You Said It

Holy Wednesday AKA Spy Wednesday

Today is Holy Wednesday, sometimes called Spy Wednesday…because Judas. On this day, Christians around the world remember the smoke that begins a rash of disappointments Jesus will experience during Holy Week. I’ve included a passage from Matthew below in addition to continuing our journey through Luke.

It’s quite a contrast to read Jesus’ deliverance of the prayer the disciples ask for (“The Lord’s Prayer”) and Judas’ plotting.

On the one hand, Jesus teaches his followers how to pray. Not with complexity or performance, but with clarity and trust. Daily bread. Forgiveness. Dependence. A life oriented toward God and toward others. Words to build a life on.

On the other hand, Judas moves in secrecy with quiet arrangements and hidden motives. He commits to a transaction that reduces Jesus to something that can be counted and exchanged.

If we’re honest, these two ways are not as far apart as we might like to think.

We can pray the right words and still hold something back. We can speak of forgiveness and still keep score. We can ask for daily bread and still trust more in what we control.

Judas’ story is not just about betrayal out there somewhere. It is about the ways we turn Jesus into something manageable. Something we can fit into our plans, our expectations, our systems of value. (I’m still not convinced that Judas wasn’t trying to force Jesus’ hand.)

But in the end, Jesus doesn’t argue with Judas. He doesn’t expose him in a dramatic way. He simply responds, “You said it.”

We could receive this all today as an invitation for us to consider what we’ve said with our lives. What we’ve committed to in quiet ways. What we’ve agreed to, even subtly, about who Jesus is and what he is worth.

Because at some point, the words we pray and the lives we live meet.

Luke 11:1-4

Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

Jesus told them, “When you pray, say:

‘Father, uphold the holiness of your name.
Bring in your kingdom.
Give us the bread we need for today.
Forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone who has wronged us.
And don’t lead us into temptation.’”

Matthew 26:14-25

Then one of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What will you give me if I turn Jesus over to you?” They paid him thirty pieces of silver. From that time on he was looking for an opportunity to turn him in.

On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover meal?”

He replied, “Go into the city, to a certain man, and say, ‘The teacher says, “My time is near. I’m going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.”’” The disciples did just as Jesus instructed them. They prepared the Passover.

That evening he took his place at the table with the twelve disciples. As they were eating he said, “I assure you that one of you will betray me.”

Deeply saddened, each one said to him, “I’m not the one, am I, Lord?”

He replied, “The one who will betray me is the one who dips his hand with me into this bowl. The Human One goes to his death just as it is written about him. But how terrible it is for that person who betrays the Human One! It would have been better for him if he had never been born.”

Now Judas, who would betray him, replied, “It’s not me, is it, Rabbi?”

Jesus answered, “You said it.”

Prayer

God,

Why do I feel such compassion for Judas? Am I off? Maybe I’m a pushover. I just can’t seem to reconcile that Jesus chose him and then Judas did what he did.

Regardless, I pray for all those who feel like they have to spy, cheat, and sell good things for a bag of silver. It just seems to me that if someone resorts to these kinds of things, they’ve been formed and shaped by a variety of life experiences they didn’t deserve.

So help the Judases.

By your Spirit & in Christ,
Amen.