Now he that delivered him up had given them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, he it is seize him.
Judas does not just lead the armed crowd to Jesus. He hands them a code, and the code is a sign of affection. That one detail exposes both the heart of the traitor and the grace of the One who let Himself be taken.
The sign was fixed before the crowd ever set out, and Judas walked ahead of them to give it. Commentators note the strange confidence in this — Judas had watched Jesus read men's thoughts, yet still expected the trick to work.
Judas appears with a large crowd armed with swords and clubs. He had arranged the signal with them beforehand: he would kiss the Lord. So he goes ahead to carry out his cowardly plan. He had already seen the Lord read the very thoughts of men. But he has no faith at all, so he thinks he can deceive Him in this repulsive way. He acts as though the Lord would not know that his kiss was a kiss of betrayal.
The timing of it counted too.
Judas came to betray the Lord at just that time, and with such a sign. This seems to add greatly to the sorrow and anguish of our Saviour. At the same time it makes the awful hardness and cruelty of Judas' act more terrible than ever.
An older wording of the second half runs "hold him fast." One writer stops at the horror of that order, and traces the steps that brought Judas to it.
Even with Judas — the betrayer gave them a sign: "Whoever I kiss is the man; hold Him fast." It is terrible to think of Judas urging them to hold Him fast! In Judas you get the lust of money; you see a progress of sin. He was a thief and had the money bag... Then Satan tempts him to betray Him, I do not doubt with the idea that He would get free. Then after supper Satan enters into him, and he is hardened against all natural feeling. Even many a bad man would not betray his friend by a kiss.
Another writer takes up the same thought, and follows it to its end.
No doubt (it looks that way, at any rate) the devil had deceived Judas. He did not think they could ever hold Him fast. We have seen the Lord deliver Himself when His hour had not yet come. Judas found He did not deliver Himself. He was shocked, threw down the money in the temple, and went and hanged himself.
Of all possible signals, Judas chose the one that carries warmth.
A kiss is the sign of peace, the token of affection — but this was the kiss of a Judas! It is only by the grace of God that we believers are what we are. We ought to be very careful when we say we are not people like him.
The Lord accepts it. One writer sets this insult beside the spitting that follows.
Judas was absorbed with satisfying his own lust, and blind to the glory of Christ. So he dares not only to betray the Lord, but to do it with a kiss. A little later the enemies of the Lord will spit in His face. With equal grace the Lord submits to the awful hypocrisy of the betrayer who kisses Him, and to the insulting contempt of the enemies who spit on Him. Wonderful Saviour, who endured the hostility of sinners!
Judas lived close to Jesus. One writer says that closeness was no safeguard.
Nearness to Jesus only hardens in a terrible way, if faith is missing and the heart is not moved by His presence. Satan enters that heart to harden it further. He leads him to do the basest act imaginable — to betray a close companion while covering him with kisses. In the end he abandons him to despair in the presence of God.
One writer turns it on anyone whose religion is only outward.
Here was an apostle — a preacher of the gospel, a man who claimed much. Yet under that cover of religion lay a heart trained in greed. It had wide room for thirty pieces of silver, but not a corner for Jesus. What a case! What a picture! What a warning!... He preached the gospel, but he never knew it, never believed it, never felt it.
- Sign — Judas arranged the kiss in advance and went ahead of the armed crowd to give it. He thought he could deceive the One he had watched read men's thoughts.
- Grip — "hold him fast" was the traitor's own order. Writers suggest he never expected it to work, since he had seen the Lord slip free before.
- Kiss — the token of peace became the mark of betrayal. The Lord took it with the same grace as the spitting that followed.
- Hardening — closeness to Christ without faith does not protect. Here love of money hardened Judas into an act most bad men would refuse.
- Warning — religion without a heart for Christ ends where Judas ended. Only grace makes any believer different.
And immediately coming up to Jesus he said, Hail, Rabbi, and covered him with kisses.
Judas has agreed on a sign with the men coming to arrest Jesus. Now he steps forward to give it. He chose a greeting and a kiss — the two most ordinary marks of friendship. Commentators press hard on what it cost the Lord to receive them.
The word Judas used was not a neutral hello. Where the ESV has "Greetings," older English Bibles read "Hail." One writer explains the Greek behind both:
The word translated 'Hail' is Chaire, and it literally means 'Rejoice!' though it is true it was also commonly used as a greeting or farewell. But the true, literal meaning of the word is 'Rejoice!' "Rejoice, Master!" he said, "and kissed Him."
The word came from a man who had shared His company. One writer weighs what that cost the One who heard it:
What must the Holy One have suffered, when the one who had been in His loving company came up and said that word, "Oh, the Joy"? What suffering must have passed through that loving heart when He felt the vile lips of that one on His cheeks!
Judas addresses Him by a teacher's title. One writer sets that against how the other disciples spoke to Him:
It is striking that while John and his companions called the Saviour "Lord," the betrayer called Him "Rabbi" only (Matt. 26:25). There is no recorded instance of Judas ever giving Him the higher title. To truly acknowledge Jesus as Lord is the fruit of a work of the Holy Spirit within (1 Cor. 12:3).
Judas had promised one kiss. What he actually does is stronger, and a writer connects it with the Psalms:
And the word for "kissed Him" is not the word Judas used when he gave them this sign. Then he had used the word phileo, I love, or, I kiss. But he was eager to make sure they seized the One he had once followed. So he "covered Him with kisses": kata-phileo, a much stronger word. It is difficult for us to imagine anything more horrible than Judas' way of betraying his Master. And we know from the Psalms how keenly our Lord felt it. See, for example, Psalm 41:9: "Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me."
Betrayal by an enemy is one thing. Something had to happen inside Judas before he could use a kiss as his weapon:
Then, after the supper, Satan entered into him, and he was hardened against all natural feeling. After all, many a bad man would not betray his friend with a kiss.
Christ does not pull away. One writer sets the kiss beside what the Lord accepts a little later:
Judas is absorbed with satisfying his own lust, and blind to the glory of Christ. So he dares not only to betray the Lord, but to do so with a kiss. A little later the enemies of the Lord will spit in His face. Yet with equal grace He submits to both: to the awful hypocrisy of the betrayer who kisses Him, and to the insulting contempt of enemies who spit on Him. Wonderful Saviour who endured the contradiction of sinners!
It is easy to read this scene and put ourselves on the other side of it. One writer will not allow that:
A kiss, the sign of peace — the token of affection, but this, the kiss of a Judas! It is only by the grace of God that we believers are what we are. We ought to be very careful when we say we are not such as he.
- The sign chosen. Judas took the two plainest marks of friendship, a greeting and a kiss, and made them his sign of betrayal.
- The sign spoken. His "Hail" means "Rejoice!" — a call to gladness spoken by a man who had lived in His company.
- The sign withheld. He says "Rabbi," never "Lord." No record exists of him using the higher title. Owning Jesus as Lord is the fruit of the Spirit's work inside a person.
- The sign overdone. The verb shifts from a simple kiss to covering Him with kisses. That eagerness shows how far a heart can harden.
- The sign received. Christ takes the traitor's kiss with the same grace He shows later when His enemies spit on Him. And grace, not our better nature, is the only reason we believers are what we are.