Last time we thought about how Judas Iscariot remained fully responsible for his great sin in betraying Jesus. Even though Satan ‘entered into’ his heart to move him, this did not relieve Judas of responsibility for his act. The Devil did not make him do it; he did it. Satan, in an evil relational way, influenced Judas. But he did so working upon a mind already prepared for such betrayal.
John tells us that it was Judas’s avarice, his love of money, which was central to his downfall. When Mary anointed Jesus with the enormously expensive ointment in Passover week, John tells us it was Judas who viewed this act as a waste of money. He stated that it would have been better to sell the precious ointment and then use the cash to help the poor.
John then adds a key comment (12:6): ‘He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the money bag he used to help himself to what was put into it.’ Now in Matthew 26:14 we find that it was following this episode of Mary’s anointing of Jesus at Bethany that Judas sneaked off to the chief priests to betray Jesus.
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