Day 182: Luke 22:1–3

The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to put Him to death. . . . Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, who was numbered among the Twelve (vv. 2–3).

Few things startle and shake us to the core like the sudden revelation of a Judas. Maybe because we can’t believe we didn’t see it coming. Maybe because we’re terrified that if one of us could be Judas, couldn’t we all? We are terrified by our similarities! And rightly we should be. But one thing sets us apart. Judas sold his soul to the devil.

John 13:28 tells us no one at the meal understood. But over the course of years and countless replays of the scene in the mind of the apostle John, he knew the devil entered into Judas at that table right before their very eyes. How did he know?

Christ taught in John 14:26 that the Holy Spirit is also the Holy Reminder. He can reveal the truth even in something past and remind us what He was teaching us, though we were unable to grasp it at the time. Jesus often teaches us lessons that He knows we won’t fully assimilate until later.

Try to grasp that Judas was not inhabited by any old demon from hell. Satan is not omnipresent. He can only be one place at a time. And for that time, he was in Judas. The prince of the power of the air flew like a fiery dart into the willing vessel of one of the Twelve. This proves that we can follow—closely—and still not belong to Jesus. We can talk the talk. We can blend right in. We can seem so sincere.

I believe through the videotape of his own retrospect, John saw the devil in Judas’s eyes. I think he saw Satan in Judas’s hands as he reached for the dipped bread. Think about it. For the briefest moment, two hands held the same bread. One soiled by silver; the other only a thin glove of flesh cloaking the hand of God. John saw the devil in Judas’s feet as he walked away . . . for if we are ever truly with Christ, we cannot leave Christ.

Two-thirds of a century later, John would write, “They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. However, they went out so that it might be made clear that none of them belongs to us” (1 John 2:19 hcsb). We learn some of our best, and worst, life lessons at the table. John learned this lesson at the table. He learned all too well.