Why Did Judas Betray The Lord?

Q. Since we’re in the dregs of the Easter season, a thought occurred to me. What was Judas’ motive to betray Jesus? It certainly couldnt be the paltry 30 pieces of silver. Even in that day that was probably less than $1000 by todays standard. What did he stand to gain (in his mind) to betray Jesus? It is well known that he was greedy, but was he really that CHEAP and greedy?

A. The Bible isn’t clear on this, and although it does say that Judas  helped himself  from the money bag (John 12:6) I don’t believe that money was his motive in betraying Jesus.

I’ve read several opinions and the one I like best is that he tried very hard to get Jesus to be more accommodating toward the religious leaders.  He was the only Judean among the disciples (all the rest were from Galilee) so he might have felt a special responsibility to help make peace with the establishment in Jerusalem, being acquainted with many of them through his family. The theory is that he believed if he could just get Jesus to sit down and talk with them, they could resolve their differences.

If true it was a lofty goal, but it also showed that he didn’t really know who Jesus was.  And when he discovered that the Jewish leadership had taken advantage of his friendship and used him to betray Jesus, it was more than he could bear.

Satan often works this way, convincing us that we’re doing great things while in fact we’re really working against God’s will.