Judas and His Kiss

Matthew 26 and the Judas Narrative

Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it, seal it for thy courts of love. Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it, seal it for thy courts of love. You may be seated.

If you would open your Bibles to the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 26, the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 26. Some of this we're going to be going over a bit of what we went through before, and then moving around to get a full picture of Judas and his kiss, Judas the betrayer.

Mary’s Faithful Response to Jesus’ Prediction of His Death

Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 26, verse 1. Hear now the word of the living and the true God. When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples, you know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.

Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. But they said not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people.

Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying,.

Why this waste?

For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor. But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.

In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.

Then one of the 12, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priest and said, what will you give me if I deliver him over to you? And they paid him 30 pieces of silver. And from that moment, he sought an opportunity to betray him.

Now on the first day of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus, saying, where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover? He said, go into the city to a certain man and say to him, the teacher says, my time is at hand.

I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover. When it was evening, he reclined a table with the 12. And as they were eating, he said, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.

And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, is it I, Lord? He answered, he who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me. The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.

It would have been better for that man if he had not been born. Judas, who would betray him, answered, is it I, Rabbi? He said to him, you have said so. Thus far as the reading of God's holy and inspired word, let's pray together.

Father, I pray you'd bless the proclamation of your word today. Teach, Lord, by your spirit. We ask for you to open, Lord, your word to our minds. Help us to have understanding. Guide and teach us, instruct us, challenge us.

Lord, we yield before you, your authority, your holy word. We pray that you would get the teacher out of the way, that Christ would increase, I would decrease. In Jesus' name, amen. It's interesting. I was meditating on these passages and thinking through what's interesting about the placement for Matthew of this particular moment for Judas.

Now, we did the section where Mary prepares Jesus' body for burial. So she does something that actually illustrates the fact that she understands what Jesus is going to do. Remember that Jesus had kept telling them that he's going to Jerusalem, they're going to crucify him, and in three days later, he'll rise again.

In fact, he has already told them that one of them is going to betray him. So Jesus is preparing his disciples. He's preparing them. He's telling them, this isn't secret. I mean, there's one point where Jesus tells them what's going to happen, and Peter says, that can never happen.

And Jesus says to him, get behind me. Satan, he knows where that is coming from and speaks directly to Satan and his influence. This is something that they know. And Jesus says so much here in verse 2.

He says, you know that after two days, the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified. Now, Mary apparently understood what they didn't.

She heard.

She believed.

She was obeying. She was acting on what Jesus said. Now, these disciples, they were in the same kinds of conversations. They heard this story. But Mary realizes that in the house, there's a dead man. And so she's taking this very costly death smell, the smell of burial, the smell of mourning, and it's filling the entire house.

And Jesus says, she understands.

She believes.

She's responding to what I've told you. They didn't quite understand it. And of course, we know the story there. Judas is saying, why wasn't this sold for the poor? He's only saying that because he was a thief, and he was in charge of the money bag, and he was stealing.

He'd have no concern for the poor. He was trying to line his pockets. But what's amazing is that Matthew has this story here. And in verse 13, it says, truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.

So we have the memory of Mary, what she did.

She heard.

She believed.

She responded. She lived accordingly.

Jesus said it.

She believed it.

And it didn't matter what anybody else was doing around her. Even these professing believers, they weren't responsive to Jesus' teaching, but she was going to be. She treated him as he said. He was a dead man.

He was going to die. And she acted accordingly. And she filled the house up with the smell of mourning. They knew the smell. It antagonized them. They were upset by it. And this was to be done in memory.

This story has to be told in memory of her. Two points here. One is that Jesus says, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, that's where the gospel's going. So Jesus, I mean, we understand this story.

We're behind the story on this side. So we're looking back, knowing the promise, the gospel of the kingdom. We know the proclamation going to the nations. Jesus saying, I have all authority in heaven and earth.

Go get the nations, baptize them, teach them to obey. We understand that because we're on this side of it. But Jesus is saying now in this place that this gospel proclaimed in the whole world, that's where the story is going.

