Holy Week Daily Devotional 4/8/20

Below, you will find a few resources to assist you in cultivating your life with God as we prayerfully reflect on the events of Holy Week. Included are a reading for reflection and the traditional Scripture readings for today. There is also a link (under the prayer below)  to some meditative music you may want to play during your time with God today.

 

[Suggestion: Find a quiet, comfortable place. Take a few deep breaths to begin your time of prayer, and perhaps as a way of dedicating yourself again to God, you may want to say to yourself on each respective inhale: “In the name of the Father…and of the Son…and of the Holy Spirit…” Then, prayerfully say the Lord’s Prayer and begin reading when you are ready.]

 

 

Wednesday of Holy Week

   I have occasionally met people who have very strange names (like the time in college when I was introduced to two sisters named Rainbow and Sunshine), but one name comes to mind which I’ve never heard of a parent giving to their child: Judas.

  I’m sure there is an exception out there somewhere, and I hope that his parents either weren’t English-speaking or just didn’t know this story very well, but–thankfully–not many parents choose to give their sons the name of the most well-known traitor in the history of the world.

  Despite its history after Jesus, the name, Judas, has strong roots. It was a common name for Jewish boys in Jesus’ day. Two of the twelve disciples had the name, plus one of Jesus’ brothers. Judas, Jude, Judah–even Jew and Jewish–all come from the same name/word and all point back in Israel’s history to one of Jacob’s sons. In Jesus’ day, it was a heroic name with royal implications. Judas Maccabaeus successfully led a revolt against Israel’s oppressors a couple of centuries before Jesus was born. Judas the Galilean led a revolt against the Romans during Jesus’ boyhood, which was crushed brutally.

  But ever since the day we’re considering in this reflection, somewhere around Wednesday of the last week of Jesus’ life, the name Judas brings to mind evil, darkness, and the worst aspects of the human heart.

  Judas was part of the inner circle from the beginning of Jesus’ public career. Despite how artwork through the centuries has portrayed him, there was nothing about Judas that made him stand out as the obvious choice for “Most Likely to Betray God’s Anointed.” He was one of the group, hoping that Jesus was the one for whom they had been waiting. He was there passing baskets around to the crowd when five loaves of bread and two fish had fed thousands of people. He saw the sick healed, demons cast out, and the dead raised to life–perhaps, at Jesus’ instruction, even doing some of these things himself just as the other disciples did. He was there when Jesus taught, and could undoubtedly sense that it was like no other teaching he had ever heard.

  Though speculation abounds and all kinds of possibilities exist as to why Judas went to the chief priests and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?” and then accepted the deal for the price of thirty pieces of silver, we can never know what went on inside of him.

  Still, I’ll add my own speculation to the mix: perhaps something about the previous few days had convinced Judas that what he had hoped Jesus would accomplish was ultimately not going to happen. Yesterday, we mentioned how–even though the tension in Jesus’ interactions in the temple was so high–apparently, most of Jesus’ followers still didn’t foresee what was coming nor understand the warnings he had given them about it. That is, except for one woman, who showed her understanding by anointing Jesus for his burial while he was sitting at a supper with the twelve.

  Maybe, after all, that woman wasn’t the only one who understood. Maybe Judas did by that point as well. Or possibly her actions at that dinner and Jesus’ response to her were what allowed Judas to see what, by then, was inevitable: this man, whom they had thought was the Messiah–their deliverer–was going to die, and apparently that was even what Jesus had expected for some time. Jesus had spent the last couple of days in the temple picking a fight that he intended to lose.

  In the minds of almost everyone who had followed Jesus to that point, realizing the fate that awaited him would have meant that he could not have been the one they had hoped him to be. The Messiah (the real one) would deliver, conquer enemies, restore Israel, and rule as king; anyone who would head knowingly into his own defeat and death therefore could not be God’s anointed one. It would be impossible to think of anyone executed before coming to power as being the long-awaited king.

  We are arrogant to think we would have caught on any more quickly than the rest of the disciples. They simply had no framework for understanding Messiah-ship that looked like what Jesus was about to do. Perhaps that clicked a bit sooner for Judas than it did for the others, and as soon as he realized it, he therefore had to get out. (Surely he realized that if Jesus was going to die, his followers would become targeted as well, and there was no reason to go to the grave with a failed Messiah.)

  I don’t know how much Jesus knew about Judas when he chose him to be one of the twelve. The gospels seem to be clear that Jesus knew during his time with the disciples that one of them would turn away, and John even says that Jesus knew from the beginning who would betray him.

  Regardless of the timing–whether Jesus knew what Judas would do from the first time they laid eyes on one another, or if it was some time after that–considering the relationship between the two of them makes me tremble for a couple of reasons.

  First, I realize that I am not so far from Judas as I would like to think. Jesus has utterly disappointed me at times, when I counted on him to do things I thought he said he would do, and then they did not happen. I have never wanted out as Judas did, but I’ve also had a remarkably easier time of following Jesus than in his case. Of course I like to think that if I was at the Last Supper, I would have been the one reclining close enough to Jesus to whisper a question in his ear, but it’s just as likely that I would have been the one who dipped the bread in the bowl with him.

  The other part of it that makes me shudder–and want to spend some time on my face before God–is to realize that regardless of when Jesus knew what he knew about Judas, Jesus loved him. Jesus kept him around, shared his life with Judas. He washed Judas’ feet. He passed bread to Judas, saying, “Take it. This is my body.” Then he passed wine and said, “This is my blood…” Only after all of these things did Jesus tell him, “What you are about to do, do quickly.”

  Judas had his feet washed. He ate the bread. He drank from the cup. Then he left to go make his deal with the chief priests.

  And Jesus loved him.

 

Traditional Scriptures for Wednesday of Holy Week

Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 70
Hebrews 12:1-3
John 13:21-32

A Prayer for the Day

Lord God, whose blessed Son our Savior gave his body to be whipped and his face to be spit upon: Give us grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time, confident of the glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

[Suggestion: If it is not necessary, try not to move quickly into the next part of your day. You may want to set a timer for five minutes to sit quietly with God, or to go on a walk. If you would like some meditative instrumental music, click here, or for a musical meditation on Isaiah 52:13-53:12, click here.]

Blessing

Through Jesus Christ our Lord; who was tempted in every way as we are, yet did not sin. By his grace we are able to triumph over every evil, and to live no longer for ourselves alone, but for him who died for us and rose again:

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all evermore. Amen. (2 Corinthians 13:14)

Sources:

Daily readings: Follow: 40 Days of Preparing the Soul for Easter by Daniel Ethan Harris.
Traditional Scriptures: The Revised Common Lectionary
Prayer for the Day: The Book of Common Prayer
Instrumental Music: Quietime: Lent, by Eric Nordhoff
Musical Meditation: With His Wounds We are Healed (Isaiah 53), by The Corner Room