And forthwith he came to Jesus and said, Hail Master, and he kissed Him. Matthew 26:49
A valuable tool used by police agencies everywhere is the sting operation. A sting involves having an undercover agent infiltrate a criminal organization such as a drug smuggling gang, and gain the confidence of the organization’s leaders while gathering as much evidence about the organization as possible. The sting succeeds when the undercover agent brings the leaders of the criminal group to a place where they can be arrested red-handed. Many high-level criminals have been caught in this way. Sting operations have been used for many years, in fact, as our text indicates, the temple authorities used just such an operation to arrest the Lord Jesus, using an undercover agent who pretended the Lord Jesus was his Master.
When Judas Iscariot addressed the Lord Jesus as Master, we might wonder if he ever truly acknowledged Him as Master and Lord. Perhaps in the early days of Jesus’ ministry, Judas might have been impressed with His teaching and His miracles. But his actions at Gethsemane revealed that Judas was never a true believer, never an honest disciple of the Lord Jesus. If he had been, a stack of silver shekels would never have enticed him to participate in the Jewish leaders’ sting operation. Even today, we see many in the religious world who allow the lure of money, power, popularity, and pleasure to lead them into shameful betrayal of all that they profess. In past years, there have been disgraceful examples of this in the televangelist world that still cast a negative light on all those who would profess to preach the Gospel, whether genuinely or not. Let us hope that no real Christian ever takes such a tumble. But maybe some true Christians do act in smaller ways that betray their Lord and His people.
I knew a Christian one time who used his friendship with other Christians to take advantage of their trust and generosity to extort money and other valuables from them. I have also heard of Christians who have used the good reputation of other Christians as a lever to pursue questionable business deals, and in doing so have severely damaged the reputations of those good Christians. We need to be careful that we never use our relationship with Christ and with other Christians to further our own ends, especially if we do so with no regard for how we might harm others or the testimony of Christ.
Judas called Jesus Master with his tongue but never with his heart. How much of us owns Him as Master and Lord? -Jim MacIntosh