John 12 NLT
Jesus Anointed at Bethany
1 Six days before the Passover celebration began, Jesus arrived in Bethany, the home of Lazarus—the man He had raised from the dead. 2 A dinner was prepared in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, and Lazarus was among those who ate with Him. 3 Then Mary took a twelve-ounce jar of expensive perfume made from essence of nard, and she anointed Jesus’ feet with it, wiping His feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance. 4 But Judas Iscariot, the disciple who would soon betray him, said, 5 “That perfume was worth a year’s wages. It should have been sold and the money given to the poor.” 6 Not that he cared for the poor—he was a thief, and since he was in charge of the disciples’ money, he often stole some for himself. 7 Jesus replied, “Leave her alone. She did this in preparation for My burial. 8 You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have Me.”
Enter Judas. A poor misguided soul. We often look at Judas betrayal and think ill of him but what about the person underneath? Judas was trusted by the other eleven. So much so that he was made in charge of the money purse. Jesus had chose him as one of the inner circle, fully knowing what he would later do. Judas spent three years with Jesus and the disciples so they all must have known each other fairly well.
Yet Judas faith was not genuine. He had not fully believed in Jesus, He had not surrendered to Him. He left space for doubt, he left space for Satan to enter him.
When we have doubt, when we leave that space in our faith, when we don't truly surrender all, we allow Satan to enter. Satan is the father of lies and he uses that doubt to twist our thoughts, twist our faith and twist the truth. He turns us from Jesus and our total surrender to Him. He makes us doubt ourselves.
We don't need to doubt. We don't need to second guess, Jesus loves us as we are, flaws and all. He wants to give us the assurance of His love and safety. He wants us to have our faith complete. He wants us to just surrender all.
Blessings, Cecilia
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