A kiss...

"But Jesus said to him, 'Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?'"--Luke 22:48.  This is one of the final events before the crucifixion of Christ.  After praying in the Garden, Jesus is handed over to His enemies by Judas Iscariot.  The ultimate betrayal would come by way of a kiss.

A kiss.  In Jesus' day, a kiss on the cheek was a common greeting among men.  In at least 4 different passages in the New Testament, we are told to greet one another with a holy kiss.  However, this is not a command but a custom practiced at the time.  Greeting one another with a kiss is not part of American culture. However, in Latin American culture, a kiss on the cheek is common between women and between men and women.

But Judas' kiss was of a different sort.  It was a kiss of betrayal.  This kiss would serve as a sign to those who would arrest Jesus.  Judas would kiss the One whom they were to arrest.

But the question is what can we learn from this one isolated event. What can we learn from the kiss of Judas? Well, let us consider Proverbs 27:6 which says the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.  I think we all know that people can be one thing to our face and when we turn our back, they are completely different. Judas' kiss was the ultimate display of hypocrisy on his part.  While Judas had already been identified as the betrayer, he still had the nerve to show a "reverence" for Jesus.

We must be on our guard even today because the unfortunate fact is that there are still Judas' in the church today who can deceive us with a kiss but then turn us over to our enemies.

This week take some time to reflect and ask yourself if in your life you have remained true to Christ or if you have been like Judas and betrayed Him with a kiss. If you fall in to the latter category, there is still time to turn your life around. As Christians, we look down on Judas and understandably so. However, we must recognize that while there may have been consequences, Judas could have repented of even this most heinous of actions and that Jesus would have forgiven Him and that Jesus did love Him.  We must remember that Judas was one of Jesus' hand picked twelve apostles. However, Judas did not repent and he ended up killing himself.

We must learn from the kiss of Judas...DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! LOVE Y'ALL! GOD BLESS! THANKS FOR READING!