“The Devil Made Me Do It”

Posted on by korgrocker

“It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.”
John 13:2 NLT

Is “the devil made me do it” a valid excuse? It certainly wasn’t for Eve after the incident with the serpent. “Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?” “The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.” … Then he said to the woman, “I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth. And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you””(Genesis 3:13, 16)‭‭. Eve had to face into the consequences of her sin. But in her case, the desire to do something she wasn’t supposed to do was there, and the serpent acted as a catalyst to resolve the conflict in her mind. Eve wasn’t unique by any means, because how many times have we found ourselves in sin, having rationalised in our minds that the act of doing what we shouldn’t doesn’t really matter. The excuses and mental gyrations we go through to justify our sinful actions. “Just this once won’t really matter, after all everyone does it”. “I’m doing some research to find out more about this web site”. And so on. 

Regarding Judas, the reality was that he was already inclined to betray Jesus. We can only guess at a reason. Perhaps he was disappointed that Jesus wasn’t going to bring about the revolution in Israel that he thought He should. Perhaps he suspected that Jesus knew about his proclivity to steal from the common fund. The foot washing event that happened after supper might have been the vehicle that finally tipped Judas Iscariot over the edge, because soon after, he left the meeting to go and make arrangements to betray Jesus. But he wasn’t walking along one day and suddenly found that there was the devil or one of his representatives walking with him. The devil cannot make us do anything, but he is a master in finding our weak spots and leveraging them so that we fall into sin. In C S Lewis’ book “The Great Divorce”, there’s a fascinating account of a ghost complete with a little red demon, with tail and horns, sat on its shoulder, constantly whispering in its ear. So it is with the devil sometimes, it seems.

The action of Judas in his betrayal of Jesus started a chain of events that probably went far beyond what Judas was expecting. Perhaps he thought that he could force Jesus to become King and deal with the hated occupiers. But to look on and see what was happening over the next few hours wasn’t, or so some think, what Judas had in mind in his act of betrayal. We read what happened with Judas in Matthew 27:3-5, “When Judas, who had betrayed him, realized that Jesus had been condemned to die, he was filled with remorse. So he took the thirty pieces of silver back to the leading priests and the elders. “I have sinned,” he declared, “for I have betrayed an innocent man.” “What do we care?” they retorted. “That’s your problem.” Then Judas threw the silver coins down in the Temple and went out and hanged himself.” 

One day everyone will stand before God to give an account of their lives, and the excuse, “The devil made me do it” won’t wash with God. James wrote, “So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). John wrote, “But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world” (1 John 4:4). Through the power of the Holy Spirit, who lives within us, we have all the resources we need so that we are never tempted to say, “The devil made me do it”.

Dear Father God. Thank You for giving us Your Spirit, so that through Him we have the power to be overcomers. Amen.

Go and Wash

Posted on by korgrocker

“They asked, “Who healed you? What happened?” He told them, “The man they call Jesus made mud and spread it over my eyes and told me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash yourself.’ So I went and washed, and now I can see!” “Where is he now?” they asked. “I don’t know,” he replied.“
John 9:10-12 NLT

The events that took place that Sabbath day caused quite a stir in the blind man’s community. It was unheard of for a blind man to receive his sight and the people there wanted an explanation. They knew the man had been blind because, after all, he had been born in that community. He had grown up there, and he now had to survive by abandoning any hope of personal dignity or respect and beg for alms, for money. There was no safety net of state handouts, and people in those days who were unable to work either begged for the money they needed to live on or they died. These poor unfortunate people were not like the beggars we meet on the streets in our towns and cities here in the UK. These were desperate people who cried out for alms as their fellow countrymen walked past. 

The blind man’s life had been turned upside down by his encounter with Jesus. He had to adapt to a whole new way of living, and would now have to work for his livelihood, perhaps labouring in the fields or some other manual task. And his first challenge was to convince those in his community that he was now a different man. The people around him had to adjust as well, because the man no longer blind was a living and walking challenge to their religious complacency. The religion they followed was not powerful enough to heal a blind man, but they had heard about this Man who claimed to be the Son of God and who could heal the sick, the blind and the lame. And this Man said to them that He also had the power to assure them of eternal life if they believed in Him. 

So the people interrogated the man to try and ascertain if there was some trickery going on. “How did He do it?”, they asked. The response was factual and so matter of fact that it must have been true. The man’s testimony has leapt from these pages in John 9 for two thousand years or so, encouraging and challenging all who read them.

The man was healed because he obeyed what Jesus had told him to do. Are we pilgrims equally as obedient. Let me ask a question – what has Jesus told us to do that we haven’t done yet? It may be something lacking the drama of that Sabbath day in Jerusalem, but important nevertheless. The blind man had a choice about obeying Jesus’ command, “go and wash”. And we too have a choice. On our discipleship pilgrimage wen will often come up against boulders that block our way forward. Many will camp there and give up the journey, saying this Christian life is too hard. But us hardy pilgrims reach out to God for His grace and strength to be overcomers. The apostle Paul wrote, “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37). We have the power within us, to be applied with faith and fortitude. And before us the boulders will turn out to be no more than a pebble on the ground.

Dear Father God. Thank You for Your strength and resources. We have not suffered in the way that Paul did on his missionary journeys, but we have challenges nevertheless. We are soldiers of Christ, able to press on His name. Amen.