Our Enemies, God's Servants

“When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve. And while they were eating, he said, 'Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.’

They were very sad and began to say to him one after the other, ‘Surely you don’t mean me, Lord?’

Jesus replied, ‘The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.’

Matthew 26:20-24

In a curious paradox of God’s sovereignty, Judas served God even as he opposed him. Judas was 100% wrong in betraying Jesus, yet Jesus needed to be betrayed. Jesus showed us how it is possible to view our enemies as God’s servants: “The Son of Man will go just as it has been written about him. But woe to the man who betrays the Son of Man!”

There is no sentimentality, no convoluted thinking: “Since he’s serving God, maybe he isn’t really responsible.” No; Judas is guilty. But in being guilty, he’s getting God’s work done.

Matthew Henry (1662-1714), an English nonconformist clergyman, urges us to find God’s providence in the many slights and even persecutions that come our way: “We must abide by this principle that whatever it is that crosses us, or is displeasing to us at any time, God has an overruling hand in it.”

Just as Jesus accepted Judas’ betrayal as part of God’s plan, and so many Old Testament prophets accepted the conquering war of foreign tyrants as God’s discipline, so Matthew Henry says we are to accept our enemies’ taunts and persecutions as God’s tools to refine us, shape us, and transform us, thereby accomplishing God’s will.