⁴⁹Immediately Judas went to Jesus and said, “Hail, Rabbi!” and kissed Him. ⁵⁰ And Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you have come for.” Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and seized Him.

The betrayer’s kiss, the ultimate form of treachery. Jesus was not surprised; His cool response shows our Lord’s premeditated determination. Contrary to a surface reading in the English translations, Judas was no friend of Jesus. The wording in the original Greek is subtle but telling. The term Jesus used was not the usual one for close, intimate friends [philos] that Jesus used in the upper room for His disciples earlier that evening:

“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends [philos]. You are My friends [philos] if you do what I command you.” (John 15:13-14)

Jesus did not object to criticism by the religious leaders calling him “a friend [philos] of tax collectors and sinners” (Matt. 11:19). But there was one sinner Jesus did not consider a philos; Judas had left the supper group to initiate the plan of betrayal (John 13:30), so he did not hear those words from Jesus. When the Lord then responded to the betrayer’s kiss, He called him hetairos, an acquaintance, a comrade, but not an intimate friend, philos. He has “something in common with others and enjoys association, but not necessarily at the level of a philos” (BDAG). The word hetairos is used only two other times in the NT (see Matt. 20:13, 22:12), and both address someone who comes up short of expectations, and the term hints at a biting rebuke. No, Judas was not a friend in the warm sense of the English word. His actions would move him further away from the intimate circle of Jesus, ending in suicide. Once he died, the eternal separation from the One he once followed was sealed—there would be no more opportunity to receive salvation through faith in Jesus.

The temerity Judas exhibits is astonishing, since the last words of Jesus that he heard were, “Truly, truly, I say to you, that one of you will betray Me … What you [Judas] do, do quickly” (John 13:21, 27). What was the betrayer thinking? He had walked with Jesus for three-plus years, the same as the other eleven disciples and the faithful women. He had heard about the love of God and the forgiveness He offered to all who humbled themselves before him. Even though we read that Satan entered him (John 13:27), Jesus still held him responsible for his actions: “The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born” (Matt. 26:24).

Many have tried to soften the critique of Judas with sympathetic explanations. For instance, he wanted to protect Jesus from starting a revolution that would essentially provoke Rome to invade Israel, but he unfortunately miscalculated in not realizing the religious leaders were going to execute Jesus. Or maybe Judas thought Jesus’ arrest would force the Lord’s hand to bring in the Messianic kingdom of God; after all, Judas had seen Jesus effortlessly escape attempts to kill Him before and even heard Him repeatedly say that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. However interesting these suggestions might be, none override Jesus’ interpretation of Judas’ action and God’s overall assessment.

For our benefit, though, we see the Savior moving toward the fulfillment of God’s divine intention in bringing about our spiritual salvation, even to the detail of His betrayer (see Ps. 41:9). The die was cast; there was no stopping God’s plan. Judas is a significant bit-player in the story that ends with God’s magnificent glory. Had he not committed suicide after his dastardly act, he might have discovered the same forgiveness as Peter did after the resurrection. But Jesus knew that Judas’ sorrow would go only skin-deep, and his actions would reflect the hopelessness of a hardened heart.

In all of this, Jesus continued to carry on His march toward the cross (Matt. 16:21). He may have been led to the slaughter like a lamb (Isa. 53:7), but still, He was a man on a mission who “for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2). The pain of knowing one of your closest followers would turn on you with a treacherous kiss, a primal act of treason, did not cause Jesus to shrink back at the cross.

Our Lord Jesus Christ did it all for us. What an incredible Savior we have! He used the temptation and indwelling of Satan in the hardened heart of Judas. All biblical history is laced with this principle of God’s sovereignty being great than evil. Indeed, the words of the patriarch Joseph to his brothers concerning their treacherous acts against him could aptly describe how Jesus saw Judas’ betrayal: “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive” (Gen 50:20).

Lord, I am amazed that You can take the darkest things of the human soul and use them for Your glory. All my worship and praise goes to You, for You are worthy!