Thoughts From Luke - Day 92

                                                Luke 22:1-6

Now the Festival of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover, was approaching, ² 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. ³ Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve. ⁴ And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus. ⁵ They were delighted and agreed to give him money. ⁶ He consented, and watched for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to them when no crowd was present.


           Karen and I love watching Survivor and we usually watch it with our good friends the Czajkowskis often combining it with going out to eat, prior. This week there was a guy, who I predicted to win, who, when his back was up against the wall at tribal council, outed a transgender guy saying that they couldn't trust him because if he was deceitful about that, just imagine what else he would be deceitful about. You can imagine the immediate horror among the tribe mates saying that coming out should always be the person's own decision and how dare he. There was shock on the transgender's face - a look of betrayal like this secret he shared with one person had been used to betray him. Also he had a look like, will my tribe still accept me and forgive me for not being completely honest with them. And then there was the shame of the betrayer who then realized, for the sake of money with the justification that he was helping Zeke to "come out", he had crossed the line and what he thought was a good move would be something so bad that he was immediately evicted and frankly now will even have a hard time living in the real world after this blunder. Think Bartman and the Cubs. Think Jane Fonda and vets. And then there is the conspiracy theory over-arching all this, that this was scripted because the immunity challenge had them spelling out the word "metamorphosis" which really isn't a Survivor word.

         You might see a little correlation with this passage. Judas, pretending to be Jesus' friend knows His itinerary. Jesus has shared with him where they will be staying so Judas knows when Jesus will be away from the crowds. He shares this with the High priests for money maybe with the rationalization that if Jesus wants to be the Messiah, He needs a little help. We will see in the future, the look of betrayal on Jesus' face and the remorse of Judas when he realizes what he did. He won't be able to live with it and will kill himself. And yet there is the over-arching conspiracy theory as suggested in Jesus Christ Superstar, that Judas was a pawn used by God to bring about His purposes. After all, didn't the Psalms predict that Jesus would be betrayed by a friend? Was not the whole scenario scripted out and Satan and Judas were used to their own demise?

       Obviously, God used this betrayal, and since He knows the future, wrote about it 1000 years prior in the Psalms through the Holy Spirit inspiring David. Yet Judas always had a choice. Unfortunately, his love for money opened him up to do the Devil's bidding. Also, his pride of thinking he had a better plan than Jesus may have been the impetus of the betrayal. Today, these factors are what allow Satan to run people's lives and eventually send them into eternal destruction - the love of money. pleasure, and the things of this world, and the belief that I have a better plan to get to Heaven - it's being a good person. Unfortunately, at judgement day - at tribal council, the judge will say depart from me, and then the regret, remorse, shame and finally realizing the mistake that they willingly made will haunt them for all eternity.

       Don't think you know better than Jesus. Don't miss eternity for the things of this world. You are getting duped by the "producer" of this world, Satan. Say "NO" and join into the plan of Christ for your life. It won't be easy as we will see the disciples fleeing for their lives, you won't be rich, you won't be popular, but you will be on the right side for all eternity and you will be the winner at the end.