What is the significance of Judas betraying Jesus with a kiss?

Judas appears with a large crowd armed with swords and staves. Having pre-arranged with them the signal that he would kiss the Lord, he goes before in carrying out his dastardly plan. Though he had before seen the Lord reading the very thoughts of men, being utterly without faith, he thinks he can deceive Him in this repulsive way, as though the Lord would not know that his kiss was a kiss of betrayal. Yet the Lord does not speak despitefully, but calls him, "Friend," asking the reason for his coming. Luke tells us that He also said, "Betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss?" (Lk.22:48). Precious testimony to His own unchanging grace and faithfulness!

Immediately a multitude are upon Him, headed by Judas, who, according to a preconcerted signal, draws near to kiss Him. Of all signs that could have been given, it was surely that of the most brazen; smooth-faced hypocrisy. The Lord shows His deep sense of the insult: "Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?"

The treachery of Judas would fain still conceal itself in the kiss of identification; which is given emphatically, as if to assure the One he is betraying that he is not part of the multitude that follow him. The Lord penetrates this disguise, not with a rebuke but with a question: "Friend, wherefore art thou here?" to which He adds, as Luke tells us, the more direct one, "Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?" Divine love has not, even yet, ceased its expostulation, ― has not closed the door against his return even yet.

It was at this time that Judas came to betray the Lord. He had given those with Him a sign, "Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is He: hold Him fast." (Matt. 26:48). The fact that the traitor came just at that time, and with such a sign, seems to add greatly to the sorrow and anguish of our Saviour; and at the same time makes the awful hardness and cruelty of Judas' act more terrible than ever.

In our English Bible we read, "And forthwith came he to Jesus, and said, 'Hail, Master'; and kissed Him." (Matt. 26:49). The word translated 'Hail' is Chaire, and literally means 'Rejoice!' though it is true it was also commonly used for a greeting or farewell. But the true, literal meaning of the word is 'Rejoice!' "Rejoice, Master!" he said, "and kissed Him."

As we gaze with bowed heads, and unshod feet on our Lord and Master, in such agony of soul: at His sweat as great drops of blood: as we hear His words, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death;" and then as we hear that heartless traitor saying: "Rejoice, Master!" how it makes our hearts recoil with horror at such cruel and awful conduct. And the word for "kissed Him" is changed from the word that Judas used when he gave them this sign. Then he had used the word phileo, I love, or, I kiss. But in his eagerness to make sure they seized the One whom once he had followed, he "covered Him with kisses:" kata-phileo, a much stronger word. It is difficult for us to conceive of anything more horrible than Judas' method of betraying his Master; and we know from the Psalms how keenly our Lord felt it. See, for example, Psalm 41:9: "Yea, Mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of My bread, hath lifted up his heel against Me." And Psalm 55:12-14: "For it was not an enemy that reproached Me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated Me that did magnify himself against Me; then I would have hid Myself from him: but it was thou, a man Mine equal, My guide, and Mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company."

Judas appears first on the scene. Behold Judas! What a surprise it must have been for the disciples, aroused from sleep, to find him present who had withdrawn from them under such mysterious circumstances. From the Gospel of Luke we learn that he was not only the leader of the great crowd but he walked ahead of them. What a subtle plan he had laid, and in it the cunning of that same Serpent which was in that garden, in which the first Adam had been placed. How cunning and yet how blunt. All had been arranged so as to make His escape impossible. The traitor was to kiss Him so that the Lord might be known and likewise become detached from the disciples; then they were to press at once upon Him and capture Him. All was carefully premeditated. Judas by his action and his plan shows that he did not believe in the Lord as the Son of God; he knew His power. When he walked before them he may have cunningly aimed at the hiding of his satanic deed.

And now he reaches the side of Him whom he still calls "Rabbi." The first word he utters was a word of joy. "Oh, the joy! Rabbi" -- thus it reads in literal translation. Then he kissed Him eagerly. The symbol of love, devotion and faithfulness so much used in the Orient is used by the traitor. What must the Holy One have suffered, when the one who had been in His loving company came up and had uttered that word, "Oh, the Joy"? What suffering must have passed through that loving heart when He felt the vile lips of that one upon His cheeks!

"The Son of man is betrayed." Judas comes and with him a great multitude. All is known to the Lord. Does it not seem remarkable that the One so gentle and so lowly — "His Voice not heard in the street" etc., — should be come out against, as against a ruffian, with a great armed crowd?

And let us weigh up verse 48. 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.

Let us shun hypocrisy in every shape and form. No doubt (it looks so, 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 was not yet come. When Judas found He did not deliver Himself, He was shocked, and threw down the money in the temple, and went and hanged himself.

Verse 49. It is "Rabbi," here. "He covered Him with kisses," as if he could not express his love! Oh, how dreadful but it shows what any one of us is capable of doing, if left to himself.

There is one other rendering of phileo in the three Synoptic Gospels in the awful case of Judas' "kiss," the outward sign of endearment, made possible by the terms of familiar intimacy to which he had been admitted with the Lord: "Mine own familiar friend … has lifted up his heel against me."

There is one other rendering of φιλέω in the three synoptic gospels in the awful case of Judas' 'kiss,' the outward sign of endearment, made possible by the terms of familiar intimacy to which he had been admitted with the Lord: "mine own familiar friend . . . . hath lifted up his heel against me."

First there comes Judas, the traitor; masking his treachery with such hypocrisy that nineteen centuries after the event "the traitor's kiss" remains a proverbial expression of disgust. In the language of Psalm 41:9, here was "Mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of My bread," and he had "lifted up his heel against Me." Hence Jesus addressed him as "Friend," but asked him the searching question, "wherefore art thou come?" He had come to betray his Master so that he might gain thirty paltry pieces of silver.