Holy Week 2015 | Tuesday: Betrayal

FOP2015_400TUE • MAR 31

Betrayal

Read Luke 22:3–6.

So he consented and began to look for an opportunity to betray him to them when no crowd was present. (v. 6)

On Tuesday, Judas agrees to betray Jesus. This is the day he negotiates with the Sanhedrin. As I reflect on Judas’s story, I wonder about what might have been going on in his mind between Tuesday and Friday. When we are reminded that Judas made plans to betray Jesus on Friday, we must remember that Judas’s actions were premeditated and calculated. There is really no room to think that perhaps Judas was merely caught up in the last minute. He made plans for evil. He made plans to betray his (and our) savior and to turn him over to the authorities who would torture and kill him.

We can easily point the finger at Judas, but Scripture also reminds us that none of us is without fault: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Introspection may not be a pleasant exercise, but we must remember that Lent is a time for us to look deep within our souls, that we might be brought back to full reconciliation with God.

Our story doesn’t have to end the same way for us that it did for Judas. For us, it is still Tuesday. We still have time to change our minds about the evil we may be planning for Friday, or Saturday, or next week, or next year. We always have the opportunity to stop,make a course correction, and go another way.

Will you accept the invitation this day, this Tuesday, to change your course and go a new way?

Gracious and loving God, thank you for the spirit of discernment you have put into each of our hearts. When we feel that we’re going in the wrong way, make us brave enough to change course. Amen.

These Holy Week Posts were published in the Fellowship of Prayer 2015 published annually by Chalice Press. Check out some of Chalice’s recent (and amazing) offerings such as: Sandya Rani Jha’s Pre-Post Racial America,Brian Christopher Coulter’s Be Holy,  and Stephen Ingram’s Organic Student Ministry. Of course, my book Seamless Faith: Simple Practices for Daily Family Life is also published by Chalice Press in 2014.

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