Moment Five: Betrayal

“The Taking of Christ” National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin c. 1602

Opening Prayer:

Most gracious, compassionate and loving God.  We praise you for your everlasting faithfulness in spite of all we do to separate ourselves from you.  We thank you for your grace and love when we stumble or even walk away from you.  We claim your  forgiveness when we despair over whether we are worthy of that love. We confess it’s sometimes difficult to understand the depth and breadth of your love, and your unrelenting pursuit of us.  May we draw inspiration and confidence in seeing the love you have shown us through your son as He walked steadfastly to the Cross.  May we see and confess our own sins – all of them.  May we turn away from them knowing we are forgiven, and may we glimpse what it would be like to glorify and enjoy you forever. We pray all this in the name of the One who said: “Let not your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God, and trust also in me.”

Weekly Scripture Lesson: Matthew 26:14-16, 47-56 (NRSV)

Take the time to read this scripture each day – trying to experience the events first through the eyes of Jesus, then through the eyes of Judas, and finally those of Peter.  Stop to ask how you might have reacted during these hours if you were Jesus, or Judas, or Peter?

“Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, ‘What will you give me if I betray him to you?’ They paid him thirty pieces of silver.  And from that moment he began to look for an opportunity to betray him…While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, arrived; with him was a large crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people.  Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, ‘The one I will kiss is the man; arrest him.’  At once he came up to Jesus and said, ‘Greetings, Rabbi!’ and kissed him.  Jesus said to him, ‘Friend, do what you are here to do.’  They they came and laid hands on Jesus and arrested him.  Suddenly, one of those with Jesus put his hand on his sword, drew it, and struck the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear.  Then Jesus said to him, ‘Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.  Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send more than twelve legions of angels?  But how then would the scriptures be fulfilled, which say it must happen in this way?’  At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, ‘Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as though I were a bandit?  Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not arrest me.  But all this has taken place, that the scriptures of the prophets may be fulfilled.’  Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.”

Living Lent Reflection for the Week of March 18, 2012:

Betrayal!  The figure of Judas is one of the “deepest and darkest” not only in Gospels, but in all of literature.  (N.T. Wright)  And, yet, to what degree are we, in the darkest corners of our personalities, somewhat like Judas?  In the Passion of Saint Matthew, at the point where Jesus tells the Twelve that “one of you will betray me,” Bach had the congregation sing a confessional chorale with the words “I am the one,  I should repent!”  There is a dark side in each of us which we must at times confront.

How could Judas betray Jesus, and why for so little money as compared to the extravagance of the Anointing?  We don’t know for sure.  Perhaps it was disillusionment, despair, or doubts about the ministry of the Master.  Perhaps greed played a role. John adds that Satan entered Judas after Jesus spoke to him at the Last Supper.  But Judas did betray Jesus; and,  “filled with remorse” the next morning he tried to undo it by returning the money.  Ultimately, he gave  in to his deepest fears and despair over his sin, and he hanged himself.

Peter, the “Rock” on which the young church would be built, denied Jesus three times that night before the rooster crowed – just as Jesus had predicted, and Peter had denied.  The look from the Master at the third crow of the rooster must have been devastating to Peter.  Perhaps we identify with Peter more easily than Judas because in the end he was reconciled to Jesus.  Like Judas, Peter recognized his sin and “wept bitterly” in true remorse.  And, he was restored to Jesus when the disciples gathered after the Resurrection, commissioned to carry the Message to all nations.  Likewise, the rest of the 11 disciples, all of whom had “deserted him and fled” were restored to the Master.

In the garden, Jesus was alone and betrayed as all of his inner circle of friends “deserted him and fled.”  Yet, the “embodiment of vulnerable love” continued his journey to the Cross increasingly alone in human terms, but one with the Father.  He was physically and emotionally abused.  The characters surrounding him in this story committed all sorts of sin – lying, false witness, greed, betrayal, oppression of the weak and poor, and ultimately murder.  Yet, Jesus continued to love them unconditionally even to the Cross:  “Father, forgive them for they know no what they do.”

Jesus did “die for our sins.” Not for some amorphous cloud of undefined sins.  Not for some theological abstraction. He died for precisely the individual and personal sins which you and I commit today.  He died so that we might live fully in Him and in His love – today and forever.

Clearly Judas felt unworthy.  He was separated from the Master, and he died in that separation.  Peter too must have felt unworthy and separated from the Master.  But, he turned back to Jesus and returned to the Master’s forgiveness and love.  Today, we too can struggle with our own sins.  They might be consciously in front of us, or hidden deep in some secret corner of our being -  a “shadow” far from our eyes, or the knowledge of others.  We might feel unworthy of  God’s forgiveness and love.  Perhaps we worry that we’ve done too much wrong, for too long, or done that one thing which we “know” is unforgivable.  Yet, what could we do that was not done to Jesus that week in Jerusalem?

We “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  (Romans 3:23)   More importantly, “neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord… “ (Romans 8:38-39).

Jesus knew the hearts of his disciples 2000 years ago.  He knows our hearts today, and even the darkest recesses of our hearts.  He loved his disciples then, and He loves us without limit today – just as he so richly promised in the closing chapters of John’s Gospel.

Now, as our journey with Jesus to the Cross quickens in its pace, perhaps this is a good time for us to stop and individually reflect on our own sins, those things which separate us from God.  To identify those things.  To confess them.  To claim the abundant grace and boundless love which God promises us through His Son. Perhaps to pray:

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me from your presence

or take your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation

and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me (Psalm 51).

May you be blessed richly and deeply this week in your journey with Jesus,

May you let God’s love and light shine into the most secret places of your being, and

May God lavish His love on you in this season,

Drew Beckley.

