Greed and Judas

Vice & Villains, Part Six

July 20, 2025

Matthew 26

Rev. Megan M. Collins

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It’s been at least five minutes since I have told a story about my dog, so it’s time for a new one. Dave and I, as you know, have a ridiculous dog named Stella. We brought Stella home five years ago as a puppy (which according to our vet means she is now middle aged). Stella is 100% Labrador Retriever. 

Labrador Retrievers have a long history of helping. It’s in their DNA. You’ll often see Labrador Retrievers as service dogs. They are especially known for their ability to help people hunt. They can go out with a hunter and swim way out in a lake, or run to the very end of a field to fetch and bring back the game. There is a lot of breeding and training that has happened in the history of the Labrador to help it become this fully realized version of itself. We can see this unmistakable imprint in Stella. She comes from a long line of hunters. (One of her parent’s names was “Smoke of the Swamp.”)  Dave and I are definitely not hunters, so to help Stella live out her natural inclination to retrieve, we have, as many other Labrador families do, provided her with a tennis ball. It is something she can pursue and retrieve and proudly bring back to us, but it is more palatable to us than the small dead bird she once dug up to try to help. Stella is amazing at sniffing out and pursuing the ball. She can find a ball anywhere. Once she finds it, she will not rest until she has it, especially if that ball is out of her reach, like when it’s under the couch, for the 8th time, and we have to get down on the floor and fish it out to help her get it.

Stella is full of good retriever instincts. Except . . . she’s a bit  . . . broken. 

She finds the ball, gets the ball, brings back the ball. But then she just won’t give it up. She’ll run right up to us with it, but she just can’t give it to you. If you reach out to her she pulls her head away an inch or two, until it’s just out of reach. Or she’ll drop it, but as soon as you reach out to pick it up, she grabs it again.  If one of us comes between her and the ball, she’ll even gently bump us out of the way. She can’t seem to get past her own desire to hold the ball. And one ball is not enough for her.  We have several tennis balls in our home. She hunts and finds and keeps them all.

We’re in a series this summer here in church called Vices and Villains. Each week we look at one vice in the Bible in the context of the life of a villain and how we might have some of those same issues in our own lives. What we’ve learned over the past several weeks is that vices often start as good inclinations of our hearts. But over time we morph those good desires into something that leads us into sin, and that’s when they become a vice. 

Stella’s instincts are good. She wants to help her humans find the ball and bring it back to them. But her good desire to retrieve morphs its way into something else more insidious, because it’s never enough. She just can’t let go. Ultimately she forgets who she went to get the ball for to begin with. It’s like her vision zooms in. and she doesn’t see us anymore. She can only see the ball. 

That’s what greed does, not only to my goofy Labrador, but to us. Greed zooms us in.

Many of us have this instinct to provide. We want to take care of ourselves and our families, to go out and bring back the money that provides for a home and food and security for us and for the people we love. We can even see how we can give this money to those who really need our help. Our instincts for providing like this aren’t bad. They’re noble. But over time, greed zooms us in.  All you see is the ball. Slowly, you forget who you’re playing for.

We don’t see our families, and what they really need. 

We don’t see our community, that we could help with what we have. 

We don’t see God’s provision for us.  

We just see the money, the stuff. 

We want it all. What we have is never enough. We might even bump some other people out of the way to get what we want, what we think we need, rationalizing it as we do so. Our instinct to provide, even to help, morphs into greed. 

Jesus loved to tell stories. He tells this one story about someone who was rich. He owned a huge farm, and as his crops grew,  he had more than he knew what to do with. All his barns were full. So he decides to just keep building bigger and bigger barns, so that he can hold onto everything he has, thinking then he can stop, he’ll be happy. But just as he gets those barns built, full of more than he could ever need, he dies. All of that time focused on getting it all, and it was for nothing. 

Greed is sneaky like that. It can keep you relentlessly focused on money and things. It assures you that if you just stay focused now on the money,  you can do those other things another day. You can do the things that really matter once you are done building the barns. There will be time later. But there’s not always time later. 

Dave and I have had the privilege to be with quite a few people in their final days over the past twenty years of our ministry. They often ask to gather everyone they love around them. They usually want to pray. They might even share regret for the people they’ve hurt. But one thing they don’t usually talk about is their money or their stuff. It turns out that the most expensive thing we have is our time, and we find that what matters most is exactly what Jesus told us mattered most: loving God, and loving our neighbor. 

Greed zooms us in, and we lose that perspective. 

God offers us another way.

Let’s look at our story today, and our villain, Judas:

Matthew 26:1 When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples,2 “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.” 3 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the courtyard of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, 4 and they conspired to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. 5 But they said, “Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people.” 14 Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests 15 and said, “What will you give me if I betray him to you?” They paid him thirty pieces of silver. 16 And from that moment he began to look for an opportunity to betray him.

Judas had seen the big picture. As one of Jesus’ disciples, he had seen what Jesus could do. He had a front row seat to the miracles. He had heard what Jesus taught, and seen how it had changed people. But then he heard Jesus just say that he would soon be handed over to be crucified. You can almost hear him rationalizing his next move. If Jesus is going to be handed over anyway, if he is going to die anyway, what harm would it be if I made a little money? Wouldn’t Jesus want me to take this opportunity, to have this security? All he can see is  what it could mean for him. He doesn’t see the other disciples. He doesn’t see who it might hurt. He doesn’t see Jesus. Here is perhaps the most devastating part: He doesn’t even see what it will do to his own soul. 

