“Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot,”– Lk 22:3-4.

HAPPY RENEWING HOLY WEEK. As we approach the end of 2025 Lent, one name echoes more than most: Judas Iscariot. Beyond our human process of vilifying Judas, we must be careful not to fall into the trap of minimising our sins, iniquities and transgressions. Lent humbles us not to overlook but to confront our personal and corporate compromising capacities and laser-free attitudes and habits to do wrong.

Lent summons us to unravel our ugly and immoral layers and theologies of daily decisions. Beloved, are you under satanic manipulation, grappling with the same temptations and weaknesses of Judas, a model of transaction leader and an institutional’ deal broker’?  Must your story end in tragedy like Judas’s story? While you may not be far from Judas, your story can end in redemption through Jesus Christ.

Betrayal from one’s closest friend is devastating and challenging to process and swallow, especially when our human nature takes over. Judas betrayed God’s righteousness and human trust. He was chosen as Jesus chose the other eleven disciples. He was with Jesus during His public ministry, BUT NOT TO THE END. He was made the treasurer of Jesus’ discipleship class (Jn 13:29). Peradventure, he drove out impure spirits and healed the sick Matt 10:1). Using the words of Dr Kikelomo Adeyemi, Judas passed through Jesus (the church), but did not allow Jesus (the church) to pass through him. He was called and equipped to be holy but chose to compromise. He chose the world and not the Word. Sadly, ‘Judas Iscariot has followers in the church – leaders, founders, elders, people in positions of trust, who have been in the church forever and who embraces his tactics.’

Kenneth J. Zanca, in his book, The Judas Within: An Interpretation of the Character of Judas…and the Judas Within Each of Us, invites us to accept the Judas within us in our marriage, family, church, and nations. Accepting Judas within us as workers of lawlessness humbles us and allows us to embrace and repent from the darkness in Judas and ourselves. The Judas within us suggests a textbook case of how we fall and how Satan works to kill and destroy God’s mission. Satan is fighting a lost battle to date, enticing and recruiting people from one sin to another regardless of titles or positions, wasting God’s grace and confusing the minds of people like Judas, even within us. The Judas within us is counted among the believers as ‘Born Again’ Christians. They know the scriptures. They preach. They are prayer warriors. They are caring and hospitable. They ‘display less of Jesus and more of self. They dine with the church and the devil at the same time, meaning they wear masks. They are traitors.’ They honour the Lord with their lips, but their hearts are far from the Lord (Matt 15:8-9).

Judas was poor, confused and motivated by greed and a desire for money. Satan entered him before he brokered a deal with the Sanhedrin, a powerful religious court and institution, seeking to eliminate Jesus due to his growing mission and perceived threat to their authority. A Sanhedrin institution in today’s context is not concerned with fair trials. They used their money and power to manipulate their victims to gather false evidence and information to establish their anti-gospel decisions before the real trial. Sanhedrin institution is anti-gospel, just as the Jewish leaders defined Jesus’ healing of people on the Sabbath as ‘work’ which was forbidden. Sanhedrin institutions are not scarce with false witnesses, just as false witnesses come forward, misquoting Jesus’ words. They distorted Jesus’ teaching about the Resurrection when he said His body (temple) would be raised in three days. It is important to identify Joseph, a wealthy man who came from Arimathea in Judea, ‘a good and righteous man who managed to be both a member of the Council (the Sanhedrin) and a secret supporter of Jesus – which is why he did not join in the Council’s actions against Jesus.’

The Gospel of Luke provides a detailed background before Judas approached the Sanhedrin, “Satan entered into Judas who was called Iscariot.”  “What will you give me if I deliver him to you?” Judas asked the Sanhedrin, “What will you give me if I deliver him to you?” In response, ‘the Sanhedrin named their price: 30 pieces of silver.’

Satan at Work, ‘Mission on Sale,’ Illustration of workers of lawlessness warns the church against the evil of transactional leadership, ecumenism, and partnership. Church grows and unites through transformational leadership and mutual partnership. The interplay between the Sanhedrin and Judas reveals the ongoing and increasing evil of transactional leadership, ecumenism, and partnership, which the highest bidder shapes and agreements on monetary terms for personal gain. Imagine Judas seeing himself as Jesus’ master, a wrong and evil assumption and manipulation that is declining the mission today.

The ‘mission’ and truth Judas’ betrayed with a kiss’ and sold was the act of delivering Jesus into the hands of His enemies. How deeply have Judas Iscariot’s kiss of betrayal, a deceptive act of apparent friendship of loyalty that masks a betrayal, a model of those who treasure money than Jesus infiltrated the church and murdered the gospel? Judas warns us that saving faith differs from religious activities, titles, or positions. Judas reminds us of satisfaction in money that corrupts our souls. Megan Basham’s book, Shepherds for Sale: How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda, not only offers an urgent wake-up call for all faithful Christians, but it also calls us to take action to stop Judas from trading mission/biblical truth for thirty pieces of worldly silver.

In the Gospel, Judas becomes a vivid illustration of the people, workers, and leadership exchanging worldly silver for the mission. Jesus said, “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?'” (Matt 7: 22-23). ‘That is Judas — and many, many other people in history. And then Jesus will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” What a vivid lesson to learn that correct doctrine (“Lord, Lord, we know who you are; we have got our doctrine right, Lord, Lord”) and religious activity and miracle-working (“We have cast out demons; we have healed people”) prove nothing about saving faith and being born again. That is the lesson of Judas.’

Lent offers us a way forward through repentance. Your story must not be a life and ministry cut short out of guilt but a tragedy inviting us to rewrite our own Judas-like narratives. No one is ever ‘too irreparable’ or ‘too deep’ in sin that we cannot be saved. You must not lose your purpose and mission because of money. You can rise again. Stop viewing your sin through the eyes of the world. Start looking at your sins through the eye of Jesus Christ and REPENT.