ONE OF YOU WILL BETRAY ME

The accounts of the Last Supper are meant to break our hearts, and they do. When I was young, my sorrow was all for the innocence, nobility and grief of Jesus, and that is still the heart of the story. But there are questions about the betrayal hanging over this meal that bring it home to me now in a very different way, because I am older and know more about betrayal.

I find myself in anguished dialogue with Jesus:

Lord, John says that “The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him.” Who is this devil who invades hearts? We are not a people who believe in a God of Darkness as well as a God of Light. (And my question hopes that He will say, “There is no devil.”)

And Jesus says: “He is vacuum -- the absence of Me. He is the lie your mind and heart construct in My place when you turn away from Me.”

I am pierced with my likeness to Judas, because that devil has invaded my heart many times.

Lord, I say, in some despair, can the disciples truly be so naïve, when they wonder who the betrayer might be? All of us betray You. What is the difference between Simon Peter and Judas, (between me and Judas)?

And Jesus says: “At first, Judas did not admit that he was doing a monstrously wicked thing. In that he was like Simon – or like you. Then when he did recognize his appalling guilt, he believed himself beyond My forgiveness. He actually believed his sin was greater than My compassion.”

“Will you listen to the Liar, or will you listen to Me?”

— Linda Moody

Courtesy of The Church of the Good Shepherd United Methodist