Q&A#63 Why Did Satan Enter into Judas to Betray Jesus if He Knew the Cross Would Defeat Him?

00:00

Q&A#63 Why Did Satan Enter into Judas to Betray Jesus if He Knew the Cross Would Defeat Him?

October 1, 2018

Today's question: "How should we understand Satan entering into Judas and his ensuing plan to betray Jesus (Luke 22:3-6)? The wilderness temptations, the rebuke of Peter (Matt. 16:21-23), Christ's agony in the garden, and even the calls to him to come down off the cross seem to suggest that Jesus was being tempted to abandon the path of suffering and death. Did Satan know that Jesus came to destroy his works by his death? If so, why would he incite Judas to betray him to certain death?"

Within my discussion, I reference this earlier video: https://alastairadversaria.com/2018/04/16/video-jesus-as-the-greater-ezekiel-in-luke-3-4/.

If you have any questions, you can leave them on my Curious Cat account: https://curiouscat.me/zugzwanged.

If you have enjoyed these talks, please tell your friends and consider supporting me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/zugzwanged.

My new Soundcloud account is here: https://soundcloud.com/alastairadversaria. You can also listen to the audio of these episodes on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/alastairs-adversaria/id1416351035?mt=2.

Transcript

Welcome back. Today's question is, how should we understand Satan entering into Judas and his ensuing plan to betray Jesus in Luke 22, 3-6? The wilderness temptation, the rebuke of Peter, Matthew 16, 21-23, Christ's agony in the garden, and even the calls to him to come down off the cross, seem to suggest that Jesus was being tempted to abandon the path of suffering and death. Did Satan know that Jesus came to destroy his works by his death? If so, why would he incite Judas to betray him to certain death? It's a really good question.

I like this one. I think there are a couple of, at least a couple of, ploys that Satan exploits when he's seeking to tempt Christ. One of them is to avoid the path of suffering and death by gaining power, earthly power, by other means.

And the other is to cast himself out of the mission that he's been given, to avoid the mission that he's been given, and to just take advantage of the fact that he will be protected by God. He knows the danger of the mission. So if he doesn't want to bow down to Satan, he can at least just step out of his mission.

He doesn't have to go through with it. Now, what we see in events that follow, further events that are paralleled with the temptation, I think we see a ramping up of these tactics. So we see three temptations, or three events that correspond with the temptations in the second half of Luke 4. So I've mentioned these before in a previous video, which I can give the link to.

Those are significant in their parallels. So the first is being given the book and declaring the word of God. The second is being tempted to serve his fellow countrymen, physician, heal yourself.

And that if he will serve his fellow countrymen, they will support his kingdom project. But it's very much about bow down and serve us. Serve your own folk.

And if you serve your own folk, we'll ensure that you get the kingdom. We'll be on your side. The final one is as he is, they attempt to throw him down from a high place.

And that is a very interesting one because it parallels with throwing himself down from the temple. But here he is protected by God and he doesn't get thrown down. Rather, he escapes through the midst of them.

And that, I think, suggests a different sort of temptation. Part of the temptation there is that he is being rejected by his own country folk. His own people are turning their back on him.

His own people are trying to kill him. Now, if there were a time to step away from his mission, to just let them go through that, but not to save them, then that would be natural. He could just let himself be cast down.

God would bear him up and he could just step back from his mission. These people aren't worth saving. But yet he stays on course and he is not thrown down.

And that, I think, gives us a bit more of a clue to what's going on. Later on, we have a temptation concerning food. Is he going to drink of the cup that God gives him or is he going to try and go his own way? And he wants the cup to pass from him.

He knows the pain and the agony and the difficulty it will involve, but he goes through with it. The second temptation might be as he faces the rulers in his trials and he knows his power. He knows that he could just use his own strength to achieve his purpose and get a kingdom.

And he's tempted concerning the nature of his kingdom, but he does not seek to gain power by earthly means. And then finally, being tempted to come down from the cross, he's being ridiculed by his own people. He's being mocked and scorned and mistreated and being treated as the offscouring of everything.

He's being treated as an object of shame and complete dishonor, stripped of all honor. And he's hanging there on the cross and he knows that he could call legions of angels to protect him. And he's tempted to cast yourself down from the cross, avoid the way that is set before you and choose this easier path.

You'll be safe. You'll be saved the pain. And these people aren't worth it.

Why not just take this route? And I think that that is part of why Judas's betrayal is significant. Judas's betrayal may serve a couple of purposes. Maybe Judas wants to precipitate something.

Maybe like Peter, he does not believe that Jesus should take the path of suffering. He should take the path of earthly power. And he wants to precipitate a conflict between Jesus and the Jews that is unavoidable, where Jesus will have to show his power and exercise his strength and gain kingdom in that way.

Maybe that's what Judas is trying to do and it's a ploy gone horribly wrong. That's one possibility. Another possibility is that Satan is in the betrayal of Judas and the forsaking of all the disciples.

Jesus is once again being tempted by Satan with the message, these people are just not worth it. This is someone that you have given years of your life to. You have spent your life with this person, given so much to him and here he is betraying you with a kiss.

Here he is selling you to your enemies. Here he is using you for his own purposes. This person isn't worth it.

These people aren't worth it. Cast yourself down. Take an easier route.

And so I think that is probably the best way to understand this. There are two ploys taking place. One to suggest an easier path to gain power and the other to suggest divert from this path.

It's just too painful. And both of those are in play. And when it gets to the point of the cross, all the messages come down from the cross.

Avoid this. You can step back at this point. You don't have to go through with it.

And the betrayal of Judas and other things like that are part of the means by which Satan is trying to precipitate action on Christ's part. This is a sort of brinksmanship perhaps, but I suspect that's what's taking place. I'd love to hear people's thoughts in comments and responses.

There's a lot to speculate and wonder about here. And we can't give definitive answers. But I think that's the route that I would take to explain it.

I hope you found this helpful. If you have any further questions, please leave them on my Curious Cat account. If you would like to support this and future videos, please do so using my Patreon account.

And Lord willing, I'll be back again tomorrow with a further video. God bless and thank you for listening.