2026/09/14

265. The Gospel of John and the Priesthood of the New Covenant: From the Devil to Satan

Let us continue the topic from our previous reflection. In John chapter 6, after many of the disciples who had been listening to Jesus' words had turned away, Jesus asked the twelve disciples who remained, "Do you also wish to go away?" (Jn 6:67). Simon Peter replied, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God" (6:68–69). Jesus' response to these words is striking because one of the "we" in Peter's words is likened to the devil. This stemmed from Judas, son of Simon Iscariot’s state, who had seen that "many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him" (6:66).

Judas's state at that time remained at the very same point as that of the "woman" in Genesis chapter 3, who, whilst pondering God's command in various ways, concluded: "You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Gen 3:4–5). At this moment, the "woman," having absorbed "human information" and made it her own knowledge, can be likened to the devil. Subsequently, prompted by finding "when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise" (3:6), she took the fruit that God had forbidden them to eat, and gave some to her husband, who was with her. The "woman," at the moment she committed this act, can be likened to being in a state where "Satan entered into her." The devil becomes Satan when one finds the opportune moment to carry out an actual act. Judas, too, could have taken the opportunity—when "many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him"—to act by departing from Jesus. 

However, he remained with Jesus. The Gospel later explained the reason why he did so: "He was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to take what was put into it" (cf. Jn 12:6). The fact that he stayed with Jesus whilst still in a demonic state caused him great inner conflict. This was because the words God had spoken to "the woman" in Genesis—"I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel" (Gen 3:15)—were about to be fulfilled. This word of God had already manifested its power in Cain, a seed of the "woman." Thanks to the "enmity God has placed," despite having committed murder, he turned back to God in fear of his own deed and was saved. Now, the one standing before Judas was none other than Jesus, the very personification of the "enmity God has placed" (cf. Lk 2:34–35). 

To manifest the image and likeness of God in cooperation with the Holy Spirit, human beings have been endowed with "human knowledge" appropriate to their nature, enabling them to maintain a balance between the spiritual realm—created in the likeness of God—and the bodily realm—created in the image of God and endowed with riches, power and authority not found in any other created being (cf. blog No. 252). Even when God appeared before humanity in the flesh as Jesus, the "enmity God has placed" remained within a person, accompanying their "human knowledge," whenever "human information" became involved with that knowledge. Consequently, the magnitude of the conflict that arose when one took in "human information" from their memory as their own knowledge, without distinguishing it from the self that ought to be cooperating with the Holy Spirit, was—due to evolution—not comparable to that of the "woman" or Cain in Genesis. 

At the Last Supper, Jesus said, "The Son of man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born" (Mat 26:24). These words reveal the deep regret of God made man. Jesus' question at the end of John chapter 6—"Do you also wish to go away?"—could be thought to have been directed at Judas in particular. That is because Jesus, who came into the world as the very "enmity God has placed," was, as John the Baptist said, "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (Jn 1:29). It was Jesus who declared, "I am the bread of life" (6:35). The Eucharist, which appears as the Body of Christ during the Mass, asks even the Judas lurking within us believers: "Do you also wish to go away?" 

Nowadays, when the priest raises the Eucharist and declares, "Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb," believers throughout the world—priests and congregation alike—respond together: "Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed." Yet a stark contrast is seen between this response and the fact that they immediately go on to receive the Eucharist. Moreover, at the beginning of the Communion Rite, all the faithful recite the Lord's Prayer, in which they pray, "Give us this day our daily bread." What, indeed, does this strange spectacle that we Catholic believers perform mean? 

When we recall that it is later explained that Judas remained with Jesus because he was a thief who was in charge of the money box and had been embezzling its contents, we are compelled to ask ourselves anew why we remain in such a reality above. 

Maria K. M.