You're listening to Catholic Sprouts, the daily podcast for Catholic kids that strives to plant seeds of faith. Wednesday of Holy Week, Judas makes a deal to betray Jesus.

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew.

Then one of the 12 named Judas went to the chief priests and said,

What are you willing to give me to betray him to you?

And they weighed out 30 pieces of silver to him.

From then on, Judas began looking for a good opportunity to betray Jesus.

The Gospel of the Lord.

Look at the image of Judas preparing to betray Jesus.

Imagine that you are in the crowd and you see this happening.

You see Judas talking to the high priest and you hear the cold click of those 30 pieces of silver as the high priest counts them out, one by one, into the open, sweaty hand of Judas.

All around is quiet, sickly quiet, as if the whole world is holding its breath, desperate to know

if Judas is really going to portray the Lord of the universe.

You investigate the face of Judas, this friend of Jesus who has decided to betray him.

You see the sweat on his brow as he nervously waits for each piece to land in his hand.

You can feel the tension within him.

Is he really going to do this?

Is he really going to sell Jesus for 30 pieces of silver?

You watch his eyes dart around, anxious,

to leave with the money in his pocket. And then you look at the faces of the high priest.

They seem to smirk to each other, as if they have just passed off the most disagreeable task

to this greedy fool. Judas is no hero to them.

And 30 pieces of silver mean almost nothing.

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