Holy Wednesday

You know that there are not enough days in holy week? It's true. If we are to discover the whole of the Good News, we need another couple of weeks (at least) to be Holy. But we'll do the best we can with the time we have because we have next year and the year after that!

It's Holy Wednesday, also known as Judas Day or "Spy" Wednesday. But I believe that's the wrong focus. O we should focus on Judas, but not because of his vilification, rather because we are more like him than we care to admit! We focus on Judas today because it shifts tomorrow to the Last Supper, Friday to the cross, the Sabbath and then Resurrection. So today is perfect to look at Judas.

Who is Judas? A faithful disciple, just like the rest. He was accepted by Jesus and by his peers. He was included in everything, every teaching, every miracle, every insider peek at the Kingdom of God that the rest were. So why do we readily set him aside as the villain in the story? Is it because of his betrayal? Be careful...

Who hasn't betrayed Jesus? Peter did even after he promised he never would, even going to death with him, for him, but he did...3 times! Judas did only once. Hmmmm...who's the villain now?

No, I'm not about to make Peter the bad guy, rather I'd like to portray Judas as one like the rest of us, he just caught up in the great tragedy of circumstance. In other words, his betrayal was a catalyst for God's greater purposes, not the downfall of the Kingdom. And there have been other betrayals that have done much more harm to the kingdom. In fact, the betrayals that happen today on a daily basis are much worse than his, and we mostly dismiss them out of hand with little or no thought to our own actions. Yes, we are as guilty as Judas, maybe even more so!

But the Good News for us is that even Jesus, though told us exactly how Judas would be viewed by history and the generations to come, also showed us exactly how he would treat all those who would betray him, with a hand-dipped piece of bread (Communion?). Yes, even in the midst of Judas' disappointment with Jesus (he desired a militant Messiah, taking over Israel and running out the Romans) and his betrayal, Jesus extended grace to him...

...and to us!

Like Judas we are disappointed in Jesus often. It's true! He doesn't do the things we want or expect sometimes. He leaves things undone in the stories and in our lives and we wonder why. We are disappointed with God as we read the vile and bloody stories of the Old Testament, we are disappointed when we are asked to forgive and we don't want to, we are disappointed when Jesus accepts someone we wouldn't think of accepting. Yet in all of this, Jesus still extends his hand to us.

We've betrayed him, often. And he loves us anyway. That's Good News for a Holy Wednesday.

Peace ><>
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