I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Matthew 27-28.

    One of the mysteries of the Gospel for me has always been, why did Judas betray Jesus? Some have suggested that Judas was trying to force Jesus to start the revolution against Rome that he was convinced the Messiah would lead. If that is true, it would explain Judas’ actions when he realized that Jesus was going to be crucified. Judas may have thought he was just forcing a friend to do something that friend was reluctant to do. Then, because he did not understand any more than the rest of the disciples that Jesus would rise from the dead, he concluded that Jesus was NOT the Messiah. Judas could not live with himself after his loss of faith. Judas did not want to live in a world where God did not do things the way he thought He should. I want to say that I do not want to live in a world where God always does things the way I think He should.

    Every time I read this I see a new reference to Psalm 22. There is the reference to Psalms 22:18 when the soldiers gamble for His clothing. Then there is the reference I never noticed before when the religious leaders mocked Jesus by saying, “He trusted God, so let God rescue him now…” This brings to mind Psalm 22:8

“Is this the one who relies on the Lord?
Then let the Lord save him!
If the Lord loves him so much,
let the Lord rescue him!”

There may be more such references, but the key one which ties them all together is when Jesus cries out the first line of Psalms 22 shortly before dying, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” While this was indeed a cry of despair, I believe it was also a declaration of faith and hope. In Psalm 22, the same voice which starts out crying out in despair and which catalogs all of its reasons for despair, finishes the psalm by declaring that he would praise God in the assembly and that God does not ignore those who cry to Him for help. I believe that when Matthew wrote about Jesus giving the disciples the Great Commission he considered himself to be mirroring the end of Psalm 22:

His righteous acts will be told to those not yet born.
They will hear about everything he has done.