It's bigger than they could possibly imagine. But Jesus says what she has done will also be told in memory of her. There's a contrast here, I believe, between the memory of Mary, this person who hears, truly believes, and acts in obedience in accordance with what she knows Jesus has taught.

This is done in memory of this spectacular disciple, this woman who understood what these dudes didn't understand. And Jesus says, in memory of her. So we have the exaltation, in a way, of this disciple of Christ who hears, believes, and responds, acts accordingly, no matter the consequences, no matter the ridicule.

Mary is following Jesus and believing him. And then immediately, we go to the contrast. The contrast is Judas. Now we have to consider the infamy of Judas. Dr. MacArthur, when he was speaking on this particular text, he's written a book, I believe, on Judas.

He says he still can't wrap his mind around, after all these decades, how someone could be so treacherous. How you could betray the Son of Man after walking with him throughout his entire ministry, seeing the astonishing miracles, seeing his power, knowing who he is, seeing his life, the consistency of his character.

I mean, Jesus would understand people's thoughts. Judas had to have known that Jesus knew what he was even thinking. And yet he betrays the Son of Man for such a small amount of money. Judas' name lives in infamy around the world.

Dr. MacArthur said, people don't name their children Judas, right? People don't even name their dogs Judas. That's how bad of a name it is. But in verse 3, it says,. Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and plotted together, listen to this, in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him.

But they said, not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people. So something to consider that's actually very interesting is as this story begins to unfold, we hear about the Sanhedrin, the leadership in Israel.

Sanhedrin means the gathering together. This was the high court of Israel. So this is a very big deal that these people are working together to work in stealth to have Jesus murdered. I mean, in terms of the law of God, this makes absolutely undeniably no sense.

When you read about Jesus declaring woes upon the covenant breakers of his day and confronting the leadership of Jerusalem, you begin to understand it when you see something like this. The Sanhedrin, the gathering together, this highest supreme court of Israel is working together against the very law of God itself, pretending to uphold the Torah, and they are plotting to do this in stealth to murder Jesus, denying all of their profession, all of their confession.

Now, this is interesting, too, because this apparently was a point of apparent unanimous agreement amongst people where there were actually quite a few differences. You had the Pharisees and the Sadducees in this day.

The Pharisees, of course, we know... Pharisee for Christians today is like a curse word, right?

You Pharisee.

We use it as a curse word today, right? Because we understand sort of what it means in terms of the bad theology of the Pharisees. But understand this, in the first century, Pharisees were highly revered.

Pharisees were hard workers.

They were disciplined.

These were sort of the conservatives of the first century. These were the conservatives. They believed in a literal resurrection. And you have the Sadducees, kind of, I mean, in some ways, sort of like, you know, playing with the scriptures, kind of liberal in a way, denying the resurrection.

So that's why they were sad, you see? You know, that corny... And it's an old joke. I heard it from your people.

What's it from you?

Okay.

So, but here's what's amazing, is that even with the disagreements between the Pharisees and the Sadducees in this time period, as much as they were at odds with each other, apparently, in this moment with Jesus, stealth and kill them.

There's apparent unanimous agreement, and it's coming from the very top, the very people who should have known better. The law of God gives very strict guidelines for justice, accusations, and even capital punishment is the extreme.

These people are plotting to murder Jesus. And it's coming from the most religious-looking people. This is the covenant people of God.

Why?

Why have so much unanimous agreement?

Here's why.

At least some reasons, they were envious of Jesus. They were envious of him, his power, his authority, his popularity. I mean, they said things like, look, the whole world is going after Jesus. They were terrified of Jesus in this messianic movement.

And so they had tried to even stone him. You know, they come and they try to trip Jesus up in questions, you know, hey, what do you think about this coin? And taxes to Caesar and all. They're constantly trying to trip Jesus up.

And Jesus confronts them. Jesus corrects their teaching. Jesus condemns them for what they thought were divine traditions handed down to them that they had to obey alongside the scriptures. And he says, Moses says, but you say, thus you invalidate the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

He is confronting the highest level of religious leadership in his day. And they hate Jesus for this. They hate him. They despise him. And so they conspired together at the highest level to destroy him.

