If you are like me, like most people, days come and go remarkably quickly, quicker than it seems possible, and they are filled with so much routine, so much that is already planned and laid out, that we hardly even notice their passing. We go through our days on autopilot. This day is going to be largely similar to yesterday, which was largely similar to what tomorrow will be. We have a template, and sometimes we switch up some of the content, but by and large, everything is going to look the same tomorrow as it does today. In the grand scheme of things, 24 hours is a small amount of time, a building block in a much larger structure, and that single block, on its own, does not make much of a difference in the overall picture.Oh, but how wrong this can be. While it is true that for many of us, our days are monotonous cookie cutters of each other, each of those days, each of the hours and minutes that make up those days, hold potential. For it only takes a moment to make a decision, to take an action, that will alter the course of your life, the course of others lives, the course of history even. Our days are filled with choices, and actions, and while many of them occur almost automatically, they are important, and we should take a minute to consider our actions as we go throughout our day.
With Easter being this past weekend, I was thinking about the Easter Story, but specifically about Judas' role in that story. Judas was a follower of Christ, and not just any follower. He was one of Jesus' 12 closest friends and disciples, specifically picked by Christ to be in His inner circle, but his loyalty was divided. He loved Jesus, but he also loved himself and increasing his own profits, and so after being angered by Jesus' allowance of a woman to anoint His feet with costly perfume1, Judas decided that he had had enough and would sell out Jesus to His enemies, and gain a bit of profit for himself.2 After betraying his teacher and friend for a bit of money3, Jesus was put on trial, and subsequently sentenced to death. Now the Bible doesn't explicitly state what Judas thought would happen when he handed Jesus over to the Pharisees, but I get the impression that he didn't know, or didn't think, that the ultimate result would be Jesus' death. Maybe he thought He would be beaten and silenced, but I don't think he expected Him to be killed, because when he finds out that that is what is going to happen he goes back to the very people people whose hands he betrayed Jesus into, returns the payment he received, and begs to undo what he did.4 He cannot, however, undo his actions. The Pharisees, in perhaps one of the most flagrant displays of hypocrisy, send him away, refusing, on religious grounds, to accept his repayment, since it is "blood money," while completely ignoring the fact that it was they who paid that "blood money" in the first place. Judas, in anguish and despair, overcome with guilt, leaves them and subsequently kills himself. Around the same time, Jesus is executed.
Now, I summarize all of this for a specific reason. Almost this entire story takes place in one 24 hour span. The day started with a group of friends and comrades, a teacher and His disciples, eating a meal together, observing a holiday and remembering what God had done for their ancestors. The seeds of betrayal had been planted in Judas, and greed, anger and pride had been present in his heart previously, and the event of the woman with the perfume had taken place a day or two prior, but this day still began with everyone together as a group. Within 24 hours, as a result of the choices that were made that day, the actions that were taken, both Judas and Jesus were dead, the rest of the disciples were scattered, hiding and afraid, and the world was flipped upside down. How much difference can a day make? A world of difference.
Judas was quick to make some decisions and take some actions without truly thinking through them, and as a result, within hours of deciding to play the betrayer, he regretted his choice and was seeking a way to undo what he had done. The second choice he made was to allow guilt and sorrow to overtake him so that he chose to end his life. These two decisions, made quickly in a short amount of time, both born of extreme emotion, destroyed him, and affected everyone around him.
How often do we do the same thing? We are overcome with emotion, whether that be anger or grief or guilt or joy or anything else, and we make rash decisions without really thinking them through, or we are just going through the motions of our day, making decisions and taking actions (or not taking action) not based on thinking through the consequences or seeking God's will or anything else, but just because they are the path of least resistance. We don't realize that every action we take, every decision we make, has consequences. Some are small, some are large, but the truth is that we rarely know how far reaching those consequences will be beforehand.
Therefore, I want to challenge everyone to take stock of their life. Don't just let life pull you along. Don't just make rash decisions, or simple decisions, without thinking them through. Take a moment and consider, before you speak, before you act, what may be result of the decision you are making. Let's try to avoid getting into situations that we regret immediately, because you can't unsay words, you can't undo actions, and every choice you make has the potential to alter, not only your life, but the lives of everyone around you.
This is also not meant to make us live in fear of making the wrong choice. Sometimes we will make the wrong choice, even after carefully considering, and sometimes the right choice is a bit crazy, and may not make sense, but we still need to make those choices, just don't make them blindly, rashly or lazily.
What will your life look like a day from now? A day can make all the difference in the world, so can an hour, so can a moment, so can a choice.
Choose Wisely
1John 12:1-8
2Matthew 26:14-16
3Matthew 26:47-50
4Matthew 27:3-6
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