Isaiah 50:4-9 / Matthew 26:14-25
A “wake-up call” can have two meanings.
The obvious literal meaning is a phone call made at a prearranged time to wake someone up.
But that term “wake-up call” is also often understood as an incident or sign that alerts people to an unsatisfactory situation and prompts them to remedy it.
In that second meaning, it can be that after many signs and incidents, the last one had the effect of waking up that person to the situation.
But it does not mean that the earlier ones had no effect.
Yet, it may also mean that many signs and incidents were given, but they were not heeded.
In the gospel, Judas Iscariot offered to betray Jesus to the chief priest for thirty silver pieces, which at that time, was the price of a slave.
When Jesus and His disciples were at the sacred Passover meal, He told them solemnly that one of them was to betray Him.
He even hinted that the one who dipped his hand into the dish with Him will betray Him.
Jesus even said sharply that it would be better for the betrayer to had never been born.
Yet, Judas did not heed the signs, he did not heed the wake-up calls, and by his own words, he brought judgement to himself.
God will always give us signs, those wake-up calls, to alert us to turn away from sin and from tragedy unto ourselves.
May we heed those signs, those calls from God, and come back to God and to be loved and protected by Him.