1 It was almost time for the Feast of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover Feast. 2 The leading priests and teachers of the law were trying to find a way to kill Jesus, because they were afraid of the people.
3 Satan entered Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus’ twelve apostles. 4 Judas went to the leading priests and some of the soldiers who guarded the Temple and talked to them about a way to hand Jesus over to them. 5 They were pleased and agreed to give Judas money. 6 He agreed and watched for the best time to hand Jesus over to them when he was away from the crowd.
Read Luke 22:1-6 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!
Today’s passage presents one of the most perplexing ideas I find when reading about Jesus’ life. In it, we read about how Judas, one of Jesus’ twelve disciples, chose to betray Jesus.
A lot of ideas surround the story of Judas and his decision, but none really capture this decision more extremely than what we read in Luke 22, verse 3: “Satan entered Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus’ twelve apostles.”
This brings up many more questions in my mind, but the one that seems to stand out above the rest is this: How could someone so close to Jesus let Satan enter his life?
We could flip the question around and ask why Jesus would let this happen, but that question can be easily answered by saying that Jesus allows everyone the freedom to choose.
However, our main question remains: How could Judas let this happen?
The only answer that really makes sense is that Judas believed Jesus needed the push to become the military leader-messiah they were all promised. Judas had seen everything Jesus had done leading up to this, and could only see the path of a military leader, and realizing Jesus was very unlikely to choose that path, he allowed himself to be tempted by Satan to force Jesus onto this path.
Judas chose his picture of Jesus over the real Jesus.
Judas wanted a place in the inner circle of three disciples, not too different from Satan wanting a place within the inner circle of the Godhead. Within Judas, we find a representation of Satan at work within the perfect courtroom in heaven.
But the real perplexing idea I saw from this passage is this: Judas was stubbornly caught believing in a misdirected set of beliefs about the Messiah, and even being close to Jesus for all that time, he was not able to change his heart.
Maybe it is not enough to be near to Jesus. Perhaps we also have to let Jesus into our heart and mind, and let Him lead us into the life He created for us.
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
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