So Jesus sent two of them into Jerusalem with these
instructions: “As you go into the city, a man carrying a pitcher of water will
meet you. Follow him. At the house he
enters, say to the owner, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room where I
can eat the Passover meal with my disciples?’ He will take you upstairs to a large room that
is already set up. That is where you should prepare our meal.” So the two disciples went into the city and
found everything just as Jesus had said, and they prepared the Passover meal
there.
In the evening Jesus arrived with the Twelve. As they were at the table eating, Jesus said,
“I tell you the truth, one of you eating with me here will betray me.”
Greatly distressed, each one asked in turn, “Am I the
one?”
He replied, “It is one of you twelve who is eating from
this bowl with me. For the Son of Man[d]
must die, as the Scriptures declared long ago. But how terrible it will be for
the one who betrays him. It would be far better for that man if he had never
been born!”
As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed
it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take it,
for this is my body.”
And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it.
He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. And he said to them, “This is my blood, which
confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a
sacrifice for many. I tell you the
truth, I will not drink wine again until the day I drink it new in the Kingdom
of God.”
Then they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of
Olives.
Over
the course of my three decades of ministry, I have heard many persons say
something to the effect that, “I don’t take communion because I don’t feel
worthy. It’s not a silly concern. To receive a tangible expression of God’s
grace should bring to mind that such a gift is indeed grace. We don’t deserve such a consideration, but it
is extended to us nonetheless. Of course,
we are unworthy.
However,
reading this account of the institution of sacrament of communion should help
us hear that our sense of being undeserving of this grace is precisely why it
is offered. If we were worthy, it would
not be called a sacrament of God’s grace, but rather an honor or reward for our
praiseworthy efforts. As it stands, this
gift was not withheld from Judas, the man who was about to indirectly cause the
death of God’s Son. Jesus Himself names
Judas unworthiness of even having been born.
Then He hands Judas bread and cup with the words, “My body. . . and My blood. Knowing full well the treachery Judas was
about to commit, Jesus states that His sacrifice is for Judas as well as anyone
else.
As we
have traveled through Mark’s gospel, I have often asked you adopt the identity
of the villain in these stories because Mark is intentionally trying to get us
to do so. While we would like to dismiss
our capacity for treachery against Jesus, Mark gets right up in our face and
all but forces us to see it. We enjoy
intimacy (signified by a shared meal) with Jesus while unintentionally (or even
intentionally in some cases) working against Him in the background. When Jesus talks about Judas being better off
“never being born,” He is foreshadowing the agony that drives Judas to suicide
in the next chapter.
Judas
is not “bad man.” He is all of us. He is a human being that often misunderstands
what God is doing and chooses to work against it as a result. He is one who is all too easily influenced by
wealth to betray His core values. He is
one who sometimes thinks he is doing the right thing when he is doing the exact
opposite.
Enter
the sacrament of God’s unmerited grace.
Sin doesn’t separate Judas from the grace of eating (being close to)
Jesus. That grace eventually shows Judas
his sin. It also shows Judas that his
sin is forgiven. It should do the same
for us.
Question: Have you
ever found yourself knowingly or unknowingly working against God’s purposes?
Prayer: God, please
forgive us, for we often don’t know what we do.
Forgive us as well for that which we do knowingly. Help us see ourselves in Judas so that we
will more fully know the magnitude of grace that You offer us in Jesus. Amen.
Prayer Focus: Pray for the end of divisiveness among the
human family, especially that in the Church.’
Song: Just As I Am –
Alan Jackson
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