They tried to kill him before, but it wasn't allowed.

By who?

Jesus.

It wasn't his time. Jesus said, nobody takes my life from me. I lay it down of my own accord. Jesus was in full control of the betrayal, the deception, the stealth, the murder. Jesus is in full control.

There are times where Jesus is confronting them with the truth. They pick up stones to kill him. And somehow Jesus slips out. Somehow Jesus escapes because it wasn't his time. He makes the determination of when his end is.

And, but we have this very disturbing display of very religious people, part of the covenant people of God who are trying to plot to kill Jesus.

Why?

Well, he'd recently raised Lazarus. Remember that? This is shortly before he comes into Jerusalem. He raises Lazarus from the dead. And apparently this was such a spectacle that it actually agitated the Jewish leadership of that day.

They were terrified after the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Remember that as Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, he comes into Jerusalem. And what happens as he enters? He comes in as prophesied on that donkey.

And what is everyone in Jerusalem doing? They're laying down these palm leaves and they're saying, Hosanna, Hosanna.

This is a spectacle.

It's a very big deal. These people are apparently believing in Jesus, according to them, and they're terrified of him. Jesus comes into Jerusalem with all this fanfare. And then he goes to their temple for a second cleansing of the temple.

Jesus goes in and he indicts the leadership in Jerusalem who are oppressing God's people. They're charging them like 10 times the amount for a sacrificial animal. They're abusing the people of God. They're in this for the money, apparently.

And Jesus comes in and he drives people out and he cleanses the temple as the priest was supposed to do before its destruction. And he declared woes upon them. You know the woes. Take a turn back just a few pages here.

Go to 23, just flip the pages back a little bit. You have seven woes in chapter 23. He says things to them like this, verse 25. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.

You blind Pharisee. First clean the inside of the cup and the plate that the outside also may be clean. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and uncleanness.

Jesus is not pulling punches. Jesus is going right for the throat and he did it. Listen, not with the people who were down here on the scale for those Jews. He goes to the very top, cleanses their temple as though he had the authority to do it.

Who do you think you are that you can come in here and cleanse this temple and sort of move past our authority? We're in charge here.

We're the bosses here.

And Jesus says, fakes, you're all actors. That's what chupacrita is. It's a person who puts a mask on in a play. You're playing a character. And he says to you, you're playing, this is a show. This is all a show.

You're just a character. You've got a mask on right now. You are a whitewashed tomb. All you care about is what's on the outside when inside you are full of death, stinking death. That's what's inside of you.

So they didn't like Jesus. They hated him. So they decide to work on this murderous plot. Now what's interesting is that it says in the text that they can only really wait, right? In chapter 26, go back there again.

If you look there in verses three through five, they work on this stealth and this plot to murder Jesus, to have him killed. But they say in verse five, not during the feast lest there be an uproar among the people.

They're worried.

They know if they do this to Jesus, they're gonna have the people in Jerusalem opposed to them. They're gonna lose maybe some of their privilege and power and their authority. People aren't gonna like them.

They don't want that. So they can't do this in the daylight. They can't do this out in the open. It's gotta be stealth because people apparently think Jesus is the Messiah. So here's the deal. They want Jesus dead.

They wanna do it, but they have to do it in a way that is stealthy and in the dark where people don't know that it's happening, at least on a large scale. They can only wait. They want Jesus dead. Here's the problem.

How are we gonna get someone to get him? I mean, think about it from the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the religious leadership. Think about it from their perspective. They wanna have Jesus taken and killed.

They wanna do this in a way where they don't get in a lot of trouble for it. But who's gonna betray Jesus? I mean, everybody here apparently thinks that he's probably the Messiah or is the Messiah. How are we gonna work this plan out?

I mean, where exactly is he staying right now? Do you guys know where he's staying? Anybody know who his friends are? His friends aren't gonna betray him. He just raised this guy from the dead. You can't ask one of them.

