Good morning. It’s Thursday, April 2nd, aka National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day.

🥳 Congratulations on starting today with God, and thank you for letting us be a part of it.

📖 Verse Of The Day

— Luke 22:19

🧠 Devotional

There are 4 days until Easter, and today we’re looking at what happens after Jesus was questioned and challenged yesterday. This is the moment Judas goes to the chief priests to betray Him.

And these verses tell the story:

Matthew 26:14–16 (NIV)

14 Then one of the Twelve, the one called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests

15 and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver.

16 From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over.

Let’s break down what’s happening here.

Matthew says, “one of the Twelve.” Judas was not just part of the crowd. He was one of the twelve who had been with Jesus the whole time.

Then Judas goes to the chief priests and asks, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?” He is the one initiating this. He is not being forced. He is asking what he will get in return. They count out thirty pieces of silver, and he accepts it.

From that moment on, everything changes. Judas is no longer just following Jesus. He begins looking for the right opportunity to hand Him over.

Scripture also shows us that Judas’s heart had already drifted to a place where he was open to this. This was not random. It was a decision.

Judas was close to Jesus, but something else had become more important. In this moment, it is clearly money. He put something else before Jesus, and that is what led him to turn on Him.

So at the end of the day, Judas teaches us this: no matter how close you are to Jesus, if you put something else before Him, it can pull you away.