The Judas Problem

So here is the problem.

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

We know that Jesus said that one of his disciples, one of the apostles, would betray him.

How did he know this?

Well, you may say, he knew everything that was going to happen. He knew he would be captured and tortured and killed.

Did he know Satan was planning to enter Judas?

Do you see why this is a problem for me? I don't believe Jesus was in cahoots with Satan. They may have talked to each other once or twice, but it was not a friendly conversation. 

So, this is Luke's interpretation of what he was told by others, and back then, everyone believed Satan played an active role in everything bad.

Maybe we still like to believe that, but isn't this act of defiance Judas' fault?

We can come up with ideas about his motive, and some I have heard are quite plausible, but he didn't wait around to be tried by public opinion. So, we have this version of the story where Satan corrupts him.

That is OK, until we add that Jesus knew it would happen.

If he knew, why wouldn't he have warned Judas?

There is some wordplay between them, as it is written, but that is over dinner, and according to this, the deed was already done.

So, how did this really go down?

We may never know. But, as is true with all Scriptures, there is plenty to talk about.

More to come...