One memorable quote that I love, is from the movie, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, “Master betrayed me”. This was quoted by Smeagal, one of the characters. Smeagal said other quotes that are my favorite: “Cruel men hurt us” and “Master tricks us”.
Deception, dishonesty, sell-out, treachery, treason, double-crossing, double-dealing, falseness, trickery, unfaithfulness, let-down, perfidy, and Juda kiss, are all synonyms for the word betrayal.
Betrayal hurts. The worst thing about it is, to find out that it was done by someone you knew and trusted. The revelation not only takes you by surprise but leaves you feeling a deep sense of betrayal. I think the most painful betrayal comes from your partner, lover, or spouse. You think that you are in a committed relationship with each other, and then, one day, much to your surprise, they sit you down, looking all very serious, and drop the bomb on you. “I have been thinking about this for some time now and I have decided to leave you for X (someone other than you).
Apart from a romantic betrayal, friends can also betray you. Betrayal can happen not only in a close interpersonal relationship, but in a working one as well. Betrayal in all of these situations involves a similar element; you gave your trust to people who turned out not to be worthy of it. Those people conspired against you without letting you participate in the conspiracy and this added to a loss of control that brings about a feeling of lost of trust.
Betrayal happens to the best of people. You are not alone in this game of betrayal.
Jesus understands how we feel. He was betrayed too. In John 13, you can feel the pain echoing off Jesus’s voice, screaming from the pages, “He who shared my bread has turned against me” v.18. Who was this betrayer? It was Judas, one of Jesus’s twelve disciples. He was part of His inner circle. He was the treasurer and he helped himself to what he wanted from the treasury. What? Yes, he stole from the money bag. He sold-out Jesus for a mere thirty pieces of silver. What an act of betrayal!
All of us will experience betrayal in life. The more that person matters to us, the greater the pain. Betrayal goes beyond hurt feelings, being upset, and angry, it reduces our ability to trust others in the future.
People will disappoint us and yes, we will be betrayed. Some of us have been the one who did the betraying. Bless your heart! You can rest assured that God’s love for us, can sustain us and can help us get through anything. One thing that is a guarantee, Jesus will never betray us.
To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable act of “betrayal," because God has forgiven the inexcusable act of sin within us.
“For it is not an enemy who insults me, I could have handled that, nor is it someone who hates me and who now arises against me. I could have hidden myself from him - but it is you - a man whom I treated as my equal - my personal confidant, my close friend! We had good fellowship together; and we even walked together in the house of God!” (Psalm 55:12-14)
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