Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve

 

 Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called Passover.  And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might kill Him, for they feared the people.  Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve.  So he went his way and conferred with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray Him to them.  And they were glad, and agreed to give him money.  So he promised and sought opportunity to betray Him to them in the absence of the multitude. 

Then came the Day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover must be killed.  And He sent Peter and John, saying, "Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat."  So they said to Him, "Where do You want us to prepare?"  And He said to them, "Behold, when you have entered the city, a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him into the house which he enters.  Then you shall say to the master of the house, 'The Teacher says to you, "Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with My disciples?"'  Then he will show you a large, furnished upper room; there make ready."  So they went and found it just as He had said to them, and they prepared the Passover.

 

- Luke 22:1–13 

 

In yesterday's reading, we were given an excerpt from John's Gospel, which told us the story of the woman caught in adultery.  During the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus went to the Mount of Olives, staying with many of the other pilgrims to Jerusalem for the feast.  Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them.  Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery.  And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act.  Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned.  But what do You say?"  This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him.  But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.  So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first."  And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.  Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last.  And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.  When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, "Woman, where are those accusers of yours?  Has no one condemned you?"  She said, "No one, Lord."  And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more."   

 Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called Passover.  And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might kill Him, for they feared the people.  My study bible explains that the Passover (in Greek, Pascha) is the celebration of the destruction of the firstborn of Egypt and the deliverance of God's people from bondage (Exodus 12 - 14).  In remembrance of this, an unblemished lamb was slaughtered and eaten with unleavened bread.  This prefigures the Passion of Christ, in which the only-begotten Son of God is slain in order to deliver God's people from their bondage to sin and death, and then is raised to lead them into the eternal Kiingdom.  Therefore, "Pascha" is the primary term by which the Eastern Church refers to the death and Resurrection of Christ, known in the West as Easter.  

Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve.  So he went his way and conferred with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray Him to them.  And they were glad, and agreed to give him money.  So he promised and sought opportunity to betray Him to them in the absence of the multitude.   My study bible comments here that Satan does not enter a person except by that person's consent.  The reason that Satan chose Judas, and none of the others, is that Judas had a place for Satan in his heart, and the others did not.  Luke mentions Judas as numbered among the twelve in order to emphasize the depth of betrayal.  It also teaches us that religious position isn't worth anything unless it is accompanied by faith and virtue.

Then came the Day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover must be killed.  And He sent Peter and John, saying, "Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat."  So they said to Him, "Where do You want us to prepare?"  And He said to them, "Behold, when you have entered the city, a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him into the house which he enters.  Then you shall say to the master of the house, 'The Teacher says to you, "Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with My disciples?"'  Then he will show you a large, furnished upper room; there make ready."  So they went and found it just as He had said to them, and they prepared the Passover.   My study bible elaborates that the term Passover (or Pascha in the Greek) can refer to the original event itself, the celebration of that event, the food that is eaten, or the lamb that is slain.  According to patristic commentary on this passage, Peter represents zeal while John represents spiritual understanding, the two virtues with which we are to partake of the Lord's supper.  

