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What causes us to change sides?

Now the festival of Unleavened Bread, which is called the Passover, was near. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to put Jesus to death, for they were afraid of the people. Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was one of the twelve; he went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers of the temple police about how he might betray him to them. They were greatly pleased and agreed to give him money. So he consented and began to look for an opportunity to betray him to them when no crowd was present. Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, ‘Go and prepare the Passover meal for us that we may eat it.’ They asked him, ‘Where do you want us to make preparations for it?’ ‘Listen,’ he said to them, ‘when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him into the house he enters and say to the owner of the house, “The teacher asks you, ‘Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’” He will show you a large room upstairs, already furnished. Make preparations for us there.’ So they went and found everything as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal. - Luke 22:1-13

In today's Gospel reading, Judas decides to change sides.  He suddenly believes it is best to offer Jesus to those who want to imprison him.

Why?

Luke tells us Satan entered Judas, and that is a convenient explanation.  Who can argue with that?  The devil made him do it.  That's like saying it wasn't his fault, isn't it?

Life is all about making choices and living with the consequences.  Judas chose to hand Jesus over.  For whatever reason, he thought it was the right thing to do.  We write it off to greed, believing he wanted the money.  But later, he tosses the money away.

If it was only about money, would he give it up?

What happened to Judas could happen to us.  We could reach a point where we believe we have to do something radical, and before we know it, we are doing it.  Later, though, we may regret our decision, and then it may be too late to change what we caused to happen.

So, what if Judas believed Jesus wanted him to do what he was about to do?

Then the whole situation changes, doesn't it? The meaning of the act flips, and our perspective does along with it.

More to come...