Darkside (John 13:21-30) 130407
I ride a motorbike. It is very convenient if it is not raining. I can wriggle my way through massive jam and park my motorbike literally anywhere. But recently I am in a dilemma. I do not usually put a parking coupon if I am parking at a HDB carpark for about an hour time. My rational is that: for motorbike, the park rate is 65 cents for half a day. I do not want to waste a coupon for just an hour parking, anyway, the carpark warden do not usually give summon to motorbike.
But this is wrong! This is cheating! This is lack of integrity! This is sin! I feel ashamed for being so hypocrite as a Christian. Am I alone on this? Have you ever tell a ‘white’ lie? Have you ever get tempted to take a peep at some pornography site? Have you ever taken stationery from the office for personal use? These are giving false testimony, adultery (a bit exaggerated) and stealing! These are the works of Satan, not of God.
I think Jesus will be very sad and troubled when He know that we harbor these sins and allow Satan to continue to work in our hearts. At least He was troubled in spirit as He knew that Judas was to betray Him (v21). What caused Judas to want to betray Jesus?
This question has been bothering me for many years as a Christian. Even now, I still do not have a good answer. Is it the will of God that Judas was predestined to betray Jesus? Then Judas should be innocent and in fact he was merely following God’s plan, so he should be considered as a good man! But we also read from the Scripture that the Satan actually entered into him (v27). In another word, Judas had been allowing Satan to tempt him so that Satan could enter into him. Satan has no power over us unless we have allowed him and open away in our hearts to enter.
Judas was indeed predestined to betray Jesus, but it was Judas himself too had allowed his integrity to be vulnerable. Judas was the treasurer of the team. He had the money box (v29). If we pick up those portions of the Gospel that mentioned about Judas, we can see that he was being portray as very calculative person and he had weakness with money. He had been taking money from the combined fund, he saw that perfume should be sold for money rather than wasted on Jesus, and he did not bother to deal with his weakness honestly when Jesus brought it up to him. This was his darkside.
Do you have any darkside too? It could be very small matter at this point, but are you willing to deal with it if it is brought up to your attention? I have purposed in my heart that as long as I am parking at any HDB carpark, I will put a parking coupon. But I thank God, there are still many free parking space for motorbike.
