Thoughts From Luke 22:1-23 - Am I Judas?

Written BY JEREMY GOODMAN

Luke 22:1-23 (READ)

Here are some tips that that I got out of this section of text that might help you in your individual ‘day to day’ walks towards a greater level of holiness

1. God’s pictures are always perfect.

Verse 1 says: Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called the Passover. Here was Jesus preparing Himself to be sacrificed at the time of the Passover. We have this ‘double down’ of the Lord making a way for us. The picture that God originally gave the Passover as protection for His people in Egypt when they were trying to escape slavery and now ‘and forevermore’ Jesus is showing us that He is the ultimate protection, the ultimate sacrifice, He is drawing that parallel not only for those early believers but through the Holy Spirits wonderful, intricate work in compiling the bible. He is also showing us, the future generations of believers that He leaves nothing to chance. He has thought how all things can work together for those who believe in Him.

2. True power.

Verse 2 says: And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death, for they feared the people. It is the human default position that if we have power, we want to keep it. Think of this in the context of our own lives. You might think this doesn’t apply to you, but we all have power to varying degrees. It might be that in your job you have a couple of people under your leadership, or it might be that you have worked really hard to create a beautiful garden and then your grandchild comes along and wants to join you in your passion. Other people will have different ideas to yours and instead of enabling them to push forward and make changes, even when you know they are likely to make mistakes you hang on to your ways with everything you’ve got. It is so important that we recognise, just as the chief priests and scribes in scripture didn’t, that in all things, the true power of this place, the true power of our lives is Christ, and we should always be searching for His will not ours. Any power that we have on this mortal coil is fleeting and has been given to us from Him and we should reflect Him not us.

3. The enemy prowls.

Verse 3 says: Then satan entered Judas called Iscariot. It should be our life’s journey to be moving closer and closer to Jesus. The things that we repetitively do, spending time with the Lord in prayer, reading and studying the word, fasting, serving others with a pure heart, forgiving others, is not only to be good ambassadors for our Lord but also because it creates a ‘holy force field’, a barrier that is much, much more difficult for the enemy to penetrate because, be assured, he’s searching for the way ‘in’ at all time. Put on your armour Christian soldiers!

4. Dirty deeds are done in secret.

Verse 6 says: So he consented and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crowd. Evil is most often done in secret. We often want to do the ‘act’ but we don’t want to be killed for it, either metaphorically of figuratively. We don’t want to be caught. If we are doing a dirty deed, we don’t want the crowds. Always keep Jesus’s words in your mind from John 3 verses 20 & 21:

For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.  21  But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

Do nothing in secret because it is an illusion. God see’s everything and it will always come to light eventually in one place or the other.

5. He is all knowing.

He says to Peter in John in verse 8: Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it. And He gives them a list of things that they can expect, you’ll see a man carrying a jar of water – follow him, his master will have an upper room, and that that man will be amenable to Jesus and His followers using it. These are things that should highlight to us the intricacy that God applies to our lives also. We walk a heavenly ordained path. He knows all of us better than we know ourselves, he knows the numbers of the hairs on our heads – I bet you don’t. The size, the magnitude, the care and attention to detail that God applies to yours’ and my’ life and then go ahead and apply that ‘level of care’ to all past, present and future human beings. They estimate, to date, that it is somewhere in the vicinity of 108 billion people, that should simultaneously fill us with awe and with holy fear. He knows all of us, at all times, in all ways.

6. He really loves us.

Verse 15 says: I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. These 10 words should help lead us to the knowledge that Jesus really, really loves us. He just likes hanging out with us ‘warts and all’. He was reclining with the guy who was about to betray Him, he was reclining with a couple of ‘quick to anger’ sons of a fisherman as well as a whole lot of other broken-down misfits yet He still just really wanted to hang out with them. Well, look around. I see, including myself, a whole lot of broken-down misfits. It’s us that He loves.

