Betrayed by a Kiss

Betrayed by a Kiss

Wednesday in Holy Week – 4/1/2026

Luke 22:1-23:56

Rev. Dr. Christopher W. Brademeyer

That portion of God’s holy Word for consideration this morning is our third reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke in the twenty-second and twenty-third chapters with special emphasis on 22:47-48 which read as follows:

“While he was still speaking, there came a crowd, and the man called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them. He drew near to Jesus to kiss him, but Jesus said to him, “Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?”

Thus far the Scriptures.

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Loyalty is celebrated among us, and rightly so. It is easy to see its virtues. Loyalty inspires confidence. Loyalty is the proper reward for good leadership. Loyalty deserves every praise we can muster for it.

  The opposite, betrayal, is horrific. It is cowardly, the product of a weak constitution. It is demeaning; it repays good with evil. It shocks because it is so undeserved. No doubt, we have all experienced its icy grip. Whether it was a playground scuffle that led to the betrayal of a friend, a stolen romantic interest, or being taken advantage of in business by someone thought of as a friend, the stab of pain in the bowels is unmistakable.

   Worse, the more goodness we find in someone, the more horrible the betrayal. A good man who is left behind to die in war by a cowardly soldier is a tragedy. Turning the very Son of God over to cruel men who seek His ruin is indescribable in its wickedness. Judas, one of the twelve most intimate of the followers of our Lord, sells out the Architect of creation for thirty pieces of silver. To be sure, it was not a small amount of money, approximately four months’ wages. But what is the value of such a sum when it is received in place of eternal things? It is foolish to trade treasures for trinkets, and Judas did worse than this. He sold out the Lord for a pittance of earthly wealth, wealth that moth consumes, rust destroys, and that thieves break in and steal. And to add insult to injury, the sign Judas chose to use was that of a kiss. What was normally a respectful act shown to a teacher was used to condemn the Lord to hours of torture: torn flesh, mockery, beatings, and finally crucifixion.

It would be a mistake to see this as an accident of history. Jesus knew full well what lay

Detail of The Kiss of Judas by James Tissot (1886-1894)

ahead of Him when He entered into Jerusalem. He knew that His disciples would abandon Him. That Peter would deny Him. That the crowds suffering under sin and death would be easy to sway against Him in the poisoned words of the priests working the crowd. He still went anyway. There is no other solution for sin. Such is the debt that blood must be shed. So our Lord went, endured these horrors, even betrayal, and finally tasted a death that was never meant for a sinless One such as He.

But the betrayals of the Lord do not stop with Judas and the disciples. Today apostates abandon the eternal truth of God for the ruinous lies of popular culture. Having been baptized into Christ, they cast aside their inheritance to squander it on slavery to the flesh and to wallow with pigs.

Even those who claim the Name of the Lord and call themselves Christians heap their betrayals on Him. They deny His truth, twisting doctrines to suit their fancies. They live as if our Lord were never here, is not God, or was not raised from the dead. They act like pagans, refusing to take up the cross of faithful, steadfast suffering that was given to them by their Lord. They deny Him by their words, their deeds, and their lives, thinking that showing outward tokens of the Christian faith is good enough to ignore His Word, despise His gifts, and live like the heathens around them.

If we are honest, we are numbered among this rabble far more than we like to think. You see, we too have betrayed the Lord with cold faith. We too have taken our Baptisms for granted. We too have been callous with the Scriptures, the Supper, and the Truth. Our sins are not light, they are heavy, bearing down on the bloodied body of the Lord. The weight of the cross is not what makes the Lord stumble. It is us: our sin, our faithlessness, our betrayal.

But what does the Lord do? He stands up again. He continues the march. He takes the mockery, the indifference, the apathy, the scorn, the sin, and the betrayal. He marches slowly, painfully, to Golgotha. He who knew no sin became sin for us. He took on your sin debt on Himself. And each agonizing step, each stab to the soul with every hurled insult and act of betrayal, leads Him closer to His death.

     Jesus does not go there by accident. He knows what the future brings. He knows what the remedy of salvation will cost Him. And He certainly knows that we are not worthy. But He goes anyway. He dies anyway. And in so doing, He has destroyed sin, death, and the power of hell for all believers. Yes, we who not only do not deserve to have the Lord’s mercy and who have actively added to the misery He bore are the blessed beneficiaries of His torturous death, His suffering, His death. The blows that tore the flesh from His back, the beatings that left Him bruised and sore, the insults that wounded the soul, the thorns that bloodied His scalp, the nails that ripped through His arms and His feet, these are the cost of your betrayal and the remedy for your sin.

Dear saints in the Lord, yes, our Lord’s cost was steep. But the benefits are yours. You are forgiven. You are the inheritors of salvation. You are the blessed apple of His eye. And all this was done not for the deserving and righteous, but for sinners, the apathetic, and the betrayers. He did it for you and your everlasting salvation.

In the holy Name of + Jesus. Amen.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.