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Moment Four: Triumph

“Entry into Jerusalem,” 12th Century Mosaic, S. Marco, Venice

Opening Prayer:

Holy Spirit of God open my heart and mind to see who I am in the light of Your Truth. Where I need to grow, grant me grace. Where I need to heal, grant me patience. Where I need to be transformed, grant me the courage to surrender to Your love. In and through Christ I pray. Amen.

Weekly Scripture Lesson: Matthew 21.1-11 (NASB)

^“1When they had approached Jerusalem and had come to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, ² saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied there and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to Me. ³ If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.” ⁴ This ^[a]took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:⁵ “SAY TO THE DAUGHTER OF ZION, ‘BEHOLD YOUR KING IS COMING TO YOU, GENTLE, AND MOUNTED ON A DONKEY, EVEN ON A COLT, THE FOAL OF A BEAST OF BURDEN.’”⁶ The disciples went and did just as Jesus had instructed them, ⁷ and brought the donkey and the colt, and laid their coats on them; and He sat on ^[b]the coats. ⁸ Most of the crowd spread their coats in the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in the road. ⁹The crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David; BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Hosanna in the highest!”¹⁰ When He had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, “Who is this?” ¹¹ And the crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee.”

Living Lent Reflection for the Week of March 11, 2012:

In this week’s lesson, we will focus on Jesus’ triumphal entrance into Jerusalem and apply this event to our own spiritual fickleness. Palm Sunday, the liturgical celebration that recalls this biblical story, occurs in two weeks, on Sunday, April 1. Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week.

While this important biblical story is a historical event, we will read it for our personal spiritual profit in an allegorical way. This means that the city of Jerusalem will represent each of us.

What do I mean? By Word and Spirit, Christ enters into us making his way to the center of the city, which will be our heart – an ancient metaphor for our emotions and will.

Like the historical event long ago, we are populated internally with a crowd of voices – some that love, some that hate. Some voices in us are critics; others are full of praise, thanksgiving and gratitude; some aspects of our personality live to follow Christ, other dimensions of our personality are completely centered in our self.

We are at once saints and sinners. In each of us there are both Pharisees and loyal disciples.

Discovering ourselves as a multiplicity (or, in biblical terminology, a legion e.g., Mark 5.9), we can re-imagine how the Palm Sunday drama plays out in our own personal experience: sometimes we love God, other times we forsake God.

Like the crowd in Jerusalem, we are fickle. One day shouting hosannas, the next crucify!

The goal of the spiritual journey is an ever-increasing healing of these opposites and swings of character.

The goal of our Christian life is to grow into the full stature of Christ (Ephesians 4.13), becoming people in Christ by the Spirit who are fully integrated at every level of our being and every corner of our personhood. Biblical words that convey this important idea are justification, redeemed, whole and holy.

As Jesus enters into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, the crowd cries out “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord.” This compels the Pharisees to demand that Jesus rebuke the highly charged political claim of the people. Instead Jesus counters, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out” (Luke 19.38 – 40). Oblivious to the gathering storm clouds, the people continue their shouts of “hosanna!” They are heralding a king coming in peace on a donkey – the beast of burden that had carried the infant Jesus home to Nazareth in the arms of his beloved mother.

With this last reentry into Jerusalem as a grown man, Jesus’ life comes full circle. His days are numbered, each increasing the certainty of his fate. Soon the shouts of hosannas will turn to cries for crucifixion. Soon Mary’s joy, as Simeon foretold (Luke 2.21ff), will turn to sorrow.

Thus Jesus’ political triumph is temporary.

The summit of Jesus’ leadership did not lead to success or victory in the framework that our culture celebrates.

This is something especially for the Western church to remember. In contrast to American Christianity, the worldwide Christian church does not know what it means to experience political, financial or leadership success as we in the West have. Places like China, India, Africa and the Mideast don’t have the luxury of focusing on success because their attention is drawn more to survival and trusting God to bless them through their hardships.

Those who suffer and confront difficulties are in good company though, because the way of Jesus is often times down into the depths of humiliation, rejection, suffering and death. But that does not mean there is not joy or goodness. While the cross is at the center of Christianity, it is surrounded on both sides by rejoicing – first with the Triumphal entry shouts of hosannas and later by the hushed awe of the Resurrection morning.

The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus goes all the way down into the depths of the human condition to lift it all the way up in his resurrection.

That is the true victory of God – the total dismantling of the cultural program for success, power and control on our own human terms and authority – and the birth of an eschatological imagination of love, forgiveness and peace not based on the competitive strivings or imitation of those who are successful or powerful in the eyes of this world and its desires.

In conclusion, listen to how Henri Nouwen frames this paradox of Christian victory and reflect upon his insights:

“One of the greatest ironies of the history of Christianity is that its leaders constantly gave in to the temptation of power – political power, military power, economic power, or moral and spiritual power – even though they continued to speak in the name of Jesus, who did not cling to his divine power but emptied himself and became as we are. The temptation to consider power an apt instrument for the proclamation of the Gospel is the greatest of all. We keep hearing from others, as well as saying to ourselves, that having power – provided it is used in the service of God and your fellow human beings – is a good thing. With this rationalization, crusades took place; inquisitions were organized; [Native American] Indians were enslaved; positions of great influence were desired…Every time we see a major crisis in the history of the Church…we always see that a major cause of rupture is the power exercised by those who claim to be followers of the poor and powerless Jesus.”

- Henri Nouwen, In the Name of Jesus, p. 58 – 59

All love in Christ,

Peter Traben Haas

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