³ Then Satan entered into Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve disciples, ⁴ and he went to the leading priests and captains of the Temple guard to discuss the best way to betray Jesus to them. ⁵ They were delighted, and they promised to give him money. ⁶ So he agreed and began looking for an opportunity to betray Jesus so they could arrest him when the crowds weren’t around. Luke 22:3-5 NLT

Judas had seen Jesus perform miracles, even raise someone from the dead, and yet still turned Christ over to those who hated Him. Judas had the best teacher, best friend, best person to be around and yet, Judas betrayed Him. One has to wonder what it would have taken for Judas to believe? Is there anything Jesus could have done differently to bring Judas closer? To give him a different perspective?

Satan can use those closest to us to not only hurt but destroy us (John 10:10). Satan will use misunderstanding, miscommunication, and mistrust to try to bust up the family and the plan of God. Judas heard the best sermons, saw Jesus live the perfect life, love people and love God and yet it still wasn’t enough for him. Truthfully, for some, it would never be enough. But the fact is, the ones who lost in all of this was Judas and Satan, along with the Kingdom of Darkness. Jesus wasn’t surprised by the betrayal: He expected it (Matthew 26:20-25). Jesus used it to accomplish His greater plan. Jesus had come to save us, not Himself. He had come to deliver us from evil by being betrayed by it. Jesus overcame evil with more good (Romans 12:21)!

The wonder of it all isn’t that Judas betrayed Christ because let’s be honest, we’ve all had our moments of not believing, not honoring and not loving Jesus the way we should. The wonder of it all is that Jesus loved Judas (John 13:1-5)…that Jesus loves us…that Jesus loves me.