7. I have the Judas potential.

So, we now get to the part of the text where Jesus is giving out the bread and wine and then He says but behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table. While that is an incredible statement in that He already knew who it was, of course He did – He knows everything, but the thing that stood out to me is at the end in verse 23: where it says: And they began to question one another, which of them it could be who was going to do this. Now we all want to be the hero of our own story, we all tend to look sideways at each other on occasion. It is far harder to look straight ahead into a mirror. Well, let me tell you what I see when I look into a mirror. I see a man who has the potential, who has the flaws, to do exactly the same as Judas did. If I don’t keep my eyes and my heart on Christ, if I don’t stay disciplined then I am susceptible to everything that Judas did, I think we all are. Always look to the inside, always look to Christ before you look and act on the outside. Ok, so those are some points that were highlighted to me, let’s call those the micro’s, the tools and tips that the Holy Spirit gives us every time we spend time with Him and every time we drink deeply from the word. Now let’s set our minds to the ‘macro’ the overarching messages that I see from this section of text: God is in control – there are no surprises There are no surprises for God ever. He knew what was about to happen, He knew He was the ultimate sacrifice, once for all. He knew people wanted Him dead, He knew He was hanging out with misfits and a traitor. He also knew that He was painting pictures that would resonate down through history to us and beyond so that we would have clear signposts to salvation. Maybe it’s easier for us to put this into perspective if we apply the mirror to ourselves. He knows that you and I will continue to hurt Him on the cross when we sin in this day, but He knew that He loved His Father and us so much that He was more than willing to pay that price. People still want Him dead to this day. There are people that want to extinguish His existence and kill His people. He knows that we are broken and let’s not mince words, when I say ‘broken’ I mean filled with the potential for every kind of depravity humanly possible, yet the overriding intent of His being ‘was’ and ‘is still’ His love for us. He wants us so much that He is ‘still’ prepared to go through the pain and anguish and in spite of that, in spite of what He knew was coming, He still wanted to show us the way ‘in that moment in time’ to salvation, to eternal reconciliation.

Where to from here?

What then is our job? How do we run the good race? If Jesus has done, and is continuing to do, His work what part do we play?

We are to live lives on an upward slope of momentum. We are to be more and more conformed to His likeness. I recognise that this pathway we are on as believers feels horrible sometimes. Most ofthe time, if I’m being truthful, I feel like I take 3 steps forward and 2 steps back. How then do we reach victory. How then, being broken, do I, do we, be more like Him instead of more like our old carnal natures? How do we ever hear those wonderful words, the most important words we will ever hear: “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”

It is in the 1 step. Remember I said I feel like I take 3 steps forward and 2 steps back. Well, if you are like me remember the ‘1 step’ you have gained. When you are next spending time by yourself look back, are you different than you were 5 years ago.

Here’s some things we must do to gain that 1 step - Trust Him. Trust that He is truthful. Trust that when He said “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” that He was telling us the truth. He was killed for those words. They are the start line of us running the good race. Rest in Him. We run around all our lives ‘doing things’. We are always busy looking for the ‘next thing’ but in truth the ability to run the good race has all been provided by Him. We didn’t reveal the truth to ourselves, the Holy Spirit did it. We want to do His will, but it is the Holy Spirit that reveals that will to us. It is Him who lines up the opportunities for us, it is Him who teaches us the lessons we must learn and He does it all because “for those who love God all things work together for good, [a]  for those who are called according to his purpose”. So slow down and rest in Him. You can’t earn those words from Jesus’s mouth when He says “come you who are blessed by my Father.”

Wait on Him. He will let you know His will if you wait on Him. While everything is possible with God, he most commonly speaks to us with a small, quiet voice so if you aren’t listening you might not hear Him. Attune yourself to His voice. Imagine you are ‘hearing impaired’ – maybe some of you are, and you have to listen extremely hard to understand what someone is saying to you. You might have to look at the person’s body language, you might have to read their lips, you might have to move closer to them. This is how we should listen for our Lords will. Forget the busyness of your life when you can. Get to the silence with your bible, pray to Him and then be quiet, fast, do everything you can to read His lips, to look for His body language because we, in our present state, are holiness impaired.

Someone once told me 4 points that I think are helpful for ‘holiness hearing’

1. I talk

2. The Lord listens

3. The Lord talks

4. I listen

Choose today to achnowledge your need of Christ, not only to save you - but to sustain you - to keep you.

Jesus never fails, even if we do. He can make us like He is, and the best news is that the scriptures promise us that HE WILL.