WEDNESDAY IN HOLY WEEK DEVOTIONAL

Photo from Unsplash.

It’s on the Wednesday of Holy Week when we find out what a life is worth.  It’s on that day also that Judas Iscariot stands in for all of us. 

We know the price Judas accepted, of course: thirty pieces of silver for the life of a good but potentially dangerous man.  The same price, as it turned out, for the life of a great and fearsome God. 

Judas left the chief priests, blood money in hand, seeking the best moment to betray his friend and teacher.  One wonders what must have been going through Judas’ mind when not a day had passed since his bargain and Jesus was on the floor in front of him, washing his feet.  Or when Jesus declared, “Very truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me.”  Or what he was thinking when the disciples looked at one another, looked straight into his eyes, all but one still wondering if it might be them who would betray. 

“Do quickly what you are going to do.”  Both Jesus and Judas knew what the other knew, and so Judas goes off quickly into the night.  

That was Judas’ night, written down for the ages, but the sad truth is that there was nothing particularly special about that night or about his betrayal.  We are all Judas; we all skulk off into the darkness, seeking the best moment to betray.  From all our hearts come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander, all that defiles.  We all take the sop-dipped bread from Jesus’ hand and then do quickly what we are going to do.

And yet, it is at these very moments that the Son of Man is glorified, glorified by a love so profound as to be disconcerting.  “But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

The Church, in her wisdom, unfurls the events of Holy Week in real time.  If we are paying attention at all, by the time we get to Wednesday the story becomes difficult to hear.  Holy Week forces us to calculate the price at which we will betray, and then to gaze upon our Savior, who gave his body to be whipped and his face to be spit upon.  And then, if we can bear it, to let Jesus love us anyway.