Luke 22:31-32; Test

In these two verses there are things that jump off the page.

Why did Jesus call him Simon . . . twice. Jesus reverted to the name of the man which was used before his call. To me it speaks of the two sides of all of us. There are times in life where we do our best and are very focused spiritually. However, Jesus was telling Peter that this was not one of those times for him. He was about to respond like he would have outside of a relationship with Jesus. How often do I do the same? How often do I fall back on old behavior and quit living out of a spiritual point of view?

Satan had asked God permission to attack the apostles (the "you" is plural). It rings of Job. Obviously from the rest of the story, God granted the permission. Yet Jesus prayed for Peter's faith to not collapse. That he prayed is interesting; we think of prayer as something we do to get God's help. Here is God incarnate praying for another person.

And Jesus proclaimed Peter's fall. "And when you turn back" is tragic. Yet it is also hopeful. Failure is not the end of those who seek a relationship with Jesus. It is temporary if we make the decision to "turn back".

Luke 22:1-6; Entering Judas

Judas played such a key role in the death of Jesus. The enemies of Jesus wanted to end his career but they had no instrument to do it with . . . till Judas came along. I wonder how happy they were when he came for a visit? How they must have considered it good fortune. Probably they even thanked God for him.

Yet the eerie truth is given in the preceding verses that Judas was not led by God but Satan. The phrase "Then Satan entered Judas" seems to imply that Judas dropped all defenses, all pretenses and surrendered to Satan. Something changed that opened a pathway to his soul.

Was it a lack of focus on Judas' part? A lack of effort? Was it a turning to evil prompted by greed, or prestige or bitterness? So little is written but so much came from it. One person gave Satan entrance and everyone suffered.