What’s Good About It?

The night before, He was betrayed. Judas sold Him for thirty pieces of silver:

And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. (Matthew 26:15 KJV)

Peter betrayed Him out of fear for his own life:

Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly. (Matthew 26:74-75 KJV)

Judas regretted his actions, too:

Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself. (Matthew 27:3-5 KJV)

Knowing Christ was innocent, Judas went to the religious leaders for absolution -- their response? “What is that to us?” His next actions display his lack of understanding of God’s love mercy, just as the chief priests’ actions displayed theirs:

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. (Matthew 23:23 KJV)

What Judas left undone was confessing that his sin was against God. All sin is. Judas never reached that understanding.

So, here we are on Friday, their teacher on the cross, and two men have reacted with vast differences. So, what’s good about it? Jesus followed God’s will:

And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. (Matthew 26:39 KJV)

For most of us, our lives are not a forfeit for following God’s will. Usually, two commandments will get us started:

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. (Matthew 22:37-40 KJV)

We love Him because He showed us how:

We love him, because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? (1 John 4:19-20 KJV)

Because we love Him, we learn His commandments and keep them:

If ye love me, keep my commandments. (John 14:15 KJV)

That’s the good part of this Friday. God remains love.