“What are you willing to give me to betray Him to you?” And they set out for him thirty pieces of silver. And from then on he looked for a good opportunity to betray Jesus.”
Matthew 26:15-16 (NIV)
I’m sure everyone has at least one story about being betrayed by someone at some time in their life. Jesus was betrayed by His friend, Judas, which probably was a shock to the apostles at the time. Betrayal is never expected, which is why it is so painful, but even worse if it ends an innocent life.
I once heard a true story from an anesthesiologist I worked with, about a betrayal that his family suffered. It occurred during the Holocaust, when Hitler’s Nazi regime committed the largest systematic genocide in history, by forcing Jewish people from their homes and putting them in camps.
In hearing rumors about death camps in those days, many parents were looking for ways to save their children. I know from another friend that his mother survived by being hidden in a convent by nuns during this horrible period.
Two eight year old Jewish girls, who were first cousins, were living in Poland at the time, and their parents were looking for a way to save their daughters. One family found a woman who was willing to hide one girl in her home, for payment of a wrist watch and a certain sum of money.
The parents of her cousin found a different family that was willing to keep their daughter in their home and hide her as well. It was a desperate effort, so both sets of parents sent them to live with strangers, trusting and hoping for the best.
By the time the war ended, and the Nazis were defeated, both sets of parents had been sent to the concentration camps and killed. In 1945, Russians forces were the first to liberate Auschwitz, freeing the 15% who survived that camp, as the US liberated 30,000 survivors at the Dachau concentration camp.
The little girl who was safely hidden in a Polish family’s home, sadly learned that her parents, aunt and uncle were all dead after being sent to camps. Her only hope now was to reunite with her cousin at the home where she was staying. Russian soldiers took her to that home, in an effort to reunite the two orphaned girls. When they arrived, the woman of the house denied ever knowing about any Jewish girl living there. The little girl recognized the watch on the woman’s wrist, telling the soldiers it was her family’s watch given as payment to hide her cousin.
As the soldiers further questioned the woman, she finally admitted to trading the girl to the Nazis for a two pound bag of sugar. She told them that Nazis went from house to house offering rare goods in exchange for the surrender of any hidden Jews. The woman apparently wanted that sugar so much, that she traded the girl she was paid to protect, for a bag of sugar.
My coworker, the anesthesiologist, shared this true but heartbreaking story with me, because the surviving little girl became his mother, who later emigrated to the US, and lived to 93. Her missing cousin was never found and presumed dead. It’s a sad story, but it is his story, which needs to be heard. It happened many years ago, but we should never forget the 1.5 million children who were killed during the Holocaust. When I first heard his story, I thought there is no positive angle to write about a girl who was sold for a bag of sugar.
Stories of betrayal, are something Jesus can certainly relate to. He was also an innocent victim, sold for a price. According to scripture, Judas looked for an opportunity to hand Jesus over, which he did for a payment of thirty pieces of silver. There is a common message in every story of betrayal, which is about opportunity.
Everyone in these stories had the opportunity to do good or evil. Death camps like Auschwitz and Dachau could only exist because someone had the opportunity to make an evil choice. A Polish citizen had the opportunity to do good, to protect a little girl who grew up to live a long, fulfilling life. The other woman, like Judas, may have started out with good intentions, but they both settled for something they valued, more than a human life.
Jesus would have died whether Judas betrayed Him or not, because He stated that no one takes His life from Him, saying that He lays it down voluntarily, doing it for us and our redemption. Jesus had the opportunity to willingly become our sacrificed lamb, which He did for us. (John 10:18)
We all have opportunities to make good choices that can change a person’s life, or change an entire trend in history. May God give us the courage to always stand up and speak for the innocent lives who are either being traded, trafficked or undervalued in any society today.
Lord, we pray for any enemies who have betrayed us, and for all the innocent lives who are victims of some kind of betrayal in the world. Give us the courage to use any opportunity to do good. Amen
