Awaiting Opportunity

Now the Festival of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover, was approaching, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus, for they were afraid of the people. Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve. And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus. They were delighted and agreed to give him money. He consented, and watched for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to them when no crowd was present. Luke 22:1-6



Satan always has tried to prevent, then to destroy Jesus. Satan had mankind in his grip. We are born sinners because of Adam's sin, initiated by Satan's enticement of the woman. He is the great enticer. He's always scheming, plotting to thwart the plan of God. Throughout history, the great spiritual conflict has raged between God and Satan. Humanity is the battleground. He began by deceiving the woman in the garden, he infiltrated the human race in the pre-flood sexual invasion, which produced a race of super-humans (Genesis 6). The Savior must be born truly human, in order to execute the perfect plan of God. Satan continually tried to destroy the Christ from the time of His birth in Bethlehem. Without the perfect atonement of the Lamb of God, humanity is doomed to eternal condemnation. There is nothing we can do to save ourselves. Salvation cannot be earned, because no human is pure enough to completely carry out the will of God. No human, that is, except Jesus, the God-Man. Born without sin, because of the virgin conception by the Holy Spirit. He lived to physical maturity without committing sin, and was therefore qualified to pay the full penalty for all our sins. That was the doctrine being illustrated all those generations ago by the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb as the Israelites were being liberated from Egypt. That was the doctrine being illustrated by the blood sacrifice of Abel which incurred the wrath of his brother, who brought a different offering and was rejected. From the beginning, God killed animals and provided their skins as a covering for the nakedness of Adam and Eve, symbolizing the blood atonement of the seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15). The death of the innocent to cover for the sins of the guilty. Grace. God's Plan. We cannot earn. We can only receive.

This determination of Satan to short-circuit the plan of God carries on into the Jewish race, because if he can eliminate them, he has prevented the fulfillment of God's promises to His people. That explains all the persecution of the Jews down through the ages. It is not simply human bigotry at work, but a full blown Satanic conspiracy. It explains Hitler, if we need an explanation for the unspeakable atrocities committed by that demoniac. Whenever Jesus taught about these persecutions, He said it is "because of My Name."

So, of course, Satan MUST get rid of Jesus before He fulfilled God's plan. Somehow, though, Satan must have missed a lecture, because he didn't seem to realize the crucifixion was one of the components in the salvation of humanity.

Judas just never understood Who Jesus really is, or he was such an evil individual that he was a willing participant in Satan's conspiracy. It's hard to tell, except by the testimony of the gospel writers. He seems to have been just as faithful in attention and just as capable in service as the other eleven, during their sojourn with Jesus. But now we see his shocking bargain, apparently proposed by himself to the chief priests, to betray our Lord. For money. We know from scripture he never truly believed in Jesus' deity, and was referred to by Jesus as the "son of perdition" who was the only one lost among Jesus' disciples. He was simply used in the interweaving of circumstances that brought about the arrest and execution of the Christ. Used by being Satan-possessed with evil intention; used by being in the time and place to volunteer for this malicious mission. Whatever his motive really was, he was the loser. Judas is an example of many unsavory things, chief among which is the reality of unbelievers feeding with the flock of God. There seemed to be no difference between him and the other eleven, unless it was that he seemed nicer and smarter than the rest. After all, it was he who "kept the purse" (John 12:6). That was most likely by approval of the eleven. Perhaps he seemed the most trustworthy or the most fiscally responsible. You cannot tell by a person's outward behavior what his spiritual condition really is. Only God knows that. Judas never surprised Jesus. Perhaps he did surprise himself regarding how low he could go.

There always has to be a willing human dupe in these schemes, and of course, there is no shortage of opportunist dupes in humanity. These people will sell their souls for whatever they lust after. In this case, it was probably politically motivated, and the money only sweetened the deal. It was, by the way, the going price of a slave. The story of Jesus' betrayal and death is stupefyingly brutal. It is also poetic in its symbolism. He came into humanity as one of us and took upon Himself the burden of our sins which made us slaves to Satan, until the redemption of our souls through Jesus' atonement on that cross.

That was not the result Satan could foresee in executing Jesus. Judas simply didn't see the impact of this sinister deal. So he made it. And he waited for the right moment....