What do we think of the Gospel's report that Satan entered into Judas?  My study bible sums up the traditional patristic understanding of the Church, that this doesn't happen without at least some form of consent on the part of the person so afflicted.  It says that Judas had a place for Satan in his heart, and the others did not.  We don't really know why, although John's Gospel tells us that Judas used to steal from the treasury of the ministry, as he kept the money box.  In fact, John tells us this in the reporting of the anointing of Jesus' feet by Mary of Bethany, the sister of Lazarus, as it was Judas who criticized her for this lavish act of love (see John 12:1-8).  Perhaps it was Jesus' open rebuke of Judas on that occasion that influenced Judas' decision to betray Christ.  Perhaps it was a wounded sense of pride that made him vulnerable and left him open with a "place in his heart" for Satan.  If that is so, then once again, as in yesterday's reading and commentary, today's passage brings us again to the importance -- even the absolute necessity -- of humility as a virtue in the ministry and discipleship of Christ.  A wounded pride is quite easy to come by, especially if we are made to feel humiliated before others, most notably those whom we consider to be our peers.  We can put ourselves in Judas' place on that occasion, and imagine a perhaps somewhat quick-tempered and slightly immature personality, one used to a certain measure of honor or status, given a public rebuke by Jesus -- and in favor of a woman like Mary.  John also reports three times that Judas was the son of Simon, first in John 6:71, then notably in telling the story of Mary's anointing of Jesus in John 12, and finally in John 13:26.    In Matthew 26, the anointing of Jesus' feet by an unnamed woman takes place in Bethany, at the home of "Simon the leper," and the betrayal by Judas immediately follows (Matthew 26:6-16).  Putting these texts together, we might make a possible case for this rebuke to have happened in Judas' father's home.  In Luke chapter 7, Jesus dines in the home of a Pharisee named Simon, at which a similar anointing by a notorious sinful woman takes place (Luke 7:36-51).  All of these stories may easily be separate, having notably different aspects to them.  Nonetheless, even without the verification of which Simon might possibly be the father of Judas mentioned by John (or even if he appears in the Gospels), a good case is made for the fact that Judas suffered an open rebuke from Jesus, and so it is possible to infer a lesson for us all.  The Book of Proverbs is full of sayings about the value of a rebuke made in love.  Proverbs 1:23 commands: "Turn at my rebuke; Surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you."  In other words, those who respond positively to a rebuke of the Lord are fit vessels for God's wisdom and grace.  Psalm 141:5 proclaims:  "Let the righteous strike me; it shall be a kindness.  And let him rebuke me; it shall be as excellent oil; let my head not refuse it."  Proverbs 3:12 tells us, "For whom the Lord loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights."  In Revelation 3:19, the Lord declares, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent."  It's tough to accept a rebuke.  It's even tougher when that rebuke comes in front of others who are your peers.  In Judas' case, that would be the other disciples among whom he perhaps counted on a certain amount of authority regarding money matters (as "he had the money box," as John 12:6 tells us).  Especially after Judas' open criticism, Jesus' rebuke comes as a direct rebuttal, not only to Judas' statement about the waste of money, but also that he should leave the woman alone as she has done something good for Christ.  We can just imagine the public embarrassment, and the kind of character it really takes to be a good disciple, to accept correction, especially where our own vulnerabilities are concerned.  Today many of us seem to live in a world where correction seems sometimes forbidden, or to diminish someone else's standing in front of others seems a threat so hurtful that competition itself of any traditional sort becomes problematic.  In yesterday's commentary, we remarked on the harmful and hurtful nature of false accusation, open condemnation and vilification of those who err, and especially when we forget we are just as liable to need forgiveness for sin as the next person.  But in today's reading, we get another point of view that adds another facet to a teaching on humility.  It is not simply humility which might help us bear the brunt of an injustice or falsehood or harmful public disparaging, but even more importantly, it is humility that helps us benefit properly from a just rebuke made by a loving teacher.  Humility is the indispensable virtue that allows us to know a rebuke made in love by the Lord, whether that comes in the form of a stumbling block or any type of circumstance where we learn a lesson -- and more about ourselves -- by possibly falling flat on our faces, one way and another.  In a time, once again, when social media magnifies both a false pride and an over disparaging criticism or ridicule, we must consider the currently underestimated virtue of humility and how necessary it is to a Biblical perspective on our faith and discipleship.  I don't think it's fair to say that, at least in accordance with what we can read from the Gospels, humility might have prevented that vulnerable place in Judas' heart from being open to Satan.  It might have helped him to acknowledge that the rebuke from Christ was made by One who loved him.  It possibly may have allowed him to correct himself and his attitude.  And if he truly made the remark from greed, and because he was a thief, it opened the door for correction -- but his heart responded in a way to push him down a road of terrible destruction.  This is really a lesson for us all, as it illustrates something found repeatedly in the early teachings of the disciples, quite notably in what is called the Didache, the earliest teaching document of the Church, attributed to the disciples of Christ.  The Didache emphasizes the "two ways" we can choose:  the way of life and the way of death.  We can read this teaching also in Jesus' words, "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it" (Matthew 7:13-14).  Judas illustrates for us the importance of understanding that our choices are important, and most especially the ways in which we are capable of responding to a rebuke made in love, especially when we find ourselves in humiliating circumstances.  We need to have the humility it takes to give us the capacity to ask ourselves what God might be teaching us, and to accept a lesson we may need to learn in order to change to go forward on the road to life.  A refusal can so easily take us down the opposite road, even with consequences of great destruction to others and to ourselves.  Let us remember that a rebuke may indeed be a good and necessary thing, for none of us is without need of correction.  It is important to find a way to turn to our loving Lord to discern how best to respond, lest we give room the one who only destroys.