SF: Why was it necessary for Judas to betray Jesus? Surely those who arrested Jesus knew who he was?
Ed: Jesus’ enemies needed to be very careful—in the highly charged atmosphere of the Passover celebrations, when Jerusalem would be packed with pilgrims, there could be a real risk of a riot if they tried to arrest him openly. He was still popular with the ordinary people, as was shown by their reaction when he rode into Jerusalem a week beforehand (Mark 11:8–10, 18). If the priests had been heavy-handed, the people might have risen up in support of Jesus and he could have become a ‘martyr’. So they needed to arrest him quietly, condemn him in court, and then they could turn the people against him—which is what they succeeded in doing (Mark 15:13–14).
Where did Judas come in? His main role was to give them the opportunity to arrest Jesus quietly: ‘Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money. And he sought an opportunity to betray him’ (Mark 14:10–11). The perfect opportunity was in the middle of the night, in the garden of Gethsemane.
But Judas did more than just lead them to Jesus. He also helped them to identify him when they got there (Mark 14:44). Why was this necessary? It was dark, but they had torches. You might expect that those who arrested him would know who he was, but evidently they didn’t. Those who came to arrest him were ‘a crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders’ (Mark 14:43). It would probably have been a hastily assembled rabble consisting of temple guards, people’s servants, possibly various thugs recruited from taverns around the city, and others —not necessarily people who would have known Jesus.
There was a lot at stake, and the auth-orities wanted to be absolutely sure that they got the right man with as little fuss as possible. That’s why Judas was invaluable.
There’s another reason why Judas’s betrayal was necessary—it was God’s will. Jesus knew that Judas was going to betray him, before Judas knew himself (John 6:70–71). It was foretold in prophecy (John 13:18). Judas provides a reminder of what our sinful human nature is capable of. We see in his failure a stark contrast with the victory of Jesus Christ, and an urgent challenge for everyone who comes to Christ:
‘By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers’ (1 John 3:16).