You certainly can't ask one of his disciples. You certainly can't ask somebody in his inner circle. Those are the people who are most loyal to him. So they have to wait. But it's interesting here is that Judas is the one who actually initiates the treachery.

Judas, he initiates the treachery. Take a look at the text, Matthew 26, 14 through 16. It says this, then one of the 12. So there it is again, right? We have the memory, say, give this in memory of her, what she did, this faithful disciple, memory of her.

And it says, then one of the 12, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priest and said, what will you give me if I deliver him over to you? And they paid him 30 pieces of silver. And from that moment, he sought an opportunity to betray him.

This is woeful treachery.

Judas is the one who initiated this. You can see it also in Mark 14, 10 through 11 as well. But notice this, you'll see this a lot. This is actually powerful. Many people have made comments on this as they're unpacking these texts about Judas.

You'll note that in the gospel record, the writers of the gospels actually make it a point when they mention Judas, they'll say, Judas, one of the 12. Judas, one of the 12. It's repetitious, Judas, one of the 12.

And here, Matthew says, then one of the 12, whose name was Judas Iscariot. It's repeated, Judas, one of the 12. It's as though the writers of scripture are in awe of the fact that this was one of the 12.

So they keep emphasizing it, Judas, one of the 12. Can you believe it? It was Judas, one of the 12. They seem to be truly in awe. But you see, why? See, in contrast to Mary, Judas wasn't in love with Jesus, wanting to hear, believe, and obey.

If you look over, keep your finger in Matthew 26, because we will be back. Go to John chapter 12. John chapter 12, starting in verse three. Watch this, here's the story. This is where it intensifies. Here's John's account of the incident of the smell of mourning with the perfume.

It says, verse three, Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume, but Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, he who was about to betray him, said, why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?

He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief and having charge of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. So there's the story. Judas loved the money and appears to have been angered by the missed opportunity to fill his pockets with Mary and her costly perfume.

So apparently he went looking for more. Just consider it, all the while, they're in ministry, Jesus knows it's happening. He knows it's happening. He still treated Judas with love and dignity and respect.

Nobody seemed to be aware of the fact that Judas is so treacherous that he's the betrayer. Just consider for a minute, if you're in a crowd, a group of people for say three years, every day together, living life together, eating together, sleeping together, doing all of your life things together, you might notice if one person in your group isn't so hot about somebody else in the group, right?

Like what's the situation with Jesus and Judas? Like why is he always snubbing Judas? There's nothing there. At the last supper, just consider it, when Jesus says one of you is gonna betray me, everybody's asking about themselves.

They have no idea that it's Judas. Apparently Jesus was so gracious and so merciful and so loving to Judas and treated him with so much justice that the other disciples had no idea that this was gonna happen with Judas himself.

But he apparently was stealing the entire time. And when Mary has this moment where she fills the house with the perfume and that smell of mourning, it agitates. And Judas says, hey, how come this wasn't sold?

Put the money in the bag. And apparently he's so in love with money and he's trying to line his pockets that that was the thing. That was the thing that sent him on a course to go looking for more. He was so obsessed with the money.

So look, we can't see into Judas's heart. The text doesn't give us all the details as to what he was thinking and feeling and what he was doing. We have very limited information. But when we consider the life of Judas and what was going on, we have to consider questions.

I think you can ask appropriately questions. What was he doing there? What was Judas doing with Jesus? He's a son of perdition. Jesus said, I know whom I've chosen and I haven't really chosen Judas. He was in the inner circle, but he wasn't saved.

He didn't know Jesus. He wasn't trusting in Jesus. In contrast to the memory of Mary, there's a real disciple that hears, believes, and obeys. Apparently, Judas was in this for what, the accolades? Is he in this because he wants to be on the end team?

He wants to look like he's part of something important? Is he doing this simply for the money? Does he see an opportunity for capital and ministry? Hey, if everyone thinks this guy's the Messiah, there's money in it.

