Apr24 Written by:Nathan Williams
Thursday, April 24, 2008
These words were written of Judas Iscariot in Matthew 26:16, "From then on he began looking for a good opportunity to betray Jesus." I wonder what a "good opportunity" looked like to Judas?
It must have been a time when he thought he could get away with it. I am convinced Judas never meant for things to go as far as they did. I think he was a small-time crook looking for a little money. So a "good opportunity" would have been one in which he saw little risk of repercussion.
Do we ever look for "good opportunities" to betray Jesus? How shocking to even suggest such a thing, Nathan! It is shocking to think about. Judas might have been shocked about his own conduct had he taken time to really ponder on it. Have we ever been guilty of waiting for opportune times to commit sin? In the back of our minds, do we ever think, "I'll just swing by the magazine rack and look at a couple of articles...oh my, there are those men's magazines with the scantily-clad women on the front..."? Do we ever think, "I'm going to sit back and relax and enjoy my harlequin romance...oh dear, here's a steamy section..."? And SOMETIMES when we think about doing these things, we tell ourselves in the FRONT of our minds we are just going to do something relaxing for a little while...but in the BACKS of our minds we are actually PLANNING to put ourselves in a situation we know we ought not to get in. If we just sat and really examined our motives for a little while, we might discover this and perhaps it would convict our consciences enough to keep us out of trouble. But we don't think about it, and we get in trouble. We found our opportunity to betray Jesus.
The reality is we DON'T get away with it. Like Judas' situation, sin always comes back to bite us - sometimes in a very big way! Let's be honest with ourselves. Let's THINK about our real motives for doing things. Let's NOT look for good opportunities to betray Jesus, because there's no such thing!
God bless,
Nathan
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