a_Deal