All About GOD - Growing Relationships with Jesus and Others

Can I get a Do-over?

Can I get a Do-over? Love, Judas Matthew 27.1-10
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2027&inter...
Kind readers, we are entering the last two chapters, our last two weeks in Matthew’s gospel.

Dear Lord,
As we read or listen to this next tragic scene in the life of Jesus Christ, help us grasp the magnitude of your Word, and what you would have us to understand from Matthew’s rendering. First thing I notice is how Judas wants to undo what he has done . . . but it is too late. What can I learn from that, Lord? O God, help us to be wise in our actions! Amen.

Very early in the morning the leading priests and the elders of the people met again to lay plans for putting Jesus to death. Then they bound him, led him away, and took him to Pilate, the Roman governor.
When Judas, who had betrayed him, realized that Jesus had been condemned to die, he was filled with remorse. So he took the thirty pieces of silver back to the leading priests and the elders. “I have sinned,” he declared, “for I have betrayed an innocent man.”
“What do we care?” they retorted. “That’s your problem.”
Then Judas threw the silver coins down in the Temple and went out and hanged himself.
The leading priests picked up the coins. “It wouldn’t be right to put this money in the Temple treasury,” they said, “since it was payment for murder.” After some discussion they finally decided to buy the potter’s field, and they made it into a cemetery for foreigners. That is why the field is still called the Field of Blood. This fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah that says,
“They took the thirty pieces of silver—
the price at which he was valued by the people of Israel,
and purchased the potter’s field,
as the Lord directed.”

You can almost hear Judas’ panic, as he yelled at the Jewish leaders: “Wait! I did not know what you were going to do to Jesus. I thought maybe you would punish him, or shut him up, but kill him? No way! Wait…!” When Judas, who had betrayed him, realized that Jesus had been condemned to die, he was filled with remorse.

When we suddenly realize the consequences of our choice/action/sin, we often wish we could go back a day, or an hour, or a week, maybe even a year, and make a different choice. This is where God’s grace and justice meet. When we confess our sin and turn away from it, God promises to forgive us.1 I love how David expressed it, “He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.”2 God says he will remember our sins no more.3

Great! Right? Of course, God’s total forgiveness is great; however, he is a just God and does not go around behind us cleaning up the messes of our sin—consequences often follow willful wrong behavior. Painful consequences often follow sinful behavior. When Judas realized, he was filled with remorse. But it was too late. He could not go back to the day that he set the ball in motion with the Jewish leaders, offering to sell Jesus out for a small amount of money.

The time for a do-over is the moment when temptation gets so strong that we are about to give in to it. It helps me to see how temptation seems to work, and the best description I have seen of that is centuries old. From his work in 14414, Thomas à Kempis wrote:

The beginning of all evil temptations is an unstable mind and a small trust in God. Just as a ship without a helm is tossed about by the waves, so a person who lacks resolution and certainty is tossed about by temptations . . . temptations reveal who we are.
It is our own (individual) desires that entice. It is for this reason that what tempts you, may not tempt me, and visa versa. It is valuable to see that temptation is part of a process-

>First, the thought is allowed to enter our minds~
>Second, the imagination is sparked by the thought~
>Third, we feel a sense of pleasure at the fantasy, and we entertain it~
>Fourth, and finally, we engage in the evil action, assenting to its urges.

Kempis admonishes us about thoughts of temptation,
"Meet them at the door as soon as they knock,
and do not let them in."

When Judas was weak, for whatever reason, he could have chosen differently—right then. Sometimes you and I need to be a little more aware of when we are weak and what causes us to be weak. For instance, perhaps we make poor decisions when we are very tired; perhaps we are more likely to give in to something wrong when we allow ourselves to spend too much time on Facebook, listen to music that carries away our emotions, or drink too much wine. Hmm...

Answer to the question, ‘Can I get a Do-Over?’ Yes! Be intentional right now about prudent choices today. Choose to honor God.

1 – 1 John 1.9
2 – Psalm 103.12
3 – Hebrews 8.12
4 – The Temptation of Christ