Matthew 26:16

And from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him.

There is a world of significance in the expression "one of the Twelve. " One of those whom Jesus chose out of the larger circle of His disciples; one of those whom He had with Him for three years, in the intimacy of the communion which obtains between teacher and pupils; one of those to whom He had given the promise of special rewards; one of the Twelve that were to become the teachers of the whole world in a peculiar sense. His name, Judas Iscariot, has, since that time, and will, till the end of time, stand for the lowest and meanest treason. He stands as an example to warn and deter all men against yielding to the first impulse toward sin. Love of money, covetousness, avarice, theft, treason, and murder of His Savior: those were the stepping-stones in his downward career. Without receiving a preliminary inducement from the chief priests, he deliberately went to them and made his heinous offer. He would deliver Christ to them for a consideration. And then began a hellish bargaining and haggling over the price of betrayal. But they realized the caliber of the man with whom they were dealing, his vice being by this time probably stamped upon his face. They placed in the balance, they weighed out to him, they set before him to stimulate his greed, as he actually saw the money before him, thirty shekels or pieces of silver, about fifteen dollars, the average price for a slave in those days, Exodus 21:32; Zechariah 11:12. For this miserable sum Judas sold his Lord, for this he bartered away his immortal soul. His vacillating mind, greedy for the money, came to a decision; he sought a convenient opportunity to betray Him.