Holy Week – Wednesday, March 31
Matthew 26:14-25. Then one of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?” They paid him thirty pieces of silver, and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over…When it was evening, [Jesus] reclined at table with the Twelve. And while they were eating, he said, “Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” …Then Judas, his betrayer, said in reply, “Surely it is not I, Rabbi?” He answered, “You have said so.”
| There are few
things more devastating than to be betrayed by a friend. A friend is the person
you turn to when things go wrong, when seeking comfort. The very notion of
friendship implies trust and reliability. Even in this day of ‘Facebook friends’
the experience of having a true friend, someone who would never betray you - is
highly prized – right up there with ‘true love.’ ‘The 12’ were the special friends of Jesus – his ‘posse’ as it were. So his betrayal by Judas, one of the special 12, is a way of helping us to understand that Jesus’ death was not just the result of the politics of the time, but that even those who loved him were complicit in denying him, betraying him, handing him over to the authorities interested in eliminating this trouble-maker. This betrayal, by those who loved him best, offers a way to understand the depth of the pain that Jesus was facing during his final days. So as we think today about the experience of Jesus’ final days – we might reflect on the thought of Jesus living in each one of us. What are our opportunities to embrace him or to betray him? What are the ways in which we distance ourselves from Him? We distance ourselves – leaving us to feel that in the end we are the ones bereft of one of our closest friends – the one who would never betray us. - Maggie Balistreri-Clarke, Vice President for Student Development, Dean of Students |
