"ONE OF YOU WILL BETRAY ME"

Reading: John 13:21—33, 36-38

“One of you will betray me.” That is what Jesus told his disciples who were with him at the Last Supper. He was talking about Judas, of course. Suppose he also had us in mind?

When we sin, when we deliberately break the laws of God, we betray Christ. We become responsible for handing him over to be crucified. When Judas realized what he had done, instead of seeking forgiveness he went out and hanged himself. When we realize what we have done by our sins, what do we do? We repent of them, we confess them, we promise to do our best never to commit them again. And it is good that we do so. God certainly does not want us to hang ourselves. But we often go out and commit the same sins again, don’t we - over and over? How can we solve that problem?

We may never solve it completely, but we can lessen our sins by falling in love with Christ. You know how it is when you are in love with someone. I don’t mean when you love somebody as we are supposed to love everybody, but when you are in love with someone in particular. You make that person Number 1 in your life, your feelings for that person soar to the heavens, you do all you can to please and make that person happy. You avoid anything that would hurt him, or her.

You are to love Christ with all your heart. To help make that more possible, ask the Holy Spirit to hit your heart with Cupid’s arrow so that you fall in love with Christ. That is what I believe happened with the saints. That is why they spent much of their lives doing all they could to please Christ in every way, avoiding doing anything that could hurt him. Did Judas have any love for Christ? Was he ever in love with Christ? Are we? Oh that we were!