Jesus answers, He it is to whom I, after I have dipped the morsel, give it. And having dipped the morsel, he gives it to Judas [son] of Simon, Iscariote.
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And, after the morsel, then entered Satan into him. Jesus therefore says to him, What thou doest, do quickly.
Judas has just taken the morsel from the hand of the One he is about to sell, and at that exact point the enemy stops suggesting and takes possession. Two things follow. Satan himself enters a man. And the Lord, knowing it, tells him to get on with it.
What happens here is not where the enemy's work began. Satan had already worked on Judas through his desires. Now he moves in himself, at a moment of outward closeness to Christ.
Here is an important statement: after the morsel, Satan entered into Judas. There is much in that. A person can be familiar with Christ in an outward way, and where the heart is wrong that familiarity is a deadly way in for Satan's power. Satan had already won Judas's desires and suggested the evil. But here he takes possession of him in a personal way — Satan enters into him. He hardens his heart against every natural feeling.
Luke 22:3 reports the same fact without saying when it happened, and readers have often placed it too early.
The English translation misleads us if we take Luke's verse 3 to mean that Satan entered into Judas at that moment. From John 13:27 we know it was only after the morsel. John also keeps this full work of the enemy separate from the earlier occasion, when the enemy had put the betrayal into the betrayer's heart. Luke gives no marker of time here. He uses only a linking word, and is content with the broad fact without going into its stages one by one.
One phrase here stands alone in Scripture.
We read that after the morsel Satan entered into him. That is a remarkable word. We read of many cases of men possessed by demons, but this is the only time we hear of Satan himself entering into a man. Two people are called "the son of perdition" — Judas, and the Antichrist, or the man of sin.
The order matters: the command follows the possession. Once the enemy is inside, the last restraints are gone.
Lust had already opened the heart of Judas to the devil's suggestion. Now Satan himself takes possession of Judas. Any stirring of conscience left in Judas, any sense of shame, any shrinking back from the sin he was about to commit — the entrance of Satan silences it all. Satan does not hesitate. From now on Judas is the helpless instrument of his plans. For Judas there is now no turning back, and so the Lord can say to him, "What you are going to do, do quickly."
The same command opens a window on what Jesus was feeling that night.
It was all over with Judas when Satan entered into him. Nothing could stop him on his headlong course to destruction. But the feelings of the heart of Jesus come out when He said to the betrayer, "What you are going to do, do quickly." Not one of the disciples understood at the time why Jesus said this (John 13:28). Yet we can see the terrible pressure that lay on the spirit of Jesus, longing that what lay ahead of Him should be delayed no longer.
The scene looks like the enemy's victory. Look again: the enemy could not move at all without permission.
The Lord accepted the situation and told him to act quickly. It seems that even Satan could not move freely in this matter without God's permission. Once God granted it, Judas rose and left under Satan's controlling power. He went out into the night, in more senses than one.
John records that it was night. That is a fact about the hour, and more.
In the first place John is stating a plain fact: it really was night when Judas took the morsel and went out from the presence of his Lord. But think of the solemn character of the moment, and of his terrible moral condition — Satan had by then entered into him (v. 27). There can be no doubt that the statement is meant to stop us with its moral meaning… when Judas turned his back on Him and went out under the power of Satan, it was indeed night in his soul.
- Suggestion first. The devil had already won Judas' desires and put the betrayal into his heart. Verse 27 is the later, fuller stage: possession.
- Nearness is no safety. Outward familiarity with Christ, where the heart is wrong, became the very opening through which Satan came in.
- Satan himself. Demons entered many people. Scripture names only one man that Satan himself entered — one of two called "the son of perdition."
- No turning back. With the enemy inside, conscience, shame and hesitation fell silent. Only then does the Lord say, "do quickly."
- Still under permission. Satan could not move without God's permission. Judas rose at Christ's word and walked into a night that was around him and inside him at once.