47 While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, arrived; with him was a large crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. 48 Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man; arrest him.” 49 At once he came up to Jesus and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed him. 50 Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you are here to do.” Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and arrested him.

Judas betrays Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. To be fair to Judas’ story, he later regrets what he’s done. He even tries to give the money back. But it’s too late, and his regret will consume him. 

But in our story, there was another way. In our passage from the book of Matthew today, you’ll notice we skipped from verse 5 to verse 14. In those verses, in the middle of this passage about Judas’ greed, there was someone else who had seen Jesus, who had heard what he was teaching.  Just before Judas betrays Jesus for a payout, a woman approaches Jesus. She is carrying in her arms an alabaster jar. This jar was worth everything for her. It was full of an expensive perfume that would have ensured her future. But the woman, who isn’t even named in the story, sees the bigger picture. Like Judas, she too knows that Jesus will die. She doesn’t see what might be in it for her. She sees what it means for the world. She comes in, and breaks the jar, pouring everything she had over his head, to anoint him for burial. Jesus says this: 

13 Truly I tell you, wherever this good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.”

Two people were with Jesus. The first, Judas, pursued the silver, blinded by his greed.  His legacy becomes a tragedy. The second, the woman, gave all she had. She could see what truly mattered. Her legacy becomes a part of Jesus’ story of redemption. 

Greed, like the other vices, is sneaky. It makes us lose our perspective, and becomes so easy to rationalize. But there’s this other option, where we let Jesus pull our focus from greed, and invite us to focus on Him. 

Greed narrows our vision. God opens our eyes to what truly matters.

So what about you? What are you focused on? 

Most of us started with a focus on something good. A desire to give your family a better life. A commitment to save for retirement. A plan to finally feel secure. A desire to make enough that you could help people with it, at least once your barn was full. But somewhere along the way, maybe it stopped being about the people. It stopped being about the good you could do. All you could see was the money. The stuff. The ball. Maybe you have lost sight of what matters. 

I’m not saying you shouldn’t pay your bills, or have a home to live in, or food on your table. And (this is important) if you are someone who is struggling to just get the basics, to just keep a roof over your head, and you are working long hours to do it, that doesn’t mean you are focused on the money, that means you are doing the best you can. 

But for those who have enough, more than they need, it’s not that you can’t have any money at all. The key to the vices is that they point to what’s in your heart. Jesus also said “You cannot serve God and wealth.” (Matthew 6:24). You can’t live your life for money and for God at the same time. 

Are you serving the money, or the God who created you? 

When you serve the money, you risk losing everything else. 

When you serve God, you gain freedom. It’s hard to describe, but you’ll know it’s there, you’ll know that greed has loosened its grasp on your life, because you’ll feel it. 

You’ll suddenly see the money for what it is, a tool to provide, a currency to help others, not something to love.

You’ll see clearly the things that really matter. The calling God has put on your life. The cost of your time. The people around you. The damage greed can do to your soul. 

You’ll have this release from the pressure of the pursuit of the money for the money itself, from that drive that pushes you and it’s never enough. Replacing it will be an overwhelming feeling of gratitude for what you have. There is this freedom when we look to God first, and the stuff in our barns fades to the periphery. 

Then you’ll zoom out a little more, and you’ll see the even bigger picture of what God is doing not just around you, but in the world. This was the perspective of the woman and the alabaster jar. She knew it wasn’t about her. It wasn’t even just about the people in that room. It was about what God was doing for humanity. 

It’s not just about us. It’s about what God is doing in the world. 

If I believe that God can our hearts individually, and transform our lives. 

I have to believe that God can change the hearts of us collectively, in our nation. 

Greed might begin as an inner  desire, an instinct to provide, to protect, but it can quickly grow into sin. When enough of us make those same choices, over time, that sin becomes systemic. It gets written into laws and into budgets. The vice becomes the culture, and evil becomes justified by it. 

We become a people who measure worth by wealth. We exalt the rich and ignore and even demonize the poor. We build systems that protect profits over people. We don’t want to think about it so we numb ourselves with our stuff. We start to believe that this security we get from money is something we build with our own hands, that we deserve it. We believe that if everyone just tried hard enough they could have it too. We even rationalize hurting other people to protect what we have. But the wealth of this life is temporary, and when we hurt others to get it, God is watching. James wrote this:

James 5: Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. 2 Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure[a] during the last days. 4 Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.

God sees it all, how we treat people, what we do, what we value. 

But we can’t give up hope. We believe God can change each of us. 

So we have to believe that God can change all of us. 

We have be to believe that God can change the hearts of our world, even transform our nation, which means we have to do everything we can out there in the world to call out greed and injustice, and to refuse to participate in it. 

But before we get to work pointing out greed in everyone else, how about we start here, in our own lives? Let’s start by letting God in, to work on us, to show us any greed that is lurking around in there. Ask God “can you help me look at you, instead? Can you give me the faith to drop the ball? Can you help me see the big picture?”

When you focus on God, the rest will become clear. 

You remember who you are. You remember what matters. You remember who gave you the ball in the first place. You remember what it’s all really for.

When we can see clearly again, we start to live like it. 

As individuals, we  face head on any greed we see in the way we live.

As a church, we give what we have to help others know God’s love for them, instead of hoarding it for ourselves.

As a people, out there in the world, we refuse to let greed be louder than love.