10Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Him to them. 11And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money. So he sought how he might conveniently betray Him.
Before we get too hard on Judas, keep in mind that this is something that had to happen. If it hadn't been Judas, it would have had to have been someone else. No, I don't think he did it because he thought he had to for God's plan, I think he did it for his own personal reasons, whatever they may be. And because it was his choice to do this, his actions disgust us. We can lay the blame of lack of character on Judas that would drive him to such an action, but we cannot lay the blame of Jesus' death on him. Jesus had to be betrayed and had to be sentenced to death. It would have happened somehow even if Judas hadn't betrayed him.
So why did Judas do it? It says they promised him money. It does not exactly say that money was his reason for doing this. But this text immediately follows other text where money was a part of the conflict. In that verse, others questioned the woman's waste of what could have brought much money for the poor. So between these two verses there is a hint of a desire for money. But is there enough there to be the reason for Judas deciding to betray Jesus? It is hard to tell. Judas was one of Jesus' followers. He went out and preached what Jesus taught. Now we are to assume he would betray Jesus for money?
It is interesting how just a few verses ago, the chief priests were plotting how to take Jesus with trickery and now they didn't even have to worry about that. They can just buy His betrayal with money. They were very crafty in how they tried to trap Jesus with questions before. So to me it could be very likely that they used trickery to trap Judas into agreeing to betray Jesus. Somehow this makes me feel a little better about Judas' betrayal. But even though it may have been because of trickery, what Judas did was wrong. I would have hated to have been Judas.
Have you ever been tricked into doing something you wouldn't have done otherwise? The bulk of the responsibility is on the person who tricked you. Can you still be blamed for what you did? Some may say you should have seen it coming. It was still your own choice to do what you did. We have to prayerfully ask for help to recognize trickery and to avoid it. And when we find we had been tricked, probably the determining factor of our responsibility is what we choose to do with that knowledge. If Judas had been tricked, when did he realize it? What did he do with that knowledge?
Keep in mind, anyone can fall prey to trickery. Including one of Jesus' close followers.