Mark 14:45

‘And when he was come immediately he came to him and says, “Rabbi!”. And firmly kissed him.'

There are always different ways of doing things. Attempts in some way to ameliorate Judas' guilt often overlook the pure callousness of the way he did it. Consider what had gone before.

1). He came to eat bread with Him at the Passover meal, the act of a friend.

2). He drank the wine that symbolised that he was entering into a new covenant with Jesus.

3). He received from Jesus the implication that Jesus knew what he was doing.

4). He then received the sop from Him, given to a favoured friend, and accepted it.

5). He was told, “What you are about to do, do quickly” (John 13:27) and probably relieved, left Him in order to do just that.

We can understand all this to some extent. Although it was treacherous it was because he had to preserve his position in the eyes of the disciples. But surely he must have been squirming and have felt some guilt at the compassion that Jesus showed him? But now to boldly approach and call Him “Rabbi”, an act of homage and respect, and to give Him an ‘in-depth' kiss, rather than a token kiss on the cheek, a sign of deep affection, which would involve a ‘loving' embrace (the word for ‘kiss' here is strong compared with ‘kiss' in Mark 14:44 - kataphileso as against phileso), this was treachery indeed. His aim was to ensure that Jesus did not get away. Judas could not have lived with His escaping (and indeed could not live with His dying).

Whether Rabbinic disciples did kiss their teachers on the cheek is a disputed matter, but to do it warmly simply as a sign of betrayal and in order to hinder His escape, took callousness beyond belief. These were not the tokens of a man whose intentions were good even though he was self-deceived, they were the tokens of a man so callous and hardened that nothing was beyond him. No, more, they were vindictive. Only hate could have produced them and enabled him to carry them through. At that moment he hated Jesus.

Even Jesus, Who knew the wickedness of men's hearts to the full, was taken aback, for He said. “Judas, do you betray the Son of Man with a kiss? Friend, this is symptomatic of what you have come for” (Luke 22:48 with Matthew 26:50).