Hey, I got the money bag. And he keeps helping himself. He's lining his pockets. Mary does something that has him lose money. And so now he's off looking for more. And so his motivations are not about submission to Christ, loving Jesus, serving him, worshiping him, believing in him, proclaiming him.

His mission is to make some capital, cash. Jesus apparently was Judas' cash cow. And so he goes on looking for more money. Now, just consider also he betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, 30. It wasn't a lot of money.

It's like nothing. How could you walk with the son of man? How could you walk with God incarnate? How could you see him raising little girls from the dead and putting legs back underneath people, giving sight to blind people and hearing to deaf people?

How could you actually witness the division of the loaves and the fish and see the miraculous ministry of Jesus? You saw him walk on water. He literally controls the creation itself. There is nobody like him.

Judas had seen all of these miracles and yet he did not actually believe and he betrays God incarnate for 30 measly pieces of silver.

Why?

I mean, you can do speculation, but I think if you look at scripture, you can see what motivates that kind of treacherous betrayal in 1 Timothy 6, 10, it says, for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.

He loved money. Jesus was apparently his cash cow. He's in this for capital and for money and ministry. He lost an opportunity for cash. And so he goes looking for more money. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.

You know that at least that was going on in Judas's heart. He was not following Jesus. He was following the money. 30 pieces of silver is all it took. Now, any first century Jew reading this account is going to take a deep gasp.

I can't believe it. Because they know what the 30 pieces of silver is, what it represents according to the law of God. They've got the Torah. God has in his laws ways to treat other human beings in a just way.

In other words, if you steal in God's law, God says in terms of even moral justice, this is what is justly required if the thief steals. And he even gives different categories. If it's something for business, it has to come in this way.

God gives examples of what is morally the just penalty for this kind of sin and crime. God says, you know, things like if man stealing takes place, kidnapping and enslavement, that's a capital crime. You have definitions in God's law in terms of what is actually just to protect victims in your society.

And God has ways that you have to pay somebody back. If you're responsible for something, you got to pay him back. You have to make the person whole again. God demands that in terms of his justice. And anybody who's a Jew in the first century that reads this account, they've got to be putting their hands over their mouth because they can't believe it.

30 pieces of silver. They know the law of God. Exodus 31, 32. If the ox gores a slave, male or female, the owner shall give to their master 30 shekels of silver and the ox shall be stoned. So not only is he going to betray the son of God, he's going to do it for what you had to give for a gored slave, repayments in that account.

This would have dumbfounded people. How could you even imagine doing something like that? 30 pieces of silver. You did that to Jesus for 30 pieces of silver? It's actually a good question to start asking yourself.

It's funny. Here's a funny way this is done. And then there's a more evil way this is done. Pastor Zach is hilarious if you don't know this. Pastor Zach Morgan. He really is one of the funniest people I know.

I love Pastor Zach. I don't want him ever to change. He has such a unique personality. He does not take himself seriously. I don't think any of us do. We take the truth seriously, but not ourselves very seriously.

We love to tease and joke with each other. And since I've known Pastor Zach, I will to this day still get random text messages, usually like a voice text. He'll send me, and this is his thing. And everybody who knows him knows that he does this.

Pastor Zach asks random questions about what would you do for a thousand bucks? So you'll get a random, like at midnight, you'll get a random voice text. Pastor Zach, I'll play it. He's like, so would you eat a living octopus for $1 ,000?

And that's it. It's 12 o 'clock at night, about to go to bed. And here's Pastor Zach. You think it's an emergency. And apparently he's up devising, you know, what can I get Jeff to say yes to? And so I'll say no.

And then he'll go back, he'll say, five, 5 ,000. And we'll play this game until he gets to like 100 and a million. I'm like, okay, yes, a million, I'll do it. I'll eat the live octopus for a million. He's like, good night.

He'll ask questions, random questions. It'll be a very serious day. And then he'll walk past me and he'll say, hey, would you fight a bear wearing Speedos only with meat hanging around your neck?

50K.

