¹² “While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.”

One perished. Jesus kept and guarded all but one. Judas. One can’t help but shudder when thinking about this man who was so close, yet so far. He was one of the twelve who had left all to follow Christ. His sacrifice was great, but it was flawed. As was the sacrifice all of them had made; take note of Peter’s impending denial of Christ which the Master had predicted (John 13:38). (We note the past tense used by our Lord in reference to Judas—and it is clear that this is the one to whom Jesus referred—an obvious use of the prophetic past tense, where He speaks of Judas’ yet to come suicide as a past event, good as done.

The failure of Judas, though, was not a failure of Jesus to keep and guard him. From the beginning, He knew the heart of Judas. After all had left Him, except the twelve who proclaimed their loyalty, Jesus said, “Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?” (John 6:70). At the beginning of the Lord’s supper, as John records it, the devil had “already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him…” (John 13:2).

The telltale signs of satanic work had been as early as the pre-ministry temptation of Jesus in the wilderness (Matt 4), but also in the challenges by demon possessed individuals, and now through the close knit, committed band of twelve men. None of the other disciples apparently suspected anything amiss with Judas. Even after that poignant moment in the Upper Room when Jesus said one of them would betray Him, after giving Judas’ the symbolic morsel, after Judas immediately leaves the group, none of the other eleven suspected him as a betrayer (John 13:26-30). In fact, each of them was more concerned about himself, whether Jesus thought he was the guilty party (Matt 26:25).

Much could be written about God’s sovereignty (“that Scripture would be fulfilled”) and the freedom of Judas’ will. But Judas’ betrayal was a prophetic certainty—and he would be held responsible (“… woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born” (Matt 26:24). And we shudder again.

The amazing thing here is that Satan was throwing his best (worst?) efforts at Jesus, using corruption in one of His closest followers. And yet all this plays into the hand of God, for the ultimate glorification of Jesus.

Lord, I believe the worst things that happen to me can become opportunities You to be glorified in me. Help me to remember and rest in that.