Daze 12: Betraying Your Own Heart

So how does one betray his own heart? What draws you away from what's important during this time? Do you make it a time of joy sprinkled throughout your day, or are you looking for easy answers to get what you want and think you need? Have you managed to hoard up enough toilet paper, or food supplies?

Judas chose easy answers, probably from his greed for money. What else compelled him to betray the one who loved his heart will probably never be known. Was it jealousy for power? Or desire to force Jesus to use His power to take over from the Romans? Lots of speculations, but only God knows what's in a man's heart.

Wednesday of Holy Week is a quiet day with not much recorded. I speculate that Jesus spent the day with His Father talking through what was about to happen and receiving the encouragement He needed. It was probably a busy time for Judas and the religious leaders as they got their forces ready to capture Jesus.

Betraying Your Own Heart
The Three-Way Plot Thickens

Wednesday

As Passover approached, the plot now thickened to kill Jesus:

            By Judas, full of

Greed for money and

Hunger for recognition.

            By the Jewish leaders, full of

Jealousy for power and

Hunger to find a way to get rid of Jesus,

            For they feared how the people loved Him.

            By Satan, full of

                        Dreams that his time had come,

                        Hopes that he'd found the man to work with him.

            Here’s the story of how the plan was set in place.

The devil had earlier prompted Judas to betray Jesus.

            Now on this day, Satan urged him to follow his dreams,

Not those of Jesus the Messiah.

Judas then secretly

Went to the high ranking Jewish leaders and

Discussed with them how he might betray Jesus.

They were delighted to hear this—

            Just what they needed to finally get rid of Jesus—

One of His own disciples to even do this.

Then he asked them, the focus of his heart, 

            “What are you willing to give me

                        IF I hand Him over to you?”

They put their heads together and

            Promised to give him thirty silver coins,

                        Counted it out for him piece by piece.

                        About five months wages,

                                    Just as worthless as his heart.

Now Judas was delighted.

            He never had that much money when managing Jesus’ money bag.

From then on Judas watched for the

            Perfect opportunity to hand Him over to them,

                        When no crowd was present,

            To betray his own heart,

And the heart of Him who loved him most of all.

Now this three-strand cord of evil forces were plotting together but they

            Could never stop the eternal purposes of God,

            Could only fulfill the prophecies of old,

            Could only help to glorify Jesus as He went to the cross

And did Father’s will.

            For us.

Who knows what’s in a man’s heart, indeed?

Who know what’s in your heart?

            What consumes your thoughts?

            What words come out of your mouth
                 Money more important than people, like Judas?
                 Prestige, power, position like the Pharisees and Sadducces?
                 Domination, prove you can supplant God, like Satan?

          Who do you want to see glorified?

The purposes of God will come to pass,

            With or without you.

But Father is waiting to bring you Home

            To forgive and cleanse you,

            To redeem you by the blood of Jesus,

            To make you one with His heart.

            To be with you in His eternal Home.