Steeled To Do Wrong
I was fortunate enough to have been raised in a home with equal parts love, affirmation and discipline.
That didn’t stop me from being a willful child.
But I did learn that any determination I had for doing the wrong thing would be met immediately with an irresistible force sometimes applied to my “seat” of learning.
And I needed that.
And, even though I had not read or understood Romans 2:4 in those early years, there were times when I resisted the temptation to do wrong simply because of the consistency of my parent’s love for me.
I didn’t want to grieve them.
All of which makes it hard for me fully comprehend Judas’ willful determination to do the wrong thing and betray Jesus to the Jewish authorities.
The setting is the upper room, where Jesus is to celebrate the Passover with His disciples.
John narrates the details by telling us how much Jesus loved His disciples “to the very end” (John 13:1). Then, he describes Jesus taking off His robe, wrapping a towel around His waist, and kneeling, one by one, at each of His disciple’s feet to wash off the dust of their journey.
What unprecedented humility for a respected rabbi!
This was a job usually relegated to the lowliest servant of the household.
What love Jesus has for each one of them!
If I put myself in the place of one of those disciples, this loving act of Jesus washing my feet would have wrecked me. Peter is so affected that, initially, he refuses to have Jesus wash his feet.
But not Judas.
This act of divine love doesn’t even phase him.
That is because his heart was already steeled for what he wanted to do and the money he would make off the deal he was about to strike with the Sanhedrin.
“Satan had already prompted Judas to betray Jesus” (John 13:2).
So Judas resisted the love of Jesus, even though the kindness of Jesus washing Judas’ feet was an opportunity for him to repent.
Judas experienced this love of Jesus not once but twice in a matter of moments!
During the meal that followed the foot washing, Jesus turns to Judas and offers him the ultimate gesture of love and friendship… bread dipped in the wine.
Again, Judas is unfazed.
Unmoved!
So, it is no surprise that with the bread still in his mouth, “Satan entered into him” (John 13:27), and he left the room to finalize the deal to betray Jesus.
Two things stand out to me from this amazing narrative:
1. The depth of Jesus’ love for Judas in two back-to-back gestures, designed to give Judas two last opportunities to drop his selfish plans and repent.
2. The power we have to steel our hearts to do wrong in the face of God’s kindness and love lavished on us.
If you are reading this blog with some hidden determination to do wrong, please allow these words to be another overture of God’s love to turn you around before “Satan enters” your life with such force there is no turning back.
So determined to do wrong that you resist the most gracious overtures of Christ designed to soften your heart and make you love Him… eg Judas whom Satan had “already prompted to betray Jesus” (John 13:2) yet he stiffened his heart against 1) Jesus washing his feet vs. 5, and 2) Jesus offering him the bread of friendship vs.26.
No wonder Satan entered him when he left the upper room that day.