Now Zach doesn't even have this money. He does not even have the money, but he's offering it and he wants to see what you would sell yourself for. So he asked those questions.

They're regular.

He'll say things like, this is one for sure. This is a real one. Would you let Mike Tyson punch you in the teeth for 100 ,000? 500?

A million?

Those are funny things we do to see, like what would you do to go all the way like that? To do something that's really gross or really hard or really embarrassing. And like you throw out those numbers and you know what, finally, most of us break, don't we?

You finally get to like 10 million, you're like, all right, yeah, I'd do it for 10, right? Something totally embarrassing or awful, you're like not 50, not a hundred, but a million, I'll sell out. Now, those are fun ways that we think about, like what are you willing to give up for amount of money?

How much does it cost for you to embarrass yourself? But there is a sinful side to this in terms of how much is your soul worth and your reputation worth? What is the cost of betrayal and treachery? What would you give up your soul for?

Think about that. Now, I think most of us would probably wanna instinctively say it's not for sale. It's not for sale. But if you've lived long enough, you know that there are many, many, many people that we once thought were solid, that were principled people, that were strong, wise people.

You might even have a favorite politician that you thought, that's the guy. That's the guy who cares about principle, who cares about the law. He'll do anything it takes. He'll live and die by these truths.

And all of a sudden, you see a little while later, what happened to this person? Why are they now so compromised? Why are they giving up? Why are they not willing to die for this? What is going on? I think we can recognize the politicians who sell their souls.

Apparently, a lot of them are for sale. A lot of them are for sale. And recognize that it's the money that feeds this. They let go of principle.

They let go of law.

They let go of reputation.

Because why?

They're being paid. They're being paid. We recognize that, yeah, people's souls are for sale. Apparently. It's amazing. We live in a time where this is amplified. It is on full volume right now. Don't go to it, but it's a very popular thing right now.

OnlyFans. You've got regular people. Young girls, college age girls, 21, 20, 22 years old. And they are selling their souls and reputations.

Why?

Because they're being told, and it works. You can get 3 ,000, 4 ,000 subscribers that pay you $10 or $15 a month to do what? To sell your soul. To take pictures and videos and to have your own site. So you'll be making somewhere between half a million and a million dollars a year.

And they do. They do. There's a huge market for it. And the question is, how could somebody ever betray their family, betray their reputation, give their souls away? And the answer, cash. It was true of Judas, and it's true today.

People sell their souls for money. And the amazing thing about Judas is he does it for measly amount of money, for nothing. 30 pieces of silver is on the lowest end of the scale, according to the law of God.

Again, they knew what it meant, 30 pieces of silver to betray the son of man. What is your soul worth? Here's the peculiar aspect of this. Judas was with Jesus during the entire ministry. Jesus called him.

Just consider it in terms of placement now of Judas, right? He's not in the outskirts. Jesus called him. He was entrusted with the money. He held the money bag. He was, listen, close enough to Jesus to eat with him.

Close enough to Jesus to eat with him. Now, this is interesting because oftentimes, I think in our culture, we've lost the beauty of supper, of eating together. I recognize even in myself, I have to learn to do better with that.

I grew up in a family where it wasn't an important thing. I was a latchkey kid. I mean, I was six years old. I was feeding myself, getting myself to school, coming home, letting myself in, making food.

My parents came home late at night, hardly ever saw them. I was a latchkey kid, so dinner wasn't a big thing. Supper wasn't a big thing. But in this culture, eating together was everything. We went to Australia to help with some churches out there for end abortion now a couple of years ago.

And we have these amazing Arab Christians who are, they love us over there. They are just so passionate about blessing us. And so they picked us up and drove us around. And they were, all they could talk about was taking us out to dinner, taking us out to dinner.

It was the biggest deal. And for me, I'm like, okay, that's fine. McDonald's or whatever. No, no, no, no, no. You wanna come? It's a feast. And we sat there and they stuffed our faces full of the most delicious food for like hours.

My stomach hurt. It was so amazing. And it was just fellowship and smiles and food. And then more food would come. And then more food would come.