Our Heart

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

OUR HEART

Luke 22:1-6

22:1 Now the Feast 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.

NIV

An interesting take on Judas is at hand here. He is none other than a minister of the gospel, as he was one of the twelve who Jesus sent out to preach the good news to and to heal the sick and drive out demons. Judas was also the keeping of the treasury for the twelve, he was the money man. He also agree to do this thing for a price, for some personal gain of his own. This is no doubt the work of Satan and not of Judas alone, yet was Judas guilty of serving two masters, God and money? How could Satan have entered the heart of a devoted follower of Jesus? It would seem the only way Satan could have entered Judas was the Judas left a door open within his heart for him to enter, and that door is due to his own desires, his own passions toward money. Of course he decided to betray Jesus even before the offer of money was brought up, at least that by the chief priests. But here we need to see the actives, the mode of operation of Satan.  It is most likely he did not actually enter Judas physically of even spiritually, but that he influenced the mind of Judas. We should also consider that Satan cannot influence us beyond our own natural sin nature. That is he tempts us with that which we already have a weakness toward. This is the case with Judas, he was tempted by greed and that is what Satan used to influence his behavior. This is what we need to be extremely aware of in our lives. We cannot allow ourselves to hide our weaknesses, especially from ourselves. If we think we have overcome all temptations and we are truly, wholly dedicated to God, completely sanctified so to speak, as one denomination calls it, we have done nothing but deceived ourselves and may be in danger of falling prey to the very temptation which we have refused to admit exists within us. As with the case of Judas, any minister of the gospel who falls prey to greed does more harm than good to Christianity. Considering that all of us are in one sense of another ministers of the gospel, we too should be careful of this greed. We might see the evil temptations listed in the scriptures, the evil of smoking, drinking, dancing, movies, that are equal to murder, stealing, cheating, adultery and the such, but we might miss greed, because we want more money, we do not have enough of it. Money provides for what we want, and for our secure future, so we hoard it, we invest it, we massage it, we fall in love with it, and the temptation of it has begotten our hearts. We have become servants of two masters, which cannot be, so we have left one for the other, in our hearts. This can happen with any temptation, not just that one of greed. Whatever our natural inclination is toward, Satan will use it to draw our heart and mind away from God. This we have to see for what it is, and pray God will guard our heart and mind from that which would give Satan a foothold. When we know our weakness we can be more aware of the tempting when it comes. But if we deny we have any weakness, we may not see that temptation for what it is, and fall to it before we notice we have. Remember Judas loved Christ, he heard the voice of Jesus call to him, “follow me, and I will make you fishers of men”, yet he was tempted by Satan with something from his own weakness, greed. Was that the plan of God? Maybe, perhaps he had another way for Jesus to get to the cross. We will never know. But a fallen minister of gospel did what all the chief priests, Pharisees, teachers of the law and elders could not do, betray Jesus. Let us learn that lesson deep within our heart. The world asks what’s in your wallet, but we need to ask, what’s in our heart?