Are you Judas or are you Jesus?

Betrayal can sting like a sharp knife going into your back or it can be like a slow burn that you can’t escape.   We can be betrayed in many ways and by many people throughout our short lives here on earth, but each and every time it still hurts.

There is no way to protect yourself from being betrayed and no way to ease the blow when it happens.   The only way I can think of to safeguard yourself from being betrayed, would be to be in solitude, and even then, you are betraying yourself.

I, like many of you, have been betrayed in my life, and in return I build up a stronger, thicker, higher walls to protect myself.  I limit the people in my life, as a way to protect my heart from being betrayed, but yet, it still happens.

Almost two years ago now, I was betrayed by a person who I held very dearly to my heart.   He was a very significant person, not only in my life, but in my working life as well.   He was one of those people that you knew if you called him at 2am he would be right there to help you, in any way he could.   

I knew he had my back… or so I thought.

We had established a close friendship, shared our secrets both of home and work life, and had a deep trust built up between the two of us and then in one moment that trust was completely shattered. 

I was deeply hurt and betrayed, which those two things, I think, always come hand and hand, along with anger.  My friend had chosen to believe, a very horrible rumor that was going around the work place, that had to do with me and another female co-worker.  I happened to be guilty by association in the situation, and my friend, my buddy, the person I would have trusted with my life, deserted me.

The pain I felt in that moment, for many days, weeks and months afterward, were some of my darkest.  Our friendship will forever be fractured, and I will always hold him at arm’s length, but yet somehow, someway, we were able to mend as much of that broken friendship that we can.

There is an unspoken sadness that encircles our friendship now, but also a release of expectations on both parties.  It released us both from being boxed into people we probably could never live up to being.

I never thought this person would betray me.  I never thought this person would no longer be a part of my inner circle of friends, whom I consider to be family, but at the same time, this needed to happen to open my eyes to the fact that he is not perfect! 

And neither am I!

When we allow things, people, items, money, whatever it is to start to take place of God in our lives, you best be prepared for God to remove or alter that thing! 

Remember He is a jealous God!  He wants you all to Himself!

I thought about this friend, well I believe God brought him to my memory, tonight as I was reading.  I thought how much I hurt and how many tears I shed over this friendship, and how incredibly difficult it was to forgive him and move forward with our friendship, and honestly how was I going to be able to do that.

I wonder if this is how Jesus felt when Judas betrayed Him. 

I wonder if Jesus felt the ache in His heart knowing that someone He let into the inner circle of His life and teaching, was about to shame His name.  That His friendship meant so little to Judas that He would trade it, and Him, for a few coins.

You know how we are told that Jesus understands all of our trials and every emotion we have, He has also had.    This one I have no doubt about.

Jesus knows the feeling of being betrayed, and Jesus knows exactly how to handle the act of being betrayed.

He was kind and generous with His emotions to Judas.  He did not attack Judas, call out His reputation or His personality traits.  Jesus graciously accepted the betrayal and forgave.

This is extremely hard to do... Especially when you have a flesh that wants to get revenge, one wants to make the person who hurt you, hurt as much as you are.  You want to defile their name, share every secret they have ever told you, but you don’t! 

We don’t make an initial wrong right, by committing the same act.   In this situation who would you rather be, Jesus or Judas?

Judas, needed to betray Jesus so that the rest of the world could be saved.   I am sure if you look at the times you have been betrayed in your life, you will find that they needed to happen for one reason or another.   And a valuable lesson was learned from the betrayal.

Forever Judas Iscariot, from Matthew 10:4 will have his act of betrayal be His character trait.  He will forever be remembered and mentioned as the one who betrayed Jesus. 

I never want my name to be associated to she betrayed me!  I want to be the one who they are saying; she forgave me, after I betrayed her.  I want to be like Jesus was with Judas, and every other person who betrayed Him, and forgive them with a true heart.  With the heart that Jesus has given to us.

If loving your neighbor as you love yourself is something that we are to do ,and do on purpose, which it is.  Than we are going to have to accept and forgive people who are going to either let us down, hurt us, abandon us, and betray us.

We are going to have to realize that people are not perfect, just as we are not perfect, though sometimes we think, we come really close to it, but we aren’t.   What we are is made in the image of the perfect one!  We are made in the image of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Which means, we have the abilities that Jesus has?

We can forgive, wipe the slate clean, and be an example to the ones that hurt us and the ones that are watching for our response.   Every day you are alive someone is going to do something that ruffles your feathers.  The degree of ruffling is what is different, and the importance of the person in your life, also plays apart in the level of pain. 

Jesus was betrayed so deeply because, the one who betrayed Him was from His inner circle.  Judas was a chosen one, and he was handpicked by Jesus Himself.  This is a major blow not only to Jesus, but also to the rest of the people following Jesus.

I don’t think any of them, or us, would have looked twice at Jesus if He would have let Judas have it.  If He would have told Judas exactly who he was, and exactly what was going to happen to him.  But you see the God that forgives you and me, is also the God who forgave Judas.  

Many times the shame that the person who has hurt you so deeply, is worse than the act they committed in the first place.   Knowing that I hurt someone is not worth the feelings of satisfaction it would take for me to hurt them back.   I can walk around with a bruised ego for a while knowing that I am not the one with the shame of defiling another person.

Jesus has showed us many, many things in His short time on earth and one of them is that you will be betrayed and it will hurt, but the way you recover from it speaks louder than the betrayal itself.

Remember this tomorrow, the day after, or even the year after, when someone has betrayed you in some way, because they will, you have a decision to make in that moment, to either forgive them like Jesus did, or curse their name like Judas did! 

It’s your decision what your legacy is going to be!