Anonymous Asks (356)

“What does it mean that ‘Satan entered into’ Judas?”

The quote we are concerned with comes from the upper room in John 13. Jesus responds to a question about the identity of his betrayer by saying, “It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it,” after which he dips the little piece of bread and hands it to Judas in plain sight of the other disciples, forever dividing his self-identified disciples into “fake” and “real”.

How did Judas feel about being outed like this in front of all his peers?

Called Out

Either he was thinking about something else and missed the import of receiving the bread entirely, or else he was incredibly humiliated and forever severed from the rest of the disciples in that moment. Which is it? We don’t know, but I suspect the latter scenario is closer to the reality. Judas took the bread and ate it, which seems almost a defiant act if he fully understood what he was doing. Consider the last time someone saw through you and called you out in front of your peers. How did you feel? Were you likely to be conciliatory? Did you reconsider and go another way, or did you double down on the path you had already chosen?

Well, we know what Judas did. John tells us he had spiritual help in fully defecting to the other side. “Satan entered into him.” Now there’s a scary prospect. What does that mean exactly?

Indwelling?

This wasn’t a permanent condition like the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Satan’s control of Judas was not perpetual. Both Luke and John refer to Satan “entering into” Judas, but they locate his entrance into Judas’ person at different times. We know about the John 13 scene, which we have just considered, but Luke documents another moment prior to the Feast of Unleavened Bread in which Judas, aware that the chief priests and scribes desired to put Jesus to death, went away and conferred with them about how he might betray him to them. That moment came about because “Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot.” If Satan entered into Judas at least twice, as scripture teaches, then we ought not to compare his momentary control of an individual, even if tremendously powerful, to the concept of God himself taking up permanent residence in the believing heart.

This phrase is also not common in scripture. The closest we can find elsewhere might be Peter’s accusation of Ananias in Acts 5: “Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?” That certainly seems to describe a similar process. It suggests a temporary level of absolute satanic control over motive and actions that continues for some period and ends once Satan has accomplished what he set out to do with that person.

Satan Demanded

The natural question that arises is, “Could Satan do this unilaterally?” The Lord’s warnings to both the disciples and to Peter specifically (“watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation”) imply that the enemy is not able to easily captivate and control a believer to do his will. We have in our possession the God-given means of keeping the enemy from seizing the wheel and driving.

Further, Satan requires heavenly permission to exercise full control over an individual. “Satan demanded to have you,” the Lord informs Peter, “but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.” The Lord allowed Peter to fail up to a point in order to teach him an important lesson, but he did not permit Satan to break his disciple entirely.

In Judas’ case, sadly, there wasn’t any faith to fail. Still, Satan’s control over the betrayer’s actions was not permanent, probably due less to moral resistance from Judas than to Satan’s indifference to what happens to those he uses after he has finished with them. Seeing that Jesus had been condemned, Judas became remorseful rather than gleeful at his own success, and ended by taking his own life.

Remorse with no Recourse

Again, that is suggestive about the effects of being “entered into” by Satan. In going to the chief priests and scribes to betray Jesus, anyone thinking normally would surely have considered the strong possibility that betrayal would end in the execution of the Lord. That was certainly the Jewish leadership’s intention, and Luke has already told us that Judas was aware what they had in mind. Yet, when Judas saw Jesus was condemned, Matthew says, “he changed his mind”. The implication is that when Satan entered into Judas, his conscience and intellect were sufficiently impaired that he was unable to comprehend the inevitable consequences of his own choices. His brain stopped working properly.

For both Ananias and Judas, having Satan “filling the heart” resulted in choices they could not walk back, and that ended in physical death. I suspect they ended in spiritual death as well, though that is not quite so clearly spelled out. The disciples believed Judas went “to his own place”. That’s not a pretty picture.

The Upshot

As for Ananias, I have to think he was a weed among the wheat. I find it hard to believe Satan could enter or fully control a post-Pentecostal believer indwelt by the Holy Spirit. How could the Holy Spirit of God and Satan reside simultaneously in the same human being, even for a short period?