Making sense of ‘Judas, Dost thou betray your Teacher with a kiss?’

Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus’ 12 disciples, betrayed his Teacher, the Lord Jesus with a kiss (Luke 22:4, 6, 48). In stated respect, Judas Iscariot informed the people who were paying him to betray his teacher that whomever he kissed on the cheek was his teacher , as such the person whom the Pharisees and Sadducees sought to arrest and put to death. For avoidance of doubt, Matthew 26:48–49 and Luke 22:47–48 state, respectively,

And he who did deliver Him up did give them a sign, saying, ‘Whomsover I will kiss, it is he; lay hold on Him’; and immediately, having come to Jesus, he said, ‘Hail Rabbi’, and kissed Him.

And while He is speaking, lo, a multitude, and he who is called Judas, one of the twelve, was coming before them, and he came nigh to Jesus to kiss him, and Jesus said to him, ‘Judas, with a kiss the Son of Man dost thou deliver up?’

The snag in the story? Whenever the Pharisees and Sadducees sought to question Jesus, always they knew who to approach (e.g. Luke 15:1–2; 19:47–48; 20:1). At the point in time that Nicodemus sought to have a discussion with Jesus, he knew exactly who to approach (John 3:1–2). In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus was invited to eat in a Pharisee’s house, at the very least, three different times (Luke 7:36; 